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[ Proceedings Contents ] |
Alex Radloff
Teaching Learning Group, Curtin University of Technology
Students writing their first tertiary essay often find the task rather daunting. In order to help Education students manage this task, they were given the opportunity to submit a draft copy of their first essay. Writing support was provided as part of regular subject teaching and students were scaffolded by:The draft was marked and detailed feedback given, using a feedback sheet. Students received marks for their draft and final essay.
- having the essay's criteria clearly outlined;
- the mark allocation made clear; reference books placed on closed reserve;
- being taught how to complete the task; and given class time to work on their draft.
The in-context writing support formed part of a broader study, the first author's doctoral study, investigating strategies aimed at assisting first year students to be effective learners. The support focussed on improving student writing and also recognised the needs of a varied student population.
End-of-semester responses indicated that students found the feedback on their drafts the most successful strategy to assist them improve their writing. Detailed analysis of student essays supported the students' perceptions. Positive teacher outcomes included: reduced marking time; raised student literacy standards; facilitation of self-regulated learning; and the creation of an opportunity for student success.
Initial fears of an increased marking load were dispelled. Most students appreciated the support given and the positive influence that this had on the classroom climate was encouraging. Helping most of the students most of the time is a reality of life in the classroom!
In our experience, students are rarely given enough directions for, or instruction in, how to write by the subject teacher who sets the writing assignments. Tertiary teachers are however, the dominant influence on the mode and quality of education at a university and, consequently, their attitudes and practices have direct bearing on student writing and thinking (Young & Fulwiler, 1986). Therefore, as Hartley (cited in Mahalski, 1992, p. 114) recommends, teachers need to give students more help with their writing at the tertiary level. We describe how such help was provided to a group of first year Education students studying Educational Psychology, present data on their reactions, and reflect on the value for students and teachers of including drafting as an integral step in developing student writing.
The main reason for requiring a draft included the well established finding that effective writers when compared to novice writers, are more likely to use drafts in refining their writing (Hayes & Flower, 1986). Furthermore, for students, producing a draft: helps them to understand the topic better; provides a chance to check that they are on the topic; reinforces stated expectations; forces them to get started on time; gives them a chance to reflect and revise; encourages them to practise good writing procedure; hones writing skills; helps them become aware of study demands and therefore assists them plan their time better; helps them realise how long they need to produce work which conforms to the academic standards; reduces anxiety about writing and getting assessed; and makes them see that the lecturer is on their side and values the process of writing and not just the product.
For the teacher, requiring drafts provides an opportunity to: catch students before they get too far off track; get feedback about what students' current conceptualisations of the topic are; identify any problems in understanding which can be used to assist students; decrease frustrations at discovering misconceptions or gaps in knowledge at the end of the course; use drafts as a learning tool in class; be more focussed about what they are really looking for instead of "when I see it, I'll know what it is"; make explicit the purpose of the assignment; reflect on the actual amount and the purpose of the work set; hone feedback to students on an individual basis; help students to see errors which they otherwise would miss (scaffolding), particularly sentence construction and expression; reduce marking time of the final essay; do something constructive, by being proactive rather than reactive; see students trying hard and wanting to improve; set students up for success rather than for failure; and experience the satisfaction of knowing that students feel good about the help provided.
To help students to produce a draft copy of their essay, writing support was provided as part of regular subject teaching. Students were scaffolded by:
The in-context writing support formed part of a broader study investigating strategies aimed at assisting first year students to be effective learners. The support focussed on improving student writing and also recognised the needs of a varied student population.
Drafts were submitted in the third week of semester, four weeks before the final essays were due. All students submitted a draft. The teacher marked the drafts and provided detailed feedback using a feedback sheet. Positive comments were made directly on drafts. The feedback sheet contained a list of errors and suggestions for improvement which were all numbered. Numbers corresponding to errors and suggestions were placed in the body or margins of drafts. The feedback sheet was generated from the essay requirements as well as from an initial reading of the drafts which revealed commonly recurring errors. This way of providing feedback had the advantage of making students refer to the feedback sheet which was more detailed than the kinds of comments students typically get at the end of an assignment. Students could refer to the feedback when they needed it and were therefore not overwhelmed by a mass of negative comments. Limiting written comments on drafts to positive ones was aimed at boosting students' confidence. Marked drafts were returned to students within in a week, so that they could use the feedback for completing their essays. The feedback method was explained to students and they were encouraged to use the feedback on their drafts to revise their essays.
