Analysis of survey responses from writing educators presented at the Thirteenth International Conference for Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS-13): Literary Journalism: Theory, Practice, Pedagogy

1. Essentials of the Craft:
Providing Effective Feedback
Calvin Hall, North Carolina Central University, U.S.A.
John Hanc, New York Institute of Technology, U.S.A.
Mitzi Lewis, Midwestern State University, U.S.A.
Monica Martinez, Universidade de Sorocaba, Brazil
Jeffrey Neely, The University of Tampa , U.S.A.
May 2018 Panel
“Literary Journalism: Theory, Practice, Pedagogy”
The Thirteenth International Conference
for Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS-13)

2. Analysis of Survey Responses
from Writing Educators
Leo Gonzalez, Midwestern State University, U.S.A.
John Hanc, New York Institute of Technology, U.S.A.
Mitzi Lewis, Midwestern State University, U.S.A.
Monica Martinez, Universidade de Sorocaba, Brazil
Robin Reid, Midwestern State University, U.S.A.
“Literary Journalism: Theory, Practice, Pedagogy”
The Thirteenth International Conference
for Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS-13)
Essentials of the Craft: Providing Effective Feedback
May 2018 Panel

3. “Grading student’s work: It’s the
part of the job that, in my
opinion, induces the greatest
uncertainty, discomfort, and
angst.”
John Tierney
“Why Teachers Secretly Hate Grading Papers,”
The Atlantic, 2013

4. “I was told that I had to give
grades to the students, which I
wasn't particularly interested
in doing.”
Merce Cunningham
https://www.brainyquote.com/
quotes/merce_cunningham_302984

5. Research question
Emerged at the May 2017 International Conference
for Literary Journalism Studies:
How are literary journalism educators
providing feedback to students?

6. Survey development & testing
• David Abrahamson, Northwestern University
• Leo Gonzalez, Midwestern State University
• John Hanc, New York Institute of Technology
• Mitzi Lewis, Midwestern State University
• Monica Martinez, Universidade de Sorocaba
• Jeff Neely, The University of Tampa
• Robin Reid, Midwestern State University

7. Nonprobability sampling
• Valuable for studying specific groups of people
• Does not permit for generalization
• Nonprobability sampling technique used for this
research: quota sample
o People with certain traits or members of a
demographic group
o Does not require random sampling
Source (2010): Communication Research: Strategies and SourcesRubin, Rubin, & Hardakis

9. Survey respondents
N=119

10. Countries represented
• Australia
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• Chile
• Denmark
• South Africa
• Spain
• UAE
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Italy
• Japan
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Poland
• Romania

11. I currently teach or have taught a course that
incorporates literary/long-form/narrative journalism
86
33
0
15
30
45
60
75
90
teach/have taught LJ don't teach/haven't taught LJ

12. For how many years have you been teaching?
(by percent of total for comparison)
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
0-4 5-9 10-14 15-19 20 or more
teach/have taught LJ don't teach/haven't taught LJ

13. What level of student do you teach?
(by percent of total for comparison)
0
20
40
60
80
100
undergraduate graduate both
teach/have taught LJ don't teach/haven't taught LJ

14. 0 20 40 60 80 100
exams
research paper(s)
written journalistic assignments
class participation
current event quizzes
team/group project(s)
portfolio
attendance
don't teach/haven't taught LJ teach/have taught LJ
Which methods do you use to assess student
work in [the class you teach that has
the largest writing component]?
(by percent of total for comparison)

15. Aside from grades, how do you provide
feedback to your students?
(by percent of total for comparison)
0 20 40 60 80 100
1 on 1 conferences scheduled during class
1 on 1 conferences scheduled outside of
class
individual text communication
individual email communication
written feedback on returned assignment
class discussion w/ individual work discussed,
w/o revealing author identity
class discussion w/ individual work discussed,
w/ author’s identity revealed
don't teach/haven't taught LJ teach/have taught LJ

16. What form do your final grades take?
(by percent of total for comparison)
0
20
40
60
80
100
letter grade number pass or fail other
teach/have taught LJ don't teach/haven't taught LJ

17. 0
20
40
60
80
100
yes no
teach/have taught LJ don't teach/haven't taught LJ
If you assign group team/group project(s),
do you incorporate peer feedback?
(by percent of total for comparison)

18. What are the greatest challenges in
grading student journalistic writing?
(Top 4)
1. offering feedback
2. time
3. grading subjectivity
4. grading writing technique

19. Offering Feedback
“If you give too much feedback on too many things, it’s
ineffective. This took me awhile to learn.”
“Some students shine on how they use the written
word, others on how they investigate an issue, others
yet on how they use multimedia to enrich narratives.
On the other hand, the teacher has to provide a
coherent grading method, otherwise students find their
own grades unfair.”

20. Time
“Fact-checking some dubious information can take a lot of
work. Also, grading writing by nature is extremely time
consuming.”
“Time constraints of 10-wk term; fact that most students now
have to work to afford tuition and have much less time to
report.”
“You can put a lot of time in but it is not clear how much time
the students put in to reading through the comments.”
“The time it takes to do it well.”
“Time needed, ability to provide feedback that students can use
to improve their writing.”
“The time wasted checking for plagiarism.”

21. Grading Subjectivity
teach/have taught LJ
“Let’s face it, writing is subjective to begin with. For this
reason, I have a standing rule that if any piece of student
journalistic writing really grabs me the way a good story
should; makes me say ‘wow’ or causes me to laugh out loud at
least once (and that laughter is not provoked by some knuckle-
headed error in the text) then I automatically give them an A.
Because if the piece has done that, it has done its job. It has
transported me beyond the role of critical grader to that of
interested reader.”

22. Grading Writing Technique
don’t teach/haven’t taught LJ
“In ‘straight’ journalism classes, by far the biggest challenge is
trying to teach students how to write elegant sentences – from
scratch, as it were. This translates into a grading issue. (BTW, it is
much easier to teach creative writing fiction students how to write
literary nonfiction, than to teach journalism students to write
well!)”
“Metrics, perhaps. How much should be given to the strength of
the topic, vs writing quality, vs reporting vs structure, etc.”
“Each student is operating at a different level. The difficulty is in
establishing realistic expectations for individual’s skills, while
assigning grades on a single quantitative scale.”

23. Vielen Dank!