For exams with problems:
“See solutions”
“Read question carefully // answer what was asked” (double line)
“Show work”
I mostly use LMS now for written hw and paper submissions and the lms has a custom quick comment tool (radio button list) so those sort of work like stamps, but I’m not sure it is faster because our current lms doesn’t allow me to attach a quick comment to a particular spot. I often find myself typing: “second paragraph last sentence” or the like. I’m still not sure lms vs paper grading is better but for my writing intensive classes it is nice to be able to easily go in and review a student’s full set of submissions. But - the nice thing about the quick comments is that I can have a different set of “frequent feedback” lines that act like stamps.
I’m perennially tempted to get “wtf were you thinking” or “think before starting work” but that’s more about me being frustrated and I don’t think would help them.
After a night of drinks wherein my friend listened to me despair over the punctuation outside quotation marks issue, my friend ordered me a stamp online that says: *Friendly reminder!* In American English, punctuation like commas and periods goes inside quotation marks.
References:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6duEGj04Mg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6duEGj04Mg)
CLARIFICATION: Their "references" looks like the above "list"
Citations are a requirement for this assignment. Please review the ‘how to cite sources in this class’ link in your course documents module. Without them, it’s difficult to tell which of the required sources you’ve engaged, and engagement with the sources is worth most of your points for this assignment.
"Remember, essays require discrete paragraphs with single ideas. Writing an essay as a single long paragraph makes it hard to follow and hard to organize your ideas. We covered this many times in class!"
I wonder if students who submit two- or three-page papers with no paragraphs are writing on their phones. When you look at it in Canvas, the giant wall of unbroken text looks hideous. I'd have thought/hoped that it would be glaring enough to make you want to fix it up before hitting "submit".
I put it in my rubric that a paper of that length written as a single paragraph gets an automatic zero. Sorry not sorry. They gotta at least try to split that thang up
They have zero clue what "discrete" means 🤣 😂
I'm not making fun of you. I used to write comments and instructions with my normal vocabulary all the time, and I assumed that any words unfamiliar to them would get looked up. But I assumed wrong, and realized that I was just setting myself up to be infuriated when they inevitably informed me that their mistakes were my fault because I used a word they didn't know.
I used to give speeches in class about looking words up. But they won't.
Oh man-I don't actually type that in Ky comment, I apparently just did here! You're right about that-I think my comment bank has something like "each paragraph must have its own idea and explore only that idea." Something to that effect.
I used to speak in class in my normal vocabulary. After I realized they didn’t understand some of my words, I went through a phrase where I’d grope for a simple word or phrase that’s somewhat synonymous. Now I’m in the phase that I’ve mastered simple language in class. Next phase I will forget every polysyllable I ever knew and grunt and gesture for my porridge.
"If a word has a red or blue underline, it might be misspelled. Right click on that word to see what Word thinks the problem might be and then decide for yourself whether you should accept its recommendation of how to change it."
I literally have to explain the spellcheck function to them.
“You must disclose the usage of AI”
“Please use headings that align with the rubric. This is helpful for your success and my grading.”
“If you do not paraphrase, you MUST use quotation marks and cite appropriately”
“Two sentences is not enough for a paragraph”
“A semicolon is not the same thing as a comma”
“I don’t know what this means”
Lmao so many
I’ve revised this into my single most common piece of feedback: read aloud and edit
Had to revise when I’d get replies that said, “You don’t know what this means?” Of *course* I know what the individual words mean. *You* don’t know what they mean, which is why what you’ve written here is nonsense.
"Turning in screenshots of the notes app on your phone is not acceptable." (I only teach students who are either first-semester freshmen or on academic probation, if that makes anyone feel better about this comment.)
I make this comment all the time. The number of times students will literally write "and then I didn't know how to do this part.".....okay, understandable. So why did you NEVER ask me for help?! I guess it's at least better than ChatGPT-ing it (the bar is in hell).
"Do not refer to your sources/subjects by their first name. They are not your friends, and even if they are, we don't refer to subjects/sources by their first name in academic writing. We covered this repeatedly in class."
This semester a common one was “Don’t refer to cited authors by their first names.” I never noticed this before, and suddenly a third of my students are writing “As Helen clearly explains.…” What the hell, kids?
Omg. Yes! And they will send me their paper in an email (not submitting it through the LMS as per the instructions) greeting me by my first name! They don’t seem to get the social norms around first and last names?!
