Teachers' written responses to students about their writing: An analysis through a motivational framework

Writing is a complex endeavor, and motivating students to persist in the writing process can be difficult. Teachers' written responses to student writing is a practice that has the potential to either discourage students or motivate them to persist in the writing process. Because of their potential to discourage, it is important for teachers to consider how their written responses affect their students. The scholarship on written responses acknowledges this need and offers pertinent and valuable suggestions for framing effective written responses. Nevertheless, the suggestions only implicitly address the motivational potential of written responses. This project explores the motivational qualities and potentials of two samples of teachers' written responses through rhetorical analysis using a framework from motivational theories and discusses how the explicit application of educational motivation theories might influence teachers' written responses. The analyses find evidence illustrating how teachers' written responses might either support or frustrate students' motivation to develop their writing skills. On the basis of this evidence, I discuss the evident intersections between motivational theories and the scholarship concerning teachers' written responses, address what this implies for teachers and their responding practices, and suggest avenues for further research.