By Eleanor Wong. Faculty of Law, NUS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR0Zlt42lr0&p=83FA1CD871F4A4E5 Giving feedback on a student's written work has traditionally been an ex post facto exercise. This weakens the immediacy of the feedback and thus its formative effect. With Google Docs, we can shine a light onto the process in real time and improve the quality of learning.

1. GoogleDocs and the
Lonely Craft of Drafting
Eleanor Wong
Faculty of Law

2. Writing (traditional
view) as Solitary Work

3. or not (work i.e.)

4. Written Assignments
• Traditionally:
• format: result vs. process
• feedback: timeliness vs. detail
• assessment: summative vs. formative

5. Acquiring Skills of
Analysis and
Communication
• Ideally:
• activity: testing substance AND
excavating process
• feedback: timely AND detailed
• assessment: summative AND formative

6. Talking Heads

7. Other Methods
• Post-assignment critique/One-on-one
conferences
• Mahjong
• IVLE

8. Conferences
Specific Comments
1 Linkage between framing of the issue and brief answer could be slightly better.
Here, by emphasising “contractual” in the issue but then basing your answer on
“domestic”, there’s a slight disjunct.
2 Here, the emphasis on “personal capacity” operates a bit like the magician’s
misdirection -- it’s only relevant to someone who had seen the previous assignment.
The trick is in thinking about/understanding what the reader’s default position is
likely to be. When you say “Mrs. Tan hired Dr. Diego to do ABC....”, the default
position for most readers would be “in personal capacity”. There is thus no need to
bring it up. And bringing it up makes the reader wonder -- “Oh, might this be
relevant to the issue?”, when it isn’t.
It’s only because you know the facts of the previous assignment that you
emphasised this.
3 Ambiguous pronoun. There are several “hers” here.
4 Slightly confusing way of telling the story. Who’s Roy Jr.? The reader may not
know.
Looking at 2, 3 and 4 together, I’d say you have a slight issue with self-centredness
(don’t we all?). Good communication consists of putting yourself in the reader’s
shoes and telling him/her what he/she needs to know without assuming stuff that
only you know.
5 Slightly awkward sentence. Do you mean “English cases were based on...”?
6 This is a bit of a leap, in my view. Surely Farida is not directly on point and cannot
exclude anyone “from the action” (if by action you mean the loss of service action).
As you know from reading the different cases, the fact that the world has moved on
to treat maids differently doesn’t automatically have any effect on the cause of
action. While some judges use this as a policy reason for abolishing the cause of
action (e.g., Fullagar), others see it as a policy reason for extending the cause of
action. The other parts of this paragraph (see 7 below) use Farida much better.
7 Nice way to bring in Farida. Very good.

9. Mahjong

10. Enter GoogleDocs
• Collaborative Writing
• Online Access

11. Case Study: Interactive
Session on turning
Objective Memo to
Persuasive Arguments

12. https://
docs.google.com/?
tab=co&authuser=0#fol

15. Original Sample
Student Attempt to
Reframe as Persuasive

16. Teacher can Comment (timely)
Student attempts
Redraft on the
spot (formative)

17. “see” students’ thinking
(process)

19. Technical How-Tos
• Google accounts
• Share document
• Compatible OS and Browser
• Projection

20. Google Accounts

21. Share the document(s)
or Folders

22. Share the document(s)
or Folders

23. Technical How-Tos
• Google accounts
• Share document
• Compatible OS and Browser
• Projection

24. Other Uses
https://docs.google.com/Doc?
docid=0AaYIy8w_0I3XZGZmZmp0c18xNDRjZDY0dG

25. Writing as “noisy”,
interactive, group work

26. eleanorwong@nus.edu.sg