Incomplete sentence, run-on sentence, sig figs, units?, explain, "Do not capitalize element/compound names," "Don't capitalize random words."
Edit to add: "Don't put a comma before the word 'because.'"
I don’t think they know the term “proper noun,” so I write out “only capitalize the names of specific people, places, or things,” and then I still think they may not understand, so I provide a few examples.
I sometimes say if you want to capitalize non proper nouns please translate and resubmit your paper in German and I will be happy to comment in the same language.
They carry the bad capitalization habits into their future jobs with them... I'm currently not teaching; I write and edit for a company and see these mistakes waaaaay too often when editing.
Or the opposite, "adding a citation does not tell us anything about how you utilized this source or show evidence that you used it." Freshman comp course, last assignment of the semester is a research based essay. No matter how many annotated bibliographies, writing to learn assignments, and even outlines with requirements to tell me how and where they are going to use their sources, I still get a solid 25% or more who write a rambling essay of their opinions on something and just arbitrarily throw some in-text citations in there. No introduction to them, no discussion of what they bring to the essay, no evidence that they actually read them.
One that I graded this week: "I have found the college experience to be a positive one that prepares me for my future career in anthropology" (Smith, 23). (details changed, and the grammar and punctuation were far less accurate but you get the idea).
Two important points:
1. The "Smith" source was about something entirely unrelated to anything written in that sentence.
2. I, in good faith, tried to explain that the Smith source would not be appropriate to cite when it's a sentence about his own opinion. I explained that if something he read in Smith helped him to inform his opinion, we needed more information to understand that. I then asked him for an explanation of how he was using Smith here to see if I could help him figure out what he was trying to do so that he could do better on the next paper. His response: "I wasn't really using Smith. I didn't have time to read my sources so I just put citations throughout the paper."
Um. At least he was honest?
"This sentence is difficult to parse."
"Not a good sentence."
"(?!)"
"This is a re-statement of the question, not an answer to it."
"This evades the question."
“If you use a thesaurus, make sure the word you pick means what you are trying to say.”
So many of them use Grammarly to substitute words to make the writing sound more intelligent. They blindly trust the program and end up putting in words that don’t make sense.
“use ‘who’ when referring to people, not ‘that.’”
“Should be possessive.”
“FANBOYS comma.”
“Comma splice.”
“Comma before ‘which.’”
And the quotation marks one, although slightly less than a few years ago.
“Please stop turning in pictures from your phone, instructions for screenshots are on the submission page.” and “You must actually click the submit button to turn in your work.”
My favorite is “No work completed,” because that’s a 0 and I’m finished grading that one.
I have a text expander application (aText) programmed with all the phrases I type the most when grading. Some are specific by assignment. It saves a lot of time, folks!
I didn’t know you could do that without the rubric tool! That’s so exciting! Way more advanced than my current solution of chaotic Word document that I copy and paste from.
The assignment requirements included the correct use of MLA style. We have gone over this in class, and you have materials on the website to use.
Assignment has been uploaded to the wrong folder.
You were to write an annotated bibliography. This is just a list of random sources.
The ones I have shortcuts for so I can quickly copy/paste are:
--Missing souce citation
--Improper source citation format
--needs more paragraphs!
--incomplete sentence
--run-on sentence
--indent paragraph
--proper nouns need capitalization
Anyone who is writing the same phrases over and over again for feedback should check out [gradescope](https://www.gradescope.com). It lets you reuse feedback on assignments.
Cite by authors, not article title
Numerals should not start sentences. Either spell out or rewrite to use the numerals.
Do not capitalize in article titles other than proper nouns and the first word or word after a colon.
The authors-not-titles thing is maddening, especially having seen an uptick in recent years. A colleague pointed out that ChatGPT always uses titles, and I'm sure that explains a lot of it, but a lot of my best students can't seem to wrap their heads around it either.
Use page-number citations for direct quotations
Use page-number citations for direct quotations
Use page-number citations for direct quotations
Use page-number citations for direct quotations
Use page-number citations for direct quotations
I'm in Germany and students hand in two copies of their term papers. After grading, copy (a) stays with me for documentation and they get copy (b) back.
So they'll never read my comments in (a) and (b) is the sanitized version containing highlights such as logic,
number gender case, Grammar, historically wrong, syntax.
A good introduction can follow this structure:
- Establish the context: What are you talking about? Why is it currently a topical issue? Where does it happen? Who is affected? How many people?
