Student and instructor use o f comments on business communication papers

Writing comments on student papers takes tremendous effort, and this study attempted to determine how students use these comments, the importance of the comments, and methods to encourage students to use comments. The results revealed that students ’ course grades did not correlate with their use of comments; however, students were likely to review comments if they had to rewrite assignments. Significant differences existed between course grades and these variables: (a) how well students read comments, (b) how useful com-ments were, (c) how well students understood comments, and (d) how likely students were to get help in understanding comments. USINESS COMMUNICATION instructors spend much time commenting on student papers; this practice may lead to eyestrain, headaches, carpal-tunnel syndrome, and a variety of other physical problems. Because of the extensive time it takes and its effect on the instructor, it seems appropriate to consider the effect that this Her-culean effort has on student learning. Three goals seem to be inherent in this process: (a) to determine a grade, (b) to improve the writing, and (c) to improve the writer’s skill. If the purpose of a writing instructor were simply to assign a grade, some holistic form of grading that could be accomplished in a few minutes would suffice and thus eliminate many of the physical problems and even allow the instructor some time for rest and recre-ation. Even the second goal of improving the writing can be accom-plished quite expeditiously. The problem occurs, however, when a writing instructor tries to develop in students a sense of audience and an appreciation of how the words, structure, and organization work together to produce effective writing. Business-communicatio