Students found submitting a draft the most successful strategy to assist them improve their writing. In response to the statement; "submitting a draft helped me improve my essay writing", 68% of students circled 1 and 25% circled 2, a total of 93%.
Furthermore, the students rated the method used to provide feedback highly. In response to the statement "the numbered feedback sheet was a good way to give me feedback" 66% of students circled 1 and 30% circled 2, a total of 96%.
A sample of students were also interviewed, again as part of the broader study. Interview data on the value of submitting a draft and the feedback method supports the questionnaire responses.
The excerpts given below provide support for the advantages of writing drafts outlined earlier, including amongst others; giving students specific feedback, helping with their revision, boosting confidence and reinforcing expectations.
To start of with, before the actual whole project was due, we had to hand in a draft of the theoretical background. Barbara marked it and gave it back to us. [She] offered ideas so that made it a lot easier to write up the good copy.The excerpts given below provide support for the advantages of the feedback method:She went through it a lot with us in class so it made it a lot easier'.
I tried to [check draft essay] and then I got my mum to check it. But she really did not have a clue what it meant so she didn't really check it. She just pretended to, I think.
So that was really good as well, when we did that [submit a draft ], because I thought I would have done really badly in my theoretical background. And then when I got it back and it was like, I think you could get a five or a one was that right? and when you got a five you thought, oh well that is really good. To start with it really boosted your confidence and you thought, even if it was bad you still had your confidence boosted, so you tried better in the rest. You think, Oh yeah I am doing all right.
(DID YOU ACT ON THE FEEDBACK?) Yeah, I took out half of it, I think, and did it again.Yes, I thought the first draft was a great idea.
I think it is a great idea [handing in a draft], it is great for first years because it is the first thing they hand in their university life. It gives them good ideas on what is expected of them especially because it is very strict on punctuation and spelling and structure and things like that. It wakes them up really quickly on how important things like that are...Yeah, it is definitely a great idea, and gives the student a lot of insight as to what is expected of them.
(DID YOU ACT ON THE FEEDBACK?)
Yes definitely. I knew what I expected of it myself and I wasn't happy with it at first. I didn't keep much of the theoretical background the same at all when I wrote my final report um I kept the first half but totally rewrote the second half.
The feedback sheet was] really helpful. Because, rather than going through and you know [reading comments like] this essay wasn't structured very well, it was specific points that you could think, Oh okay all right I didn't realise I had to do it that way, but now I know and oh okay they expect this, and they want this, and this is a bit different to how I know...Yeah, I thought that was really good.Students' drafts and final essays were compared. The comparison focused on key aspects of their written work. Specifically whether they; included an appropriate introduction and conclusion, used terminology and concepts specific to the discipline and appropriate to the task, demonstrated clarity in their writing, and included correct referencing in the body as well as in the reference list. The comparisons between drafts and final essay are given in Table 1.The feedback sheet] was good, because it sort of pinpointed exactly what was wrong and what you could improve on. Better than having a big scribbled comment on the page, you could just look there and you know exactly what it is.
You could look at a number and go to the sheet and see what it had to say, whereas if you just marked it and gave us a mark at the end we would still be like well what happened? Where did we go wrong? What did we do wrong? So I liked that.
They [the feedback sheets] were excellent.
| Draft Essay | Final Essay | |
| Introduction | 28% | 45% |
| Conclusion | 34% | 64% |
| Terminology | 34% | 75% |
| Clear writing | 40% | 75% |
| References (in text) | 51% | 80% |
| References (list) | 15% | 70% |
The data supported the students' perceptions that submitting a draft improved their essay writing. The reasons for introductions showing least improvement is currently being further investigated.