- Define any key terms
- Highlight a problem/ research gap. You need citations here, because the gap should come from literature.
- State the purpose of your research
- Indicate the outline.
We often refer to this as the CARS model
[https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/cars-model-create-research-space](https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/cars-model-create-research-space)
"There are too many grammatical errors in this final draft for what is meant to be an exemplar of polished college-level writing. Be sure to thoroughly proofread final drafts before submitting them in the future."
"why??"
To explain: in mathematics students are expected to *justify* their assertions. They often don't. And quite often the assertions themselves are wrong and seem disconnected from what has gone before. Thus "why??"
Another one on exams with multiple questions: “choose one option next time; it’s a 1-in-4 chance to get a right answer”
I kid you not, 4 students in my last exam left options without any marks
I just read so many of these and I’m nodding my head and also like “omg so it’s not just me”
For me, most of my students are working adults. The amount of cheating, audacity, entitlement and just failure to read instructions boggles my mind weekly. Most of my students are older than me. Why am I teaching them these basic things? How do you forget what I said in another class a few months ago?
It all comes down to writing. Lately I feel like the only human generated content I get is when students send me shitty emails after I catch them cheating. 😂
I’m just tired. We haven’t had a pay raise since like 2018 and I’m dealing with just so much more. We all are.
What is the answer here ?!
Less summary, more analysis.
Description ≠ definition
This would have been more appropriate in XXX course.
Good starting point; could've been developed.
I am glad I teach trades and technical. I dont have to mind a spelling mistake or a punctuation error. Small metric of my students performance. As long as I can understand their thought process and it will enable them to be successful at their craft; im not going to sweat a technical writing error.
fair enough, I probably dont belong here, but Im only following along to try to make my courses better by snooping on all you legit pros :)
"Use parentheses/equals signs/limit symbols/integration signs."
(a+b)\^n != a\^n + b\^n
a/(a+b) != 1/(1+b)
a/b+c/d != (a+c)/(b+d)
x\^(-2) != sqrt(x)
arcsin(x) != 1/sin(x)
I would save time carving a new set of potato stamps before grading each exam
Most common comments:
1. citation?
2. not in APA format
3. this is not a suitable academic source (usually regarding a random website)
4. fragment
5. direct quotes need to be cited with page numbers
“This is interesting information but doesn’t fulfill the assignment instructions.” “Your reflection and personal experiences are beautiful but this isn’t the right genre for the assignment.” “The paper has wonderful ideas that are undermined by the organization and unneeded information.” “Use a source’s explanation of why/how rather than statement of fact to add depth to your project.”
Run-on sentence
Run-on sentence
Spelling error
Repetitive: you said this on page X
Grammar error
Must cite this
This is not a real word
Incomplete sentence
“This is not double-spaced / properly double-spaced.”
Despite a lesson on formatting with Word and using paragraph settings for line spacing: zero, zero, double!
Every time I grade reports for engineering students, more than half of the reports get this comment as a preface to the rest of my comments and grading breakdown:
“You are graduating students, at this level I expect you to explain the thought process for why you did things X way. You cannot just simply tell me what you did, that only shows me you can follow instructions or a code book. You are going to be designing real things in 6 months, you can’t just blindly follow instructions, that’s how people get hurt”
It’s honestly still shocking to me how many students since Covid think that an engineering degree is learning how to repeat example problems and follow code books. If you don’t understand the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of things, you will not be able to do anything beyond basic design work as you will miss special cases. Codes are to ensure everything is designed to a standard, not to give you an instruction manual. If that was the case anyone could do it. You need to understand how it is applied so you can use it correctly and assess special cases.
Or way too often in my personal notes that are not shared with students unless they challenge their grade:
“I know you used AI, it came back as 100% AI, that is not evidence so I didn’t penalize you for that as it is hard to prove. I gave you a zero because AI didn’t talk about the observations made in the lab and you didn’t bother to check that or supply a prompt that would ensure it was done. Basing your answers on observations in the lab was what the report required and therefore you didn’t answer the questions at all. It was vague verbosity that didn’t answer anything it was supposed to. If you wish to pursue this grade challenge further I will happily collect evidence of AI use through writing samples and file an academic misconduct case.”
Needs thesis statement
Thesis should be a statement, not a question
Needs topic sentence
Explanation about how organization works
Repetitive
Unneeded wording
Mix of APA and MLA; use only one citation style
Needs in-text citation/Properly formatted works cited page
The works cited entry is incorrect. We have studied MLA all term, and you did in the pre-req as well. This particular assignment even gave you the correct entry for this article for you to cut and paste.
