Herzog 1

Matthew Herzog
Erin Workman
ENC 2135
23 July 2015
Teacher to Student Communications Effect on Education
Most people in the world have had to communicate with an educator of some kind during
their lifetime. The forms of communication that students and teachers use are usually verbal or
written. However, the methods by which students and teachers communicate have changed over
the past couple decades with the invention of email and the Internet. This change in technology
and the resulting changes in teaching methodology have raised questions of how certain written
forms of communication between students and teachers in the classroom affect the education of
students and the effectiveness of teachers. In an attempt to answer some of the questions about
educational communication, common genres of written communication within the school setting
will be explored. In the process of exploring these genres, the effects that they have on the
quality of student education will subsequently be looked into. In the research being presented,
the setting of this written communication will be limited to the high school and college level.
Also, the main written genres that will be explored are those where a teacher is responding to a
students response or work on an essay. However, research on email, assignment prompts, and
intrinsic reward systems will be looked into as well.
As many of us know, there is a stigma about teacher comments on tests or written
assignments. This can be seen in the YouTube video Mr. D posted by CBC. In this preview of a
new comedy show, it shows a fictional teacher named Mr. D explaining how he grades essay
questions on test. He states how he gives the student with the highest grade on the non-written

Herzog 2
portion of the test a good mark, a couple of circles, sometimes too vague, too vague, that way
[he doesnt] have to give her a hundred (0:36). Mr. D also claims that you dont really mark,
you just, put marks on it (1:11). The perception of a lack of purpose behind teacher commentary
on writing is mostly a miscommunication or lack of understanding by the student. Teachers
usually write their comments in order to present a role they are attempting to assume for the
student. This notion is explored by Richard Straub and Ronald F. Lunsford in their book 12
Readers Reading. Straub and Lunsford describe how modes, or the ways that teachers speak to
students and set up tasks for them to do (166), create different role[s] for the teacher (172).
For example, when a comment on an essay is a praise, the teacher is trying to establish
themselves as a supportive coach (173). By attempting to create certain teacher-student
relationships through written comments, the teacher directs the student to revise in a certain style
and thus influences their future writing.
Written comments in regards to assessments can have varying effects on how well the
students learn from their mistakes. These remarks are meant as a kind of lesson, a strategy the
teachers regularly employ in their responses (Straub and Lunsford 156). In a study done by Dr.
Donald J. Freeman and Dr. Roger C. Niemeyer of Michigan State University, four groups of
students in a graduate education course were all given eight posttests, since there was eight units
in the course being used. The number of tests that had written comments on them differed
between each group and the style of commentary differed as well. It was found that written
comments on unit postests will not facilitate student achievement and different forms of
written comments will not have differential effects on student achievement (6). This means that
written commentary on student performance may not actually affect how well they will improve
their learning. However, written comments may have a positive influence on [students]

Herzog 3
attitude[s] toward [a] course (Freeman and Niemeyer 6). Also, in the Freeman and Niemeyer
study, 75% of the population of the study was given a questionnaire and 33% said that the
written comments had a facilitating effect on their performance (6). Written feedback from
educators does indeed have some effect on student education, but not as much as hoped for.
Even though written comments are intended to be helpful and expedite progress in
students, teacher comments can be misconstrued or misunderstood. In a study conducted by
Ruth Chapin and Marjorie Terdal, it was assessed that students tend to consider direct comments
on essays, such as grammatical or punctuation errors, rather than implicit comments such as a
need to reorganize ones ideas (10). This was mostly due to a lack of understanding why the
teacher made the implicit comment in the first place. For example, in interviews conducted with
the students within the test groups, the students reported that comments such as this doesnt
make sense or question marks provided them with the least help (12). A student even stated that
he did not change a passage marked with a question mark because he do[esnt] understand why
[the teacher] doesnt understand (12).
When dealing with inexperienced writers or writers who see the instructors comments as
superior, changes can be made that totally change the meaning of a students writing. In Chapin
and Terdals study, a student was told to change the statement Sparrow ate some starch, then she
found it, and she was mad. So she cut the sparrows tongue to The Sparrow, however, ate some
of the starch, and when the old woman found out, she was very mad. So she cut out the sparrows
tongue (17). The student stated in an interview that she was trying to say that the woman cut
off the tip of the sparrows tongue, not the entire tongue (18). Even though the students in the
study were ESL or English as a Second Language students, these types of contradictory
corrections are also found in classes where English is the first language. I have personally

