1. Student Self-Reflective
Comments
A way of promoting instructor-
student dialogue in paper drafts
Naomi Silver

2. Instructions for Inserting Self-Reflective Comments
• Once you’ve written your proposal, take a step back and think about any questions
or comments you have about what you’ve achieved in your writing. Use the
“comment” function in Word to insert 3 to 5 questions or comments in the margins
of the paper. This is your opportunity to communicate with me “backstage” about
the choices you’ve made. You might note places where:
– you’ve tried to draw on key concepts from your research materials,
– you think you’ve expressed an idea or summarized a point particularly well,
– you feel uncertain about whether you’ve gotten your point across,
– you are struggling with or confused about a particular concept.
• Make sure your questions and comments offer enough information to allow the
reader to know how to respond to you—e.g., explain why you’ve used the concepts
you’ve chosen, refer to specific ways you think you’ve expressed something well,
and so on.

3. Include examples
• Here are two examples – one of a “good” (i.e., appropriately
specific) question for this activity and one of a “bad” (i.e., overly
broad) question:
Good Question
• Here’s an example of an appropriately specific question: “I’m not
sure that the connection I’m making between these two pieces of
evidence is clear enough. Can you see here how x relates to y?”
Bad Question
• Here’s one that is too broad: “Do you understand the argument I’m
making about this article?” (Since this is the type of thing that I
will address in my overall comments to you anyway, asking it here
doesn’t let me offer you more specific feedback.)

4. Student example: preliminary research proposal

5. Student comment #1
Comment: Should I profile each
leader for these factors as well, if
possible? Or is this adding too
much to the research?

6. Student comment #2
Comment: This is my claim thus
far, I cannot qualify it any further
without looking at Ho Chi Minh’s
motive levels, since this is not only
two individual studies, but a
comparative study as well. Is my
goal for my research clear?

7. Student comment #3
Comment: I know that you had initially wanted me to
narrow down my research, but since Johnson’s motive
levels are extremely average across the board (on a 100
point scale, where 50 is average, SD of 10, he scored
48, 54, 54 in the power, achievement, and affiliation
categories, respectively) I think it would be beneficial to
look not only at Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, but the
US leadership as a whole. Do you agree with this
conclusion? Motive level scores are already given by
Winter (2002) for the presidents; I think it would be
helpful, but research-wise, a stretch to also motive-
profile their Secretaries of State

8. Some takeaway points
• These comments were responded to orally, in
scheduled conferences
• Written responses could be inserted right into
the student’s comment bubble, with my
initials attached
• These comments gave me a much deeper
sense not only of my student’s knowledge of
the material, but also of the specific issues he
was struggling with in narrowing down his
research focus