Free Essay Feedback: Letters and Emails
Free comments to use tomorrow!
Today we write letters. Tomorrow we read analogue clocks!
Series Introduction. Many teachers grade essays with amnesia, habitually rewriting the same feedback essay after essay, year after year. Stop writing comments by hand! Predictable mistakes become predictable feedback. Comment sheets are not exhaustive, but save your exhaustion. Keep shifting your starting point forward through typed feedback. Just remember: Comment sheets are not bills. Always pair spoken feedback with typed feedback.
Check out the posts “Stop Grading Essays with Amnesia” and “Need Essay Feedback? Hit ‘Print’”.
Context. In Spring 2020 I was shocked when students sent hateful, one-line messages through Canvas. The nerve! Why just one line? Where was the greeting and closing? Why so informal? Why did they start new threads instead of hitting "Reply"? Then it hit me: I sent letters as children. They did not.
Most students have grown up without writing letters, addressing envelopes, counting up change, reading analogue clocks, or doing Math in their heads.
As children we learned conventions before media migrated online. The computer desktop metaphor (desktop, files, folders, attachments) came from physical things.
If they did not grow up handwriting letters, the metaphor and conventions are lost!
Description. Learning to write should include moving between media, transforming and translating ideas across letters, essays, and so on. Teaching letter writing early is vital. Letters become great avenues for self-reflection while practicing emails helps for argumentative and real-world writing. Just don't underestimate how rigidly digital communication structures information! Handwritten letters and text messages are worlds apart!
Mistakes center around students arranging information themselves. Don’t underestimate conventions as assumptions!
Emphasize how many jobs require letters and emails to convey interest and apply for positions. (Let’s forget about inputting that information a second time through horrible software—like texting with a rotary phone.)
Use letter writing for reflecting on grades and as cover letters for essays. Use emails to practice quicker writing. Use bullet points for scanning.
Comments. Steal and adjust the following comments for tomorrow’s class. Feel free to embed them on prompt sheets or create a free flowing comment sheet. (Disclaimer: Predicting every mistake would be absurd, but these should account for basic mistakes.)
Letters and Emails
Remove MLA headers. Letters do not have MLA headers. The first four lines were correct for MLA essays, but this is a letter/email. Go back and change the medium.
Missing closing and/or signature. This response was missing either the closing or the signature. Go back and add the correct parts.
Revise for tone . This response did not have the correct tone. Go back and revise word choice for the situation. If formal tone is required, remove familiar language, contractions, slang, and so on.
Fix greeting punctuation. Letters and email greeting should be punctuated as "Dear NAME," not "Dear, NAME.” Go back and move the comma to the correct position.
Fix closing punctuation. Letters and emails are not Valentine's ("From: NAME”). Go back and split closings and signatures as "Sincerely, // NAME."
Letters
Missing sections. This letter was missing one of the following: 1. title, 2. date, 3. greeting, 4. body, 5. closing, or 6. signature. Go back and add the missing section.
Mis-ordered sections. This letter had sections out of order. Go back and revise to have the proper sequence: 1. title, 2. date, 3. greeting, 4. body, 5. closing, or 6. signature.
Missing date. Letters, unlike digital media, are manually time stamped. Go back and add the date before the greeting.
Adjust paragraphing. This response had mixed paragraphing. Go back and be sure they are either all in regular paragraphs or all in block paragraphs.
Emails
Missing sections. This email was missing one of the following: 1. subject line, 2. greeting, 3. body, 4. closing, 5. signature. Go back and add the missing section.
Mis-ordered sections. This letter had sections out of order. Go back and revise to have the proper sequence: 1. title, 2. date, 3. greeting, 4. body, 5. closing, or 6. signature.
Change literal subject lines. This response had a literal subject line like "Subject" or "English." Go back and rewrite the email to have a more fitting subject line. Think in terms of topics.
Use more specific subjects. Your subject was too vague. Go back and make the messaging reason more clear. Example: "DATE Missed Class" or "Missing ASSIGNMENT TITLE."
Use more specific information. When referencing assignments or conversations, use specific dates. Go back and add when the assignment was due and when you submitted it.
Note: I feel like I'm forgetting many things here. These comments may sound self-explanatory, but my rubrics have to address students starting letters like essays.
Go Deeper. Monica Chin's 2021 article "File not found" describes how students lack the mental models and metaphorical know-how to navigate digital file management. As a middle school teacher I teach using Google Drive along with naming schemes, but I'm only one person.
I would love to devote more posts to this topic!