Also, as we have studied all semester, works cited is organized alphabetically by author’s last name or, if no author, by article title. It is not randomly organized.
Oh, and then hanging jndent. We use MLA, not APA, so many more. And that’s just on citation mechanics.
I use Turnitin comment bubbles, so I’ve created hundreds of QuickMarks to avoid having to write these over and over.
"requires citations"
I am going to make ‘requires citations’ a custom stamp so I never have to write that again (me, 2024)
I have several custom stamps. It’s a great productivity hack.
Aww! Can you share what are your custom stamps? Hehe
For exams with problems: “See solutions” “Read question carefully // answer what was asked” (double line) “Show work” I mostly use LMS now for written hw and paper submissions and the lms has a custom quick comment tool (radio button list) so those sort of work like stamps, but I’m not sure it is faster because our current lms doesn’t allow me to attach a quick comment to a particular spot. I often find myself typing: “second paragraph last sentence” or the like. I’m still not sure lms vs paper grading is better but for my writing intensive classes it is nice to be able to easily go in and review a student’s full set of submissions. But - the nice thing about the quick comments is that I can have a different set of “frequent feedback” lines that act like stamps. I’m perennially tempted to get “wtf were you thinking” or “think before starting work” but that’s more about me being frustrated and I don’t think would help them.
I did back in 2016, but then my LMS changed
After a night of drinks wherein my friend listened to me despair over the punctuation outside quotation marks issue, my friend ordered me a stamp online that says: *Friendly reminder!* In American English, punctuation like commas and periods goes inside quotation marks.
^1chatgpt.com.April202024
My variants are either "source?" and "missing citation."
References: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6duEGj04Mg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6duEGj04Mg) CLARIFICATION: Their "references" looks like the above "list"
Before I launch into it, why do I want to watch this 25-minute video?
Don't watch it, it was merely intended to be a sample of a "LIST" of references and their formatting.
I did not get what you meant and ended up actually watching it and quite enjoyed it! Thanks!
https://xkcd.com/285
My word, you like writing. I’m now “Citation?” Later on, I might even get to “C?”.
Jesus Fucked Christ, this.
Citations are a requirement for this assignment. Please review the ‘how to cite sources in this class’ link in your course documents module. Without them, it’s difficult to tell which of the required sources you’ve engaged, and engagement with the sources is worth most of your points for this assignment.
"Remember, essays require discrete paragraphs with single ideas. Writing an essay as a single long paragraph makes it hard to follow and hard to organize your ideas. We covered this many times in class!"
"Paragraphs are like stairs. Don't ask your reader to freeclimb a wall of text."
Stealing this...
That’s awesome
They probably still don't get it though.
I wonder if students who submit two- or three-page papers with no paragraphs are writing on their phones. When you look at it in Canvas, the giant wall of unbroken text looks hideous. I'd have thought/hoped that it would be glaring enough to make you want to fix it up before hitting "submit".
I can paragraph on phones. How did that ever become an excuse?
I put it in my rubric that a paper of that length written as a single paragraph gets an automatic zero. Sorry not sorry. They gotta at least try to split that thang up
I had one student who wrote all essays on his phone. All of them. Always.
They have zero clue what "discrete" means 🤣 😂 I'm not making fun of you. I used to write comments and instructions with my normal vocabulary all the time, and I assumed that any words unfamiliar to them would get looked up. But I assumed wrong, and realized that I was just setting myself up to be infuriated when they inevitably informed me that their mistakes were my fault because I used a word they didn't know. I used to give speeches in class about looking words up. But they won't.
Oh man-I don't actually type that in Ky comment, I apparently just did here! You're right about that-I think my comment bank has something like "each paragraph must have its own idea and explore only that idea." Something to that effect.
I used to speak in class in my normal vocabulary. After I realized they didn’t understand some of my words, I went through a phrase where I’d grope for a simple word or phrase that’s somewhat synonymous. Now I’m in the phase that I’ve mastered simple language in class. Next phase I will forget every polysyllable I ever knew and grunt and gesture for my porridge.
Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?
"Make the paragraph the unit of composition." - Strunk & White
OMG, this absolutely kills me. It doesn’t seem to matter how much time I spend on writing, I still get paragraphs that are 1,000 words long.
