Sommers: Responding to Student Writing

In this article the writer, Nancy Sommers, is trying to show her audience of fellow writing teachers that students are not getting the help they need with their writing. Sommers explains that comments are very important to writers because writers "need and want thoughtful commentary to show that we have communicated our ideas and when not." (Sommers, pg. 148). According to Sommers, teachers comment on their students writing to only show them whether or not they are communicating effectively but also to teach them to question themselves. Sommers also makes note of how teachers are "appropriating" their students' writing. What she means by this is that the way teachers comment or correct the students' papers is not very helpful and often vague. In this article, Sommers makes it clear that the use of generic comments on grammar and spelling is not useful to a writer. Instead, a teacher should ask the questions and showing the confusion another reader would ask on befuddling passages. As a writer, I must agree with Sommers on this issue. I can recall having teachers whose corrections were less than helpful.