Grammar and punctuation
What is a good strategy to encourage a student's proper use of grammar and punctuation in the forum setting? I have been trying to give effective feedback in my responses, but the bad habits continue. Docking points does not seem to have much of an effect on their performance either. Any comments would be appreciated.
This is a tough issue as I see poor grammar and punctuation routinely. I do give the Grading rubric in the Syllabus, and I state in the first week that the expectation is to display college level writing.
One thing I will do is proofread their entire paper, highlight passages and put in red ink where changes were needed and then send as an attachment. It can take extra time but it seems to work. Students usually see all of these markings and it alerts them to making some improvements. I will also send them to the Writing Center for specific help and rules to master.
I agree that students using texting and IM abbreviations can be a problem in the discussions. Setting the expectation the first week of class that this is not acceptable is very important, as you suggest Jo Ann. It is also important, when a student does slip, to point it out and deduct points as necessary so that they will learn. Thanks for your comments Jo Ann.
This is a constant struggle. I also see so many students using texting and IM abbreviations in the discussion areas.
I usually try to send a general email to all students at the start of the term reminding them that this is a professional discussion and is part of their grade.
I have also found it helpful to point out the differences from texting and chatting.
I agree that continually demonstrating to students the expectations of an employer is a great idea. Thanks for sharing it with the class Adele.
Time management can be an issue for students, and online students are no different. Many of my students wait until the day a project or assignment is due to actually start working on it. Of course, I can recall many times doing the exact thing as a college student!
I think it is key to do as you said, and make it clear from the beginning that professional is the expectation, and also to include real-world examples of why this is so. Some students may erroneously think that because they type a certain way on the computer in other formats that that's just the way it's always done. We should accept nothing less than a potential employer would expect.
I think it all comes back to time! Students, especially online, want to get things completed in a hurry.
I try to encourage doing little bits here and there....then making sure the final product is in by the due date. If you only have 15 minutes tonight-- use that, then go back and do another 15 minutes the next day. This trumps trying to bang out an entry full of problems in the last hour before the due date.
I have found a challenge with the "text" rules--spelling as well as punctuation. I have made it very clear to students at the beginning that my expectation is professional writing so that when a student uses something other than professional writing, I take away points. It is important for students to learn the difference and use the writing that is appropriate for the situation.
Thanks for your comments Susan!
I really liked the suggestions of using real-life scenarios as examples of proper use of grammar and punctuation. I am finding that students are using "text" spelling and wordage which would not be appropriate in a professional setting; yet they don't seem aware of the fact that it's not appropriate!
We do use a rubric, which lists grammar, punctuation, and spelling, as criteria for the grade, but as someone mentioned earlier, the students who make the errors don't know how to do it correctly in the first place. Maybe understanding that it's all about accurate COMMUNICATION will get the point across!
That is terrific! Anytime you can relate classroom learning to a real life example is very effective.
I teach law based courses, so the most effective way I have found to resolve this issue is to use a real world scenario to show students the consequences of not proofing their work.
Slang and/or regional phrases can create problems when students go to write a paper. There are also the issues with phrases and punctuation that is used during texting that some students try to utilize in group discussions.
Providing direct feedback to the students is very important. It does take a great deal of time, but if a student doesn't realize they are doing it wrong, they won't try and correct it.
Thanks for your comments Dera.
Matthew,
Thanks for sharing that idea. I am going to do that this next session. I am teaching the first courses that students coming in take and too many of them have very bad writing skills. Some of them I think really don't know. They were raised saying, "It be that way" and they don't see any problem with it. Sometimes my feedback is longer than their paper.
I'm not an English person and I have to look things up myself. But every time I do I get better and continue to improve.
Dera Burt
That is a great idea Mark. Thanks for sharing it with the group.
I know that some of my colleagues mentioned this already, but it is important to make students aware of any tutoring and writing lab assistance that they can access online.
Online/distance learning draws a lot of non-traditional students, so the disparity in skill levels can be great in a classroom--not to mention we might have some students who haven't written any type of paper in years.
So, yes, I agree--make them aware of the assistance they can get since some students might not even be capable of writing clean assignments (no matter what the rubric says their loss of points will be).
Best,
Mica
Regarding both grammar and particularly punctuation (I am a semi-colon *nut*), for one of the on-line essay projects--critical essay of a short story--I posted the story (2 pages)on a separate whiteboard and used different colors, underlining, bold face, etc to show pertinent and applicable points while reading the story and *instructing* those points at the same time. It was the closest application to an on-ground classroom that I could think of.
Terrific idea Heather! Sometimes the best way to "show" a student how to do something is to "show" the right way along with the wrong way. Thanks for sharing your idea with the group.
The best way to get them to use proper grammar and punctuation is by posting examples of what their posts should look like. You can do examples of the correct and incorrect ways to post and provide why each is correct or incorrect. There are also examples of "proper netiquette" such as articles you can post to give them a go by.
I am so glad you have been able to put some of the suggestions to work Wendy! Thanks for sharing.