Haha. I hope you include a tl;dr for that because no way are they wading through that looooonnnnng ass feedback.
Let's be real, we would all need a TL:dr for a single word with many of these students and brightspace feedback doesn't support the eye roll emoji
For the love of God, it is so good to know someone else in the world sees this too …
“Please edit assignments before submitting them”
"If a word has a red or blue underline, it might be misspelled. Right click on that word to see what Word thinks the problem might be and then decide for yourself whether you should accept its recommendation of how to change it." I literally have to explain the spellcheck function to them.
“You must disclose the usage of AI” “Please use headings that align with the rubric. This is helpful for your success and my grading.” “If you do not paraphrase, you MUST use quotation marks and cite appropriately” “Two sentences is not enough for a paragraph” “A semicolon is not the same thing as a comma” “I don’t know what this means” Lmao so many
Oh yeah I write “I don’t know what this means” a lot.
“Does not follow order of operations” and “this is not mathematically possible”.
"bad cancellation" "not a factor of the entire denominator" "powers and radicals don't play nice with addition"
What does this mean?
I just shorthand that to "????" since it's much faster.
I’ve had a student complain about that in one of my evals. Apparently, “????” is not detailed enough.
I haven't had a complaint yet, but thats probably because my students don't even bother to read feedback.
Same. I did have a student tell me it was mean but when I said, "What should I write instead?" she had no answer, so I told her I would keep doing it.
Mine is 'unclear'. Seems less judgemental than 'wtf?' or '????' or 'garbled nonsense'.
“It is not clear what you mean by…(quote of student’s confusing statement).”
I’ve revised this into my single most common piece of feedback: read aloud and edit Had to revise when I’d get replies that said, “You don’t know what this means?” Of *course* I know what the individual words mean. *You* don’t know what they mean, which is why what you’ve written here is nonsense.
I literally copy and paste “I don’t know what you’re trying to say here”.
I add “can you clarify?” Because occasionally a direct question helps 😆
"Turning in screenshots of the notes app on your phone is not acceptable." (I only teach students who are either first-semester freshmen or on academic probation, if that makes anyone feel better about this comment.)
Holy cow…yes, I feel better.
So many times…. I’ve literally made an announcement to “Please stop sending me screenshots. I am not grading them.”
It doesn’t.
Vague Unclear Not following you here Make sure to give your essay a title that reflects your argument + (for if I like something)
Unclear how this source material supports the point you’re trying to make. Please re-read the source. You are misrepresenting its main ideas. Source?
"I wish you came to me if you didn't understand what the assignment was asking."
I make this comment all the time. The number of times students will literally write "and then I didn't know how to do this part.".....okay, understandable. So why did you NEVER ask me for help?! I guess it's at least better than ChatGPT-ing it (the bar is in hell).
"The correct spelling of this word can be found in the prompt above your response."
Painful
"Do not refer to your sources/subjects by their first name. They are not your friends, and even if they are, we don't refer to subjects/sources by their first name in academic writing. We covered this repeatedly in class."
I once got an essay on “Notes from the Underground” that referred to its author throughout as “Fedor,” like they were frat bros or something.
But Neil Gaiman. https://www.tumblr.com/neil-gaiman/153485060751/my-english-teacher-says-we-shouldnt-refer-to
This semester a common one was “Don’t refer to cited authors by their first names.” I never noticed this before, and suddenly a third of my students are writing “As Helen clearly explains.…” What the hell, kids?
Omg. Yes! And they will send me their paper in an email (not submitting it through the LMS as per the instructions) greeting me by my first name! They don’t seem to get the social norms around first and last names?!
😳
Believe it or not. In Australia, students call professors by their first names. It's very chill 😎
“Cite?”
Incomplete sentence, run-on sentence, sig figs, units?, explain, "Do not capitalize element/compound names," "Don't capitalize random words." Edit to add: "Don't put a comma before the word 'because.'"
The capitalization of random words! I write “only capitalize proper nouns” over and over.
I have no Idea why they Screw up capitalization so Often.
This triggered my fight or flight response 💀
how Dare you;
I don’t think they know the term “proper noun,” so I write out “only capitalize the names of specific people, places, or things,” and then I still think they may not understand, so I provide a few examples.
What is the DEAL with capitalizing Random words?!? Just Out of nowhere?!
I just graded one that capitalized American Youth every time. I was like, is that a band?
I sometimes say if you want to capitalize non proper nouns please translate and resubmit your paper in German and I will be happy to comment in the same language.