Herzog 4
encountered these types of comments. In my AP Literature class, I had to write a poem about
myself. In this poem I wanted to mimic The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, but also insert a
slight hint about an incident that has personally affected me in the first and last lines. However,
my teacher was dead-set in having me add more details about the incident within the rest of the
poem. If I were to do this, it would not mimic The Divine Comedy and thus change the whole
meaning of the poem. My teachers written comments on my poem essentially detracted from the
purpose of writing the poem: to be creative. No matter the type of class writing is done for,
teacher comments can sometimes be either confusing or contradictory.
The stigma of written comments tends to linger throughout generations as students
become teachers. However, there are people who are attempting to clear away the bad vibes that
teacher commentary gives off. In an interview with Erin Workman, a PhD student working at
FSU as a professor who teaches composition, she states how she gears her comments on essays
towards letting the student do what he or she wants, but makes sure that they express their ideas
clearly. Erin also states that when she is commenting on student writing, she tries to open up a
discussion between the student and herself. This allows for the student and her to create a
relationship that fosters a constructive learning environment. A method that Erin uses to allow
for this type of learning environment is that she comments on the first draft of an essay based on
the content and how well each idea flows. Then she looks at the piece as a whole and how
cohesive it is. Due to being a student of hers myself, I can say that these comments do help me
much more than random question marks that indicate absolutely nothing. Not only are they
specific, but they are most of the time implicit and thus help me write better overall rather than
just fix an out-of-place comma. This positive effect can also be seen with other students in
college and high school. There are several instances where students get the dreaded what or

Herzog 5
too vague and question if they should change whats near the comment or the whole paper.
However, when constructive criticism is given to a student on how they can improve their
writing in general without detracting from their ideas, the quality of a students learning
experience and education is much higher than when simple or utterly incomprehensible
comments are given.
Not only are comments from teachers vital to a students education, but critiques or
written comments on questionnaires from students about teachers are critical as well. As a
student who has taken dual enrollment classes at a community college, I have had to fill out a
close-ended survey about a class, school, and an instructor. Most of the time I try to fill them out
as honest as possible, but I tend to give higher than average ratings. This is because I either really
enjoyed the courses I took or I felt guilty about giving low ratings. I do realize when I do this, I
create a bias that misleads educators to think more highly of their methods. By doing this, they
will to continue to believe they are teaching well and thus will not attempt to improve their
methods. Teacher evaluations by students project the quality of the education they have received
and can direct the education of future students. Teachers not only want to improve their teaching
methods, but they also want to figure out the best combination of difficulty and work given to
achieve the best ratings. In a study performed by John A. Centra, he found that courses were
rated lower when they were seen as somewhat elementary or slow (515). The study indicates
that teachers will receive better evaluations when their courses are manageable for students
(515). With this being said, it can be concluded that when students communicate that a course is,
for example, an A course through a written evaluation, teachers know that the way they are
educating students is not too intensive or rigorous. If other grades are received, then the teacher