Student reactions are in line with recent research on the value of providing explicit support for student writing reported by Hilgers, Bayer, Stitt-Bergh and Taniguchi (1995). They evaluated the impact of writing intensive classes (in which students had to write a minimum of 4000 words) on a sample of senior undergraduates. Interview transcriptions revealed that the most influential strategy to help students improve their writing, learn course material or improve their problem-solving abilities was providing feedback on written work. Furthermore, providing students with opportunities to hand in drafts and then revising was seen by students as the second most effective way of improving writing (Hilgers et al., 1995).
The draft essay strategy had positive outcomes for the teacher too. These included: reduced marking time; raised student literacy standards; greater understanding of the topic and the writing process; facilitation of self-regulated learning; and the creation of an opportunity for student success. "Students value and want their teachers to push, prod and reinforce. They want a jury not only of peers, but also of encouraging experts" (Hilgers, et al., 1995, p. 81).
However, there are a number of reasons why this strategy may not be used. Students may resist doing drafts because they believe: it takes too much time, especially when assignments are left to the last moment; there is too much to be covered in the 'overstuffed curriculum' to afford the luxury of drafting; doing a draft will make no difference to the quality of their work; the feedback will not be helpful or understood; they do not need to conform to the lecturer's format, ideas and focus; they do not know what a draft is and how it can help them.
Teachers may also be against using drafts to support the development of writing because they believe that: tertiary students should be able to write competently; marking drafts will be too much work; giving students help is not fair; it is not their responsibility ('it's not my job'); it is wasting time that should be used for research; students will not value the feedback; students will not use the feedback; and perhaps they do not know what sort of feedback to provide.
Our experience suggest that these beliefs are incorrect. Using drafts together with appropriate feedback provides an opportunity for review, discussion and interaction. It signals the importance of writing to students and reinforces that writing is developmental. It therefore dispels the myth that good writing is a gift. Facilitating the writing of drafts makes students feel better about themselves as writers and about their own writing and understanding. In short, we believe that it is time well spent, as simply giving advice to students is ineffective (Gibbs, 1981). Most students need more than advice since knowing is not easily translated into doing. As students focus on the process, they can begin to see that completing a written assignment is not just a hurdle to jump, but a real learning experience focussed on understanding rather than just assessment.
Finally, for the teacher the initial fears of an increased marking load were dispelled. Most students appreciated the support given and the positive influence that this had on the classroom climate and student learning was encouraging. "We need to acknowledge our students' long-rewarded habits of handing in unrevised final drafts ie we want to change these habits.... [Teachers] must give students practice, and more than once, in how to behave in collaborative groups" (Marsella, Hilgers & McLaren, 1992, p. 187). Helping most of the students most of the time is a reality of life in the classroom!
Hayes, J. R., & Flower, L. S. (1986). Writing research and the writer. American Psychologist, 41(10), 1106-1113.
Hilgers, L., Bayer, A. S., Stitt-Bergh, M., & Taniguchi, M. (1995). Doing more than 'thinning out the herd': How eighty-two college seniors perceived writing-intensive classes. Research in the Teaching of English, 29(February), 59-87.
Mahalski, P. A. (1992). Essay-writing: Do study manuals give relevant advice? Higher Education, 24, 113-132.
Marsella, J., Hilgers, T. L., & McLaren, C. (1992). How students handle writing assignments: A study of eighteen responses in six disciplines. New York: The Modern Language Association of America.
Young, A., & Fulwiler, T. (Ed). (1986). Writing across the disciplines: Research into practice. Upper Montclair, New Jersey: Boynton/Cook Publishers.
Please cite as: de la Harpe, B. and Radloff, A. (1996). To draft or not to draft when writing an essay? First year education students answer the question. Different Approaches: Theory and Practice in Higher Education. Proceedings HERDSA Conference 1996. Perth, Western Australia, 8-12 July. http://www.herdsa.org.au/confs/1996/delaharpe.html |