Individual conferences are regularly conducted. Each assignment has two types of conferences. The first type is called small group conferences and focuses on content and organization and the second type is known as individual conferences and focuses on students’ language issues. Students come into the conferences prepared with questions following the instructor’s feedback on their writing. Students regularly receive feedback ahead of each conference. Students are also provided with a conference schedule ahead of each conference to be able to show up at the right time. When they complete their conference, students are encouraged to use their time to revise. Conferences are an excellent format to foster the goal of composing as a process, providing students an extra outlet to work on their writing.
Individual conferences focus on lower order concerns (LOCs), which we understand as language and other mechanical issues that don’t necessarily interrupt understanding of the writing by themselves. Our consideration of language includes grammar, usage, punctuation, citation, spelling, sentence structure and style.
In the Student conferencing guide we make the following suggestions to help students prepare for conferences with instructors:
Preparation for individual conference: focus on language
- Analyze your use of source material. Check any paraphrases and quotations against the original texts. Quotations should replicate the original author’s words, while paraphrases should maintain the original author’s meaning but have altered language and sentence structures. For each source, confirm that you have adhered to the preferred style guide for the target journal or other venue.
- Consider individual sentences in terms of grammar, mechanics, and punctuation. Many LOCs can be revised by isolating and examining different elements of the text. Read the text sentence by sentence, considering the grammar and sentence structure. Remember, a sentence may be grammatically correct and still confuse readers.If you notice a pattern—say, a tendency to misplace modifiers or add unnecessary commas—read the paper looking only for that error. Read the document backwards, word for word, looking for spelling errors. Throughout the writing process and especially at this stage of revision, keep a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a writing handbook nearby.
- Strategies such as reading aloud and seeking feedback are useful at all points in the revision process. Reading aloud will give you distance from the text and prevent you from skimming over what is actually written on the page. This strategy will help you to identify both HOCs, such as missing concepts, and LOCs, such as typos. Additionally, seeking feedback will allow you to test your ideas and writing on real readers. Seek feedback from readers both inside and outside of your target audience in order to gain different perspectives.
Prior to the conference make sure you accepted or rejected all suggestions and resolved all comments in your draft. Remember to relabel your draft by renaming it “[first name last name] Assignment [number] Draft [number] – revised”
Bring a laptop or a printout of your essay to the conference. In the conference, take lots of notes. After the conference, make any changes to your draft that you consider appropriate.
– Adapted from Lumen, English Composition 1, “Writing Process: Revising,” accessed August 9, 2018 text-lower-order-concerns