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Sixth-Grade Teachers’ Written Comments on Student Writing

Genre and Gender Influences

University of Toronto

Kerrie Kennedy

University of Toronto

This article examines the influence of genre and gender on comments written by 108 sixth-grade teachers in response to two narrative and two persuasive papers. There were significant genre differences. Process, conventions, artistic style, and format were the focus of significantly greater numbers of comments directed to narrative writing. In contrast, meaning, organization, effort, and ideology were emphasized to a greater degree when teachers responded to persuasive writing. Teachers tended to indicate and make greater numbers of corrections and to provide more criticisms and lessons, explanations, and suggestions when the work was attributed to a male writer. Female teachers generally wrote greater numbers of comments and tended to indicate and make more corrections. Generally, teachers were reluctant to engage with the ideologies in students’ writing. There was a correlation between convention errors and the number and types of comments.

Key Words: narrative writing • persuasive writing • feedback • corrections • focus • mode

Written Communication, Vol. 23, No. 1, 36-62 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0741088305282762


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