Theory of Responding to Student Writing: The State of the Art.

In a recent article, Nancy I. Sommers complains that the "field of composition is dominated by studies with methodological or pedagogical intentions." The problem with so many of these studies, she finds, is that they lack a clearly articulated theoretical base and that they restrict our thinking about composition to classroom problems ("The Need for Theory in Composition Research," CCC, 30 [February, 19791, 46-49). At first glance, Sommers' comments would seem to apply to no area so much as to that of responding to student writing. Books, professional journals, and Ph.D. dissertations are full of practical methods for responding to student writing, methods such as cassette grading, peer evaluation, student selfevaluation, and student-teacher conferences. Two recent books, William F. Irmscher's Teaching Expository Writing (New York: Holt, Rinehart, 1979) and Stephen N. and Susan J. Judy's An Introduction to the Teaching of Writing (New York: John Wiley, 1981), contain especially fine discussions of the subjectdiscussions that are specific, practical, and informed by years of experience. But where do we look for theory about responding to student writing? At the moment, it is difficult to find, for one has to go to a variety of places. However, in articles in journals such as College English (cited below as CE), College Composition and Communication, and Research in the Teaching of English (cited below as RTE), and in chapters in recently published books, such a theory is gradually emerging. We don't yet have anywhere near all its details, but its outlines are becoming clear. Judging by current literature, such a theory will be concerned with three major components: our orientations, our verbal responses, and our students' reactions to our responses. In this essay, I want to review recent materials on this subject, both to organize them and to determine just how much of a theory we do possess.