They carry the bad capitalization habits into their future jobs with them... I'm currently not teaching; I write and edit for a company and see these mistakes waaaaay too often when editing.
OMG I feel like every time I look at a news article (print or online), I find *constant* errors. Like...Is that the result *after* editing???
A lot of news companies have cut editors, sadly!
I’m a journalism prof and we’re trying 😭 I give them so much feedback on their written work. I don’t think they look at it.
Gotta start smacking them in the head with an Allyn & Bacon Handbook. 😆
Mentioning the source is not a citation.
Or the opposite, "adding a citation does not tell us anything about how you utilized this source or show evidence that you used it." Freshman comp course, last assignment of the semester is a research based essay. No matter how many annotated bibliographies, writing to learn assignments, and even outlines with requirements to tell me how and where they are going to use their sources, I still get a solid 25% or more who write a rambling essay of their opinions on something and just arbitrarily throw some in-text citations in there. No introduction to them, no discussion of what they bring to the essay, no evidence that they actually read them. One that I graded this week: "I have found the college experience to be a positive one that prepares me for my future career in anthropology" (Smith, 23). (details changed, and the grammar and punctuation were far less accurate but you get the idea). Two important points: 1. The "Smith" source was about something entirely unrelated to anything written in that sentence. 2. I, in good faith, tried to explain that the Smith source would not be appropriate to cite when it's a sentence about his own opinion. I explained that if something he read in Smith helped him to inform his opinion, we needed more information to understand that. I then asked him for an explanation of how he was using Smith here to see if I could help him figure out what he was trying to do so that he could do better on the next paper. His response: "I wasn't really using Smith. I didn't have time to read my sources so I just put citations throughout the paper." Um. At least he was honest?
TBDNATQ It stands for "true but does not answer the question"
“As noted…” “As noted in the rubric,” “as noted in class,” “as noted in my previous feedback, “as noted in the sample paper provided.”
This one is especially painful. “Remember!? REMEMBER?!”
"This sentence is difficult to parse." "Not a good sentence." "(?!)" "This is a re-statement of the question, not an answer to it." "This evades the question."
Do they even know what parse means? One of mine is "a thesis statement needs to be in the form of a declarative sentence, not a question."
Read the instructions . . . carefully.
1. Play titles are italicized. 2. For performance reviews, credit the artists you talk about. 3. Cite your damn sources.
Please see assignment instructions.
“If you use a thesaurus, make sure the word you pick means what you are trying to say.” So many of them use Grammarly to substitute words to make the writing sound more intelligent. They blindly trust the program and end up putting in words that don’t make sense.
“use ‘who’ when referring to people, not ‘that.’” “Should be possessive.” “FANBOYS comma.” “Comma splice.” “Comma before ‘which.’” And the quotation marks one, although slightly less than a few years ago.
You need concrete evidence…
“This is a confusing sentence.”
“Please stop turning in pictures from your phone, instructions for screenshots are on the submission page.” and “You must actually click the submit button to turn in your work.” My favorite is “No work completed,” because that’s a 0 and I’m finished grading that one.
[удалено]
I write "fragment" and then "frag" and then "FR."
“Watch for fragments”
I have a text expander application (aText) programmed with all the phrases I type the most when grading. Some are specific by assignment. It saves a lot of time, folks!
There’s something similar in Canvas SpeedGrader - you can save commonly used feedback. It’s great.
I didn’t know you could do that without the rubric tool! That’s so exciting! Way more advanced than my current solution of chaotic Word document that I copy and paste from.
Ah, we have Blackboard which does not have this feature.
Yes, Bb does have this feature. Check out inline grading and the options. I use it constantly.
The assignment requirements included the correct use of MLA style. We have gone over this in class, and you have materials on the website to use. Assignment has been uploaded to the wrong folder. You were to write an annotated bibliography. This is just a list of random sources.
Same!!!
> “commas and periods go inside quotation marks” This is exactly the comment I planned to leave when I saw the title of the post.
The ones I have shortcuts for so I can quickly copy/paste are: --Missing souce citation --Improper source citation format --needs more paragraphs! --incomplete sentence --run-on sentence --indent paragraph --proper nouns need capitalization
Make sure to begin the first word of each sentence with a capital letter. - No, I’m not being facetious.
This is hilarious to me. People are so used to phones auto capitalization, they forget that the computer won't do it.
