Allowing others to read your writing can be stressful at any age, but when you are returning to school after a significant break and beginning a new course, letting others read your writing can feel like running naked outside: exposed. 

Although unfair, there’s a certain amount of expectation surrounding the writing abilities of students in a college level course and yet an even higher expectation when the student appears a little older than the “average” or traditional college student.  Many students are making the decision to return to school decades after their last course. The last time they wrote anything significant or academic could have been in high school or maybe a college course along the way.  So writing an academic paper for class and then sharing it with relative strangers is difficult. 

When I taught a writing course to non-traditional students, my focus was on building a community of learners that worked together to improve everyone’s writing. Afterall, receiving feedback from more than just me would help students improve. I created peer revision groups and went to work on building trust within each small group.

I often utilize peer revision groups to optimize feedback. Although most students do not have formal training in how to teach writing, they are all readers and have opinions about how welI a piece of writing informs. I just needed to help them believe they had the credentials to respond to writing. 

Getting people comfortable with sharing their writing begins with sharing their history as writers. I had students write about and then share a pivotal experience that involved writing. Some shared papers that were read aloud in class when they were in middle school and others shared times when they were embarrassed by all of the red marks and comments the teacher wrote on their papers. Whether the experience was positive or negative, this activity gave students an opportunity to share with their peers and begin the long and important process of building trust. 

After the initial reflective journal, students were placed in small groups that would remain the same throughout the semester. In these groups, students shared their writing weaknesses as well as their needs concerning feedback. Some needed help with organization and others wanted more suggestions about clarity or passive voice. Straightforward feedback was the preferred method but a few said they needed more kindness because of past experiences. All of the small group conversations helped students progress towards sharing their first writing drafts. 

Authors read aloud their first drafts to the small group. Each student had a copy of the paper so they could closely follow along and mark places where they had questions or comments. Each student received 30 minutes of discussion where members gave suggestions for improvement along with praise for areas of strength. Students could then rewrite the drafts based on the feedback and share them again at a later date. 

Before revised drafts were shared with their small groups, I explained the importance of different types of feedback and tried to build confidence by explaining that everyone is a reader. As readers, we know what good writing is. We know when we’ve read something that clearly explains the topic. We also know when a sentence doesn’t make sense or when a paragraph seems out of order.  I encouraged them to ask questions about the writing. I explained that if they had to reread a sentence or paragraph then something is probably missing or out of place. It wasn’t necessary to give a name to the problem because sometimes we don’t really know what’s wrong. But asking a question or pointing out the confusion was enough to help the author understand if the writing was clear. This attempt to build confidence in giving feedback helped students understand that pointing out grammar and punctuation mistakes was not as helpful as asking questions or describing places of confusion.

After being uncomfortable with sharing their writing at the beginning of the semester, students understood the benefits by the end. Many continued sharing their writing for other classes. They reaped the benefits of lowering their defensive walls and putting themselves and their writing out there for others to read. Yes, sharing writing with fellow students can be stressful and even scary, but taking time to build trust and believe in the process creates stronger writing and builds confidence at any level.