Center for Excellence in Writing

Response Grid

A response grid is a quick way to provide analytic feedback and satisfy a student's hunger for ranking but still not give in to conventional grades on individual papers. It can also be used with a conventional grade. A sentence or two of comment at the end of the paper personalizes the response. The comments in the example below demonstrate how one teacher tried to help a student build on success, not just eliminate faults. The grid ensures that the positive comments do not five the student a false sense of quality. [1]

Name:
Date:
Title of paper: "Rhetorical Analysis"

STRONG	OK	WEAK	AREA
	X		Content: Insights, Understanding, Depth of Analysis
		X	Fairness to text: Summary, Cause-Effect Connections, Support for Generalizations
	X		Organization: Structure, Coherence, Focus, Guiding the Reader
		X	Language: Sentences, Wording, Voice, Tone, Clarity
		X	Mechanics: Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, Proofing, Documentation
X			Process: Audience Analysis, Group Work, Drafts, Revision
		X	Overall: (This is not a sum of the other responses.)

Comments:
I become particularly interested in your analysis when you quote Murray's specific words, phrases, and sentences and when you discuss a particular example. I find your analysis especially clear on p. 3 where you explain how Murray uses a chart in a way that leads readers to believe what he says. I also admire your insight on pp. 4-5 where you point out how Murray's strategies of style and arrangement lead his readers to answer questions with Murray's answers as though they reached the conclusions themselves.

I'd like for you to help me see your point about Murray's language use as clearly in the other parts of your paper as you helped me see it on p. 3 and on pp. 4-5. Throughout your paper, I hear you telling me what Murray did, but I can't always see how he did it. If you could, for example, show me how words such as "promise" and "peril" grab Murray's readers on the levels of pathos and logos, then you might in turn grab me and help me better appreciate your insights into Murray's rhetorical strategies. Thanks.

[1] See Peter Elbow's "Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking: Sorting Out Three Forms of Judgment," College English 55.2 (1993): 195.

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