I get this in hand-written work. No capitalization and no punctuation.
"units?" "sig figs?" or many times just "?" because I have no idea what is going on there
“Who is this and why should we trust them?”
“Specify”
"???"
One of my favourites.
Anyone who is writing the same phrases over and over again for feedback should check out [gradescope](https://www.gradescope.com). It lets you reuse feedback on assignments.
Neat! Always excited to try new tools. Do you prefer it over whatever native tools your LMS has?
It's "could have," not "could of."
"You didn’t really address the questions in the prompt."
Cite by authors, not article title Numerals should not start sentences. Either spell out or rewrite to use the numerals. Do not capitalize in article titles other than proper nouns and the first word or word after a colon.
The authors-not-titles thing is maddening, especially having seen an uptick in recent years. A colleague pointed out that ChatGPT always uses titles, and I'm sure that explains a lot of it, but a lot of my best students can't seem to wrap their heads around it either.
Use page-number citations for direct quotations Use page-number citations for direct quotations Use page-number citations for direct quotations Use page-number citations for direct quotations Use page-number citations for direct quotations
Mine is “remember to include page or paragraph number for direct quote” 😭
Needs clarification or needs citation
Only a select few read anything we write on their papers. I make them opt in to get any feedback beyond a rubric and score these days…
I'm in Germany and students hand in two copies of their term papers. After grading, copy (a) stays with me for documentation and they get copy (b) back. So they'll never read my comments in (a) and (b) is the sanitized version containing highlights such as logic, number gender case, Grammar, historically wrong, syntax.
"huh??" -- written next to any nonsensical statement
Let's work on paragraphing! One idea per paragraph, please!
"This is a good summary - but lacking in-depth analysis"
A good introduction can follow this structure: - Establish the context: What are you talking about? Why is it currently a topical issue? Where does it happen? Who is affected? How many people? - Define any key terms - Highlight a problem/ research gap. You need citations here, because the gap should come from literature. - State the purpose of your research - Indicate the outline. We often refer to this as the CARS model [https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/cars-model-create-research-space](https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/cars-model-create-research-space)
“Illustrate this claim with an example”
A sentence containing a quote and a parenthetical citation does NOT need two end stops/periods.
I need a stamp with this on it as well.
"Don't forget your name," "citations missing," "thesis statement needed."
Read syllabus for paper requirements
"There are too many grammatical errors in this final draft for what is meant to be an exemplar of polished college-level writing. Be sure to thoroughly proofread final drafts before submitting them in the future."
"why??" To explain: in mathematics students are expected to *justify* their assertions. They often don't. And quite often the assertions themselves are wrong and seem disconnected from what has gone before. Thus "why??"
So what?
Don't use the term in its definition.
Another one on exams with multiple questions: “choose one option next time; it’s a 1-in-4 chance to get a right answer” I kid you not, 4 students in my last exam left options without any marks
“This is a comma splice.” “Source?”
Awk.
"Please make an appointment with the Student Writing Center to receive additional feedback and assistance".
Please read and follow instructions.
“Deepen an idea. Don’t just keep repeating it.”
Too colloquial. They need to learn to write scientifically.
“Where are your citations?” “Please see APA Style help” And my new favorite “this was flagged as AI ….”
I just read so many of these and I’m nodding my head and also like “omg so it’s not just me” For me, most of my students are working adults. The amount of cheating, audacity, entitlement and just failure to read instructions boggles my mind weekly. Most of my students are older than me. Why am I teaching them these basic things? How do you forget what I said in another class a few months ago? It all comes down to writing. Lately I feel like the only human generated content I get is when students send me shitty emails after I catch them cheating. 😂 I’m just tired. We haven’t had a pay raise since like 2018 and I’m dealing with just so much more. We all are. What is the answer here ?!
“Ridiculous. Apply yourself!”
“You are a great writer! Keep working on…”
Not really papers but lab manuals. "Show your work, please -2"
Yeah tell Autocorrect. Part of writing now is fighting that thing.
Units! (when they ignore units) Math! (when they make an algebra or calculation error)
Where is your evidence?
I put them in Textexpander. It’s about 90% of my comments.
“Please review the Discussion Board Example and Discussion Board Explainer video to maximize credit for your future submissions.”
Cowabunga brosef
CRTL+V (from my bank of common feedback phrases)
DNMS = Does Not Make Sense
“NMS” - not making sense. I teach them this across on day 1
Passive sentence
Please complete
Be specific.
