ABSTRACT
Response to student writing has been a source of interest and debate in L1 composition theory and research since the early 1970s, when the “process approach” to teaching composition began to take hold in classrooms around the United States (e.g., Elbow, 1973; Garrison, 1974). These scholars, reacting to earlier paradigms in which teachers responded to a finished piece of writing primarily to justify a final grade, strongly suggested that teachers allow students to complete multiple drafts of their papers, encourage substantive revision, and give students feedback while they were in the process of writing rather than at the end of that process. It is also important to note that, even as they advised teachers as to the “when” of written feedback, these scholars expressed doubt as to its usefulness, touting instead alternative forms of response such as teacher-student writing conferences and peer response groups. Significantly, in a recently published essay on “Options for Responding to Student Writing,” Elbow (1999) observed that “Writing comments is a dubious and difficult enterprise” and that his suggestions “in the end are least likely to waste our time or to cause harm” (p. 201)—hardly a ringing endorsement for the efficacy of written teacher comments!