Herzog 6
can evaluate how they should go about changing the course load and thus affect the education of
future students.
How an assignment is given is also important to the educational experience a student has.
In extreme cases, the open-endedness of an assignment prompt or instructions can lead to
extremely immature and nonsensical responses. There are so many of these ridiculous responses
that there are multiple blogs dedicated solely to displaying the most outrageous ones. For
example, the Tumblr blog REAL Student Essays posts entries with pictures of student essays that
are absolutely absurd. One of these posts, entitled Is SpongeBob Gay, discusses how
SpongeBob, a fictional animated television character, is obviously gay due to instances such as
when he took a shower with Squidward, another character in the show. Even though one would
think students would have enough common sense to just make up a reasonable topic, a poorly or
uncreative prompt can facilitate this type of poor response. The importance of assignment
instruction can also be seen a study performed by Felicia Mitchell. In this study, coders analyzed
assignment instructions and looked at the sequencing, open-endedness, and precision of language
of each prompt. They found that only 66% of the assignments analyzed contained language that
made the prompts intentions clear (11). It was concluded that prompts that did not offer
rhetorical cues produce[d] papers as haphazard as the original instructions (Mitchell 12). The
unexceptional writing that can be produced from unclear written instructions is evidence enough
to show the importance of written communication between a teacher and a student about
assignments on the educational experience of a student.
Other forms of written communication besides written comments and essays between
students and teachers are also important in the education process. One particular written genre
that has become extremely relevant in the past two decades is email. Sending emails usually

Herzog 7
entails the usage of symbols such as winky faces and abbreviations. However, the purpose of an
email is still extremely important when it comes to communicating with teachers. Even though
students can abuse the convenience and impersonality of email, such as an instance in a YouTube
video called Bad Email Reply-What Not to Say to Your Professor where a student is
inappropriate in the questions she asks and utilizes very informal conventions, email can also
greatly facilitate the learning experience a student has. In both interviews that I have conducted
with Teresa Van Ochten, an instructional assistant at Gulf High School in New Port Richey,
Florida, and Erin Workman, they both stated that the main written genre they use to
communicate with students is email. This indicates that there has to be some benefit in using
email to communicate. A benefit to a students education from email can be seen in a study
conducted by Nancy Deal. After gathering opinions from students that used email to journal
regular self- and course-assessments and compared these emails to written journals, Deal
concluded that an email journal helps students synthesize their learning and develop increased
self-assessment skills beyond that of traditional journaling (217). The use of email also allowed
for the students and teachers to create a more personal relationship that seemed more of a
mentorship than required writing (217). This same building of student-teacher relationships was
also found in a study of Elkafi Hassinis where he analyzed emails that were sent to and from an
instructor (39). From these conclusive findings, it can be said that the use of email definitely
helps in the education process if used correctly.
Email not only builds on a students learning experience because of the personal aspect of
using it, but the immediacy of email also benefits students. In my interview with Erin Workman,
she stated that she uses email to communicate with her students because she can respond to
students in a timely manner. This immediacy that email produces greatly affects students

Herzog 8
education for the better. The benefits of immediacy in relation to teacher-student communication
can be seen in a study conducted by Lanette L. Pogue and Kimo Ahyun on the effects of teacher
nonverbal immediacy and credibility on student motivation and affective learning. Pogue and
Ahyun gave four groups of students a scenario, the scenario given being unique for each group,
and asked how they believe their motivation and affective learning would be affected. It was
found that students would expect to have higher motivation and greater affective learning when
the instructor was immediate and credible in their nonverbal communication than not immediate
and credible (340). Even though this study did include credibility as a factor, it was still
concluded that immediacy is just as an important factor in affective learning and student
motivation as is credibility (340). I, as a student, find it extremely beneficial when teachers give
an immediate response to a question that I ask them over email. It gives me a sense that they care
and understand the issues that I face with a reading or an assignment.
In the interview I conducted with Teresa Van Ochten, she described how she uses a
racetrack reward system for the students she works with. When one of her students completes
an online class, she gives them a paper car to personalize and this car is placed on a board with
their name on it. Even though this is done in a high school setting rather than an elementary
school setting, it is still a written way for instructors to communicate with students. It is a way
for students to see themselves in lights, as Teresa Van Ochten put it. Whether this type of
motivational strategy affects the academic motivation of a student or not really depends on how
the student sees the achievement. As a high school student, I personally did not care for Van
Ochtens type of intrinsic motivation system as I thought it was kind of childish. However, were
instances where I found myself becoming proud of getting that star up on the board or, in Van
Ochtens case, a race car up on the racetrack. These type of written reward systems where a