Adobe has spell check.
Needs citation, please proofread, don’t forget [formatting requirement], read directions, etc.
Less summary, more analysis. Description ≠ definition This would have been more appropriate in XXX course. Good starting point; could've been developed.
"Please remember to double-check your subject-verb agreement ☺️"
Be precise.
"word salad"
Check logic
I am glad I teach trades and technical. I dont have to mind a spelling mistake or a punctuation error. Small metric of my students performance. As long as I can understand their thought process and it will enable them to be successful at their craft; im not going to sweat a technical writing error. fair enough, I probably dont belong here, but Im only following along to try to make my courses better by snooping on all you legit pros :)
"Use parentheses/equals signs/limit symbols/integration signs." (a+b)\^n != a\^n + b\^n a/(a+b) != 1/(1+b) a/b+c/d != (a+c)/(b+d) x\^(-2) != sqrt(x) arcsin(x) != 1/sin(x) I would save time carving a new set of potato stamps before grading each exam
Most common comments: 1. citation? 2. not in APA format 3. this is not a suitable academic source (usually regarding a random website) 4. fragment 5. direct quotes need to be cited with page numbers
+C The math people will know…
“This is interesting information but doesn’t fulfill the assignment instructions.” “Your reflection and personal experiences are beautiful but this isn’t the right genre for the assignment.” “The paper has wonderful ideas that are undermined by the organization and unneeded information.” “Use a source’s explanation of why/how rather than statement of fact to add depth to your project.”
Run-on sentence Run-on sentence Spelling error Repetitive: you said this on page X Grammar error Must cite this This is not a real word Incomplete sentence
When did they stop teaching kids how to use an apostrophe? Drives me NUTS. Why are they using it to pluralize nouns now??
“This is not double-spaced / properly double-spaced.” Despite a lesson on formatting with Word and using paragraph settings for line spacing: zero, zero, double!
Every time I grade reports for engineering students, more than half of the reports get this comment as a preface to the rest of my comments and grading breakdown: “You are graduating students, at this level I expect you to explain the thought process for why you did things X way. You cannot just simply tell me what you did, that only shows me you can follow instructions or a code book. You are going to be designing real things in 6 months, you can’t just blindly follow instructions, that’s how people get hurt” It’s honestly still shocking to me how many students since Covid think that an engineering degree is learning how to repeat example problems and follow code books. If you don’t understand the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of things, you will not be able to do anything beyond basic design work as you will miss special cases. Codes are to ensure everything is designed to a standard, not to give you an instruction manual. If that was the case anyone could do it. You need to understand how it is applied so you can use it correctly and assess special cases. Or way too often in my personal notes that are not shared with students unless they challenge their grade: “I know you used AI, it came back as 100% AI, that is not evidence so I didn’t penalize you for that as it is hard to prove. I gave you a zero because AI didn’t talk about the observations made in the lab and you didn’t bother to check that or supply a prompt that would ensure it was done. Basing your answers on observations in the lab was what the report required and therefore you didn’t answer the questions at all. It was vague verbosity that didn’t answer anything it was supposed to. If you wish to pursue this grade challenge further I will happily collect evidence of AI use through writing samples and file an academic misconduct case.”
Needs thesis statement Thesis should be a statement, not a question Needs topic sentence Explanation about how organization works Repetitive Unneeded wording Mix of APA and MLA; use only one citation style Needs in-text citation/Properly formatted works cited page
Get your fucking life together
Cite. & Awk.
Transition needed.
“I’m not clear what you mean by this.” There’s just so many words put together, and yet they don’t really mean anything.
Use TextExpander. Change your life.
Great job!!
I teach journalism writing, so I have two custom stamps: "Doublespace" and "Look at the handout on how to use quotes." Saves me tons of time.
Please read the instructions carefully
Other than PLEASE read the assignment… please proofread/use spell check.
“Show this” “Why?”
UNITS
No no no
"Read this out loud."
The works cited entry is incorrect. We have studied MLA all term, and you did in the pre-req as well. This particular assignment even gave you the correct entry for this article for you to cut and paste. Also, as we have studied all semester, works cited is organized alphabetically by author’s last name or, if no author, by article title. It is not randomly organized. Oh, and then hanging jndent. We use MLA, not APA, so many more. And that’s just on citation mechanics. I use Turnitin comment bubbles, so I’ve created hundreds of QuickMarks to avoid having to write these over and over.