The relationship between writing and learning happens over the course of a semester. I don’t have evidence yet, but I have observed that when students are forced to write a very concise answer to a relatively broad question, that those students who understand the concepts can write concisely. Conversely, when they don’t understand the concepts, their writing becomes vague, flowery, unclear or imprecise. Therefore, my interpretation is when someone writes a fluff sentence, they don’t understand the concept.
I believe this means I need to demonstrate what concise writing looks like. On the first two assignments, I give very detailed feedback. On the first assignment alone, I often spend half and hour on each paper. (I comment on every assignment that they turn in.)
We tried peer editing: I distributed unnamed papers randomly and another student commented on it. They hated it. We didn't use peer editing after that. While I can live without peer editing, it would be helpful for students to get good feedback and to know what aspects are important to look at. Peer evaluations would also help lessen my grading load, as it does take a lot of time to make comments.
