Article Review: You Can Lead a Horse to Water but You Can’t Make Him Edit
Article Review: You Can Lead a Horse to Water but You Can’t Make Him Edit: Varied Effects of Feedback on Grammar across Upper-Division Business Students
Basic writing techniques and skills are increasingly becoming critical in today’s business environment. In the article, Wilson, Provaznik, and Pigeon (2018) take a look at look at the basic writing skills of today’s Upper-Division Business Students. A quasi-experiment is conducted to design ways of improving basic writing skills following dissatisfaction by employers on graduate students’ writing abilities.
Employers’ expressed dissatisfaction raises the concern of critically examining grammar skills in business graduate students. Many students rely on spell check applications and other software available online, but these options typically fix some issues but do not make a graduate better. Written feedback is an effective way of improving writing skills, yet the time commitment it demands makes its application challenging. The question raised by the authors seeks to identify if feedback about writing mechanics can effectively improve grammar skills level.
The hypothesis put forth by Wilson et al. (2018) states “Where students have confidence in their grammar skills, are grade motivated and have access to additional environment support in basic writing mechanics, specific written feedback on grammar errors will decrease the error of rate from drafts to final submission.” The method applied included an anonymous survey to assess previous student writing experiences, attitudes, and witting habits. The students included in the study were then involved in a study to examine the effects of creating multiple drafts and having them edited by an instructor before making final submissions.
The quasi-experiment results showed that under the appropriate circumstances, using a multi draft approach is an effective strategy for reducing grammar error rates in the final written submissions. However, Wilson et al. (2018) noted that adhering to a multi-draft system is full of challenges to the time constraints that make it difficult for instructors to give feedback on each student’s submission. Universities are also facing pressure to scale down activities to keep the educational cost at a possible minimum. Cost reduction measures have translated to fewer resources for facilitating the individualized writing analysis critical in improving learner’s grammar skills. The same pressure on learning institutions to keep educational cost low also means it may not be feasible to add communication coursework requirements for the business curriculum as a measure to fix grammar problems. From a student’s point of view, adding communication coursework would mean an extended time in school, something that students might not like.
Another challenge the Wilson et al. (2018) indicated is that there is a weak reward system that would incentivize students to be conscious of their writing skills. Students must receive feedback on their writing skills even in cases where faculties member perceive the errors as minor compared to the content. However, feedback can only be an effective mechanism if provided regularly and in a formative way. The most significant concern for most instructors is the time required to make meaningful feedback.
In conclusion, the article demonstrates that business graduates’ basic writing skills will only improve before graduating if stakeholders in the education sector change the reward system that will see both students and faculty members dedicate time and effort towards improving students’ writing. Unless all the people involved are committed to making progress, students will continue graduating and getting into employment with poor writing skills.
Reference
Wilson, T., Provaznik, W., & Pigeon, N. (2018). You Can Lead a Horse to Water but You Can’t Make Him Edit: Varied Effects of Feedback on Grammar across Upper-Division Business Students. Journal of the Academy of Business Education, 19, 180-197.