Responding to student writing

Sunday evening. You can't put off any longer the chore of correcting the stack of student papers. Picking up the first one, you scan it. It isn't good. The paper is full of sentence fragments and typographical errors. You decide that this is going to be a long evening. Scenes like this, hours spent correcting students' papers, only to discover that the students barely look at the comments, may lead faculty to avoid assigning writing. Fortunately, there are effective ways to respond to student writing without tying oneself down to hours of tedious correcting. These techniques can help nursing faculty enjoy reading and responding to students' papers, as well as help students to improve their writing skills.