[ATTW-L] Labor based grading contracts in editing course

Wed Jul 15 20:21:02 UTC 2020

Hi Hannah,

One alternative might be to replace the single exam with self-evaluations to accompany each of your other assignments, in which you ask them to explain the work they did and their reasoning. You can test and reinforce the importance of key concepts throughout the semester this way while encouraging your students to think more deeply about why they've made the writing choices they did.

I've used a self-eval document for this purpose in a number of contract-based tech comm classes, and it usually yields very good results. For grading, I treat the doc as just another labor component that needs to be done with basic competence to get credit for the assignment. Since writing about one's own writing is a new type of work for some students, I evaluate the self-eval doc gently at first (with notes and feedback to encourage greater depth next time as needed).

I'm not sure if attachments work well on the listserv, so I'm pasting the document text below. It was originally written for a genre and writing research-oriented Intro to Tech Writing course, though I've revised it for several other types of courses as well. For most classes I used the same set of questions for each assignment, but you could adjust the questions for each assignment/unit/section too.

Feel free to use, modify, or discard as desired.

Regards,
Rob Rowan

Robert M. Rowan
Lecturer, Department of English
Case Western Reserve University
rmr122 at case.edu or rmrowan at xmission.com

Genre Understanding Sheet (GUS)

The GUS is a tool to help you actively think about what you’re learning while you work on the assignment (not just at the end). Be specific and detailed in your explanations below, and describe how you arrived at each answer. In other words, answer the follow-up question “How do you know this?” for each item. Avoid vague, over-used terms such as “professional” or “formal.” Save your answers in a separate document with your name and the assignment name.

1. Genre Name or Description. Remember that many genres are hybrids without a formal name.

2. Writing Purpose. What is the business task you’re trying to accomplish with this document?

3. Audience Needs: Who are your primary audiences? What do your audiences want or need from this document? How will this document get used by your audiences? What kind(s) of persuasion are you using with each audience to encourage them to accept your message or to trust you as a reliable source of information?

4. Content. What is your content (the facts, figures, images, and details)?  Is this genre is suitable for the task you’re working on? Is it a good fit for the content you’re trying to deliver and the audience you’re trying to reach?  If you’re deliberately breaking a genre’s conventions or expectations, explain why and describe the results you wanted to achieve.

5. Research. Describe and document (list sources for) the research and other knowledge-work you performed for the assignment. “I Googled it” is not sufficient – be more thorough.

a. List and describe your genre research below. Copy headings and repeat for each source.

i. Author(s)

ii. Title or description

iii. Useful because

iv. Reliable source because

v. Link

b. List and describe your content research below (including images).

i. Author(s)

ii. Title or description

iii. Useful because

iv. Reliable source because

v. Link

c. List and describe your audience research below.

i. Author(s)

ii. Title or description

iii. Useful because

iv. Reliable source because

v. Link

6. Trajectories: When producing this type of document, what tools, knowledge, and other genres are usually involved? Where will it go (and how will it travel) once it leaves your hands? How does this info (about trajectory) affect your design of the document?

7. Ethics. What ethical, legal, or cultural considerations did you take into account when working on this assignment? “None” is the wrong answer.  Ethical issues are often subtle and easy to overlook (our assumptions can blind us here), but that doesn’t make the issues less important.

8. Web Text. If you copied text from another source into your document (web text), explain what the copied text means and why it’s a better choice than something you could say yourself.

9. Teaching. What teaching skills or activities did you use while working in this genre?  Does thinking about it from a teacher’s perspective help you produce better work? Why or why not?

10. The Big Question. How did you successfully explain complex things to others? Break this question down as it relates to this particular assignment and address it as best as you can.

11. Self-Analysis: What made this genre easy or challenging for you to work with?  What would you do differently next time?  What new discoveries did you make?  How could you connect this work to writing or other activities you’ve done before, in school or elsewhere?

12. Group Contributions. If this was a group assignment, describe the content and the research provided by each group member.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bellwoar, Hannah (BELLWOAR) 
  To: attw-l at attw.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2020 3:33 PM
  Subject: [ATTW-L] Labor based grading contracts in editing course

  Hi all,

  I decided to make the move to labor based grading in all of my classes in the fall. However, I am teaching Professional Editing, and I typically give a mid-term exam in that course. I cannot wrap my head around how to grade an exam based on labor rather than correctness. Any suggestions or ideas for me?

  Thanks, Hannah

  Hannah Bellwoar, PhD

  Director of Writing

  Associate Professor of English

  Juniata College

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