Responding to written assignments in a timely fashion is essential to effective use of writing as an instructional tool. Several strategies may be helpful in managing this task:

1. Set priorities. Students may not be able to fix everything!

2. Respond as a reader and not a critic or a grader: writers need to know someone is actually reading what they have written. Include acknowledgement of what the student is doing right!

3. If you choose to attend to sentence-level errors, mark a representative sample of the paper, not the entire paper. That will give the student a chance to locate those errors on unmarked sections as well.

4. Deal with the paper in early drafts, marking the papers yourself or using peer-review groups in the classroom. Final drafts are too late in the process for students to act on feedback.

5. Set up indivudual conferences with students. Talking about problems can make grading more efficient, as you do not have to thoroughly explain all problems during the marking process.