Herzog 9
student is praised for reaching an academic goal can also benefit students and teachers in that it
can help keep track of progress. For example, the Advanced Placement program gives out awards
to students who receive a certain number of passing scores or keep up a specific testing GPA.
This award system allows students to keep track of how well they are doing in their academics
and gives them an incentive to improve themselves. In cases where these systems are used in a
traditional classroom setting, they allow educators to see how well they are teaching through
student performance and this observation allows them to figure out where to improve in order to
improve the education of future students.
Numerous studies have been conducted on the effects of written teacher commentary on
student achievement and the effects of other written genres between students and teachers.
However, the most prevalent genres were covered in my research in order to show a general
insight on the effects of certain written genres on the quality of education students receive. I can
conclude from this research that the most beneficial written genre to student education seems to
be email due to its immediacy and its capability to foster personal relationships between teachers
and students. Written comments are also vital to a students learning experience as well, but they
can backfire and sometimes be ineffective. I believe that more research still needs to be done on
these subjects and that the findings of research should be applied much more in high school and
college classrooms than they are now. From my research, it is clear that the application of these
findings can relieve the stigma of written comments, such as the horrid too vague, and increase
the effectiveness of teacher methods.
Matt, as I said on the last draft, you have a really great research essay! I noted a
few places in the beginning of your paper where you might consider some
additional revisions, and these are mainly for issues with clarity. Great work!

Herzog 10

Works Cited
CBC. Mr.D. Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 17 July 2015.
Centra, John A. Will Teachers Receive Higher Student Evaluations by Giving Higher Grades
and Less Course Work? Research in Higher Education 44.5 (2003): 495-518. ERIC.
Web. 18 July 2015.
Chapin, Ruth, and Marjorie Terdal. Responding to Our Response: Student Strategies for
Responding to Teacher Written Comments. n.p., 1990. ERIC. Web. 17 July 2015.
Deal, Nancy. Is the Medium the Message? Comparing Student Perceptions of Teacher
Responses via Written and E-mail Forms. National Educational Computing Conference
Baltimore, Maryland, June 17-19 1995. n.e.d., n.p., 1995. ERIC. Web. 18 July 2015.
Freeman, Donald J. and Roger C. Niemeyer. The Impact of Written Comments on Student
Achievement. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association
Chicago, Illinois, April 1974. n.e.d, n.p., 1974. ERIC. Web. 17 July 2015.
Hassini, Elkafi. Student-Instructor Communication: The Role of Email. Computers &
Education 47.1 (2006): 29-40. ScienceDirect. Web. 18 July 2015.
Mitchell, Felicia. Bridging the Communication Gap between Teacher and Student: Composing
Assignments in the Content Areas. Annual Meeting of the National Council of Teachers
of English Los Angeles, California, November 20-25 1987. n.e.d., n.p., 20 Nov. 1987.
ERIC. Web. 17 July 2015.
Mrandersonmath. Bad Email Reply-What Not to Say to Your Professor. Online video clip.
YouTube. YouTube, 14 Jan. 2013. Web. 18 July 2015.

Herzog 11
Pogue, Lanette L., and Kimo Ahyun. The Effect of Teacher Nonverbal Immediacy and
Credibility on Student Motivation and Affective Learning. Communication Education
55.3 (2006): 331-344. ERIC. Web. 18 July 2015.
REAL Student Essays. Is SpongeBob Gay?. realstudentessays.tumblr.com. Tumblr, 7 Aug.
2014. Web. 17 July 2015.
Straub, Richard, and Ronald F. Lunsford. 12 Readers Reading: Responding to College Student
Writing. Cresskill: Hampton Press, 1995. Print.
Van Ochten, Teresa. Personal Interview. 18 July 2015.
Workman, Erin. Personal Interview. 19 July 2015.