Importance of checking posts before submission
Hi Everybody,
I think we all know that most of us think faster than we type. As a result, many people - myself included - make grammatical errors in their postings. Since we represent the school, and we are the facilitators of the classes, it is critically important for us to ensure that our posts are accurate. Otherwise, it is more difficult to provide feedback to students about their grammatical errors.
Thoughts???
Thanks!
Very good point, John. In an online setting, we profess to teach by the written word. To ensure that our "written word" conveys the meaning we intended, our written expression must,as a minimum, be free of spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.
Satrohan
I know that many of my co-workers will take the time to type their thoughts into Word. After spell and grammer checking they will then copy and paste into a forum. This is one way of eliminating many errors.
Colleen:
This is certainly a way to eliminate many errrors; but not all. Online programs that check for spelling do just that; so they will classify "form" as correct when the correct word should have been "from". These programs capability to evaluate grammar and syntax still remains questionable.
Satrohan
While it it important to model good grammar and spelling, one should simply be honest with the students about the limitations of chat as a medium. Tell them that you and they will be trying to respond as quickly as possible, and that it is therefore possible that errors may be present.
Certainly try to avoid mistakes, but accept occasional slip-ups... the interaction is far more important than grammar and spelling.
Paul:
A very strong point on the Subject. And a provocative one too. I'm interested to see other participants' opinion on the poition you have taken.
Satrohan
This is especially true in this kind of forum, because our posts are our only representation to our students. They only know us by what we write here. As the old Head and Shoulders commercial used to say, you only get one chance to make a first impression. I wouldn't want my students to think I'm too (lazy? incompetent? underqualified?) to edit my posts before they are published.
I understand Paul's position, but I believe it is critical to communicate clearly and correctly in every case. If I had a stain on my shirt, or bleeding cut on my forehead, I would correct the problem before I stood in front of the classroom. The only opportunity I have to influence the students' perception in my class is through my words. But Paul is correct in that we all make mstakes. :)
What if you didn't realize you had a stain on your shirt? I think that is what Paul is talking about--we should always do our best to make sure errors don't happen, but sometimes you just miss them!
I agree. There is particular importance in using proper grammar and spelling within the course when the students are being graded on the same terms for assignment submissions.
Lisa
John, I could not agree more as I really do hold students accountable for the spell-check and editing of their work for grammatical errors. As a result, I keep MS Word up and running and I double check all of my work for spelling and grammar prior to providing discussion board posts and definitely prior to given the student feedback on written assignments.
One of the main areas of concern that I noticed is that many students wait until the deadline due date of an online discussion forum is about to expire and then they quickly post feedback to classmates that is structured poorly and also has numerous misspelled words. Unfortunately, there really is somewhat a lack of focus on "quality" on the part of some students and it represents quite a challenge when trying to provide effective constructive feedback without having the student interpret the feedback as criticism.
Thanks...
You are right Grady, it is challenging to provide constructive feedback while at the same time not discourage students.
I agree with the author of the discussion, in that grammatical errors are clues to the students that the instructor does not care about his/her audience. Verbal errors may be seen as inevitable whereas posts with errors may not be taken lightly by students considering the instructor has time to adjust the mistakes within the post. Error free posts are vital to building confidence and trust in the student for their professors.
Error free posts are important, but that is only one aspect of good online teaching. Everyone makes the periodic error; it is the consistent errors that can be more problematic.
