L Cooper has contributed (thank you!):

I’ve been correcting compositions for eons, and sometimes I have adopted techniques to make correcting simpler that I forgot over time.

Here’s the one I remembered, today:

Rather than make the exact same comments on the exact same errors on several different papers, as I see errors, I start typing out the short explanations in a master Word document. Whenever possible, I reference a page number in their textbook that has the appropriate explanations. I number the comments. Then, when I see the errors in students’ papers, I underline the error, write the number of the explanation next to the underlined error. I staple the comments to each composition. I assign a rewrite that requires that students actually read the explanations.

The virtues of this are:
1) No one can read my handwriting, not even me. There is a higher probability students will actually read the comments if they are legible.
2) The kinds of mistakes students make are on vocabulary or grammatical concepts they are learning and that I will assess on chapter tests and in their subsequent writing. Even if they don’t make all the errors on the master document, if they bother to read it, they’ll have a great study sheet for the test.
3) If I assign similar activities in the future, I’ll have a terrific master comment/correction sheet that I can use either as is or that I can add to when future students come up with even more exotic mistakes than those of this year’s students!

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