Student's guide to writing college papers, Fourth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2010

Find general principles in specific comments
Learning from your returned paper
Writing your paper

15.1 Find General Principles in Specific Comments

15.2 Visit Your Instructor

Teachers are baffled and annoyed when a student looks only at the grade on a paper and ignores substantive comments or, worse, can't be bothered to pick up the paper at all. Since you'll write many research papers in your academic and professional life, it's smart to understand how your teachers make their judgments and how you can use them to do better next time. For that, you need one more plan.

15.1 Find general principles in specific comments

When you read your teacher's comments, focus on those that you can apply to your next project:

✵ Look for a pattern of errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. If you see one, make a list so that you know what to work on next time.

✵ If your teacher says you made factual errors, check your notes to see why: Did you misreport them? Were you misled by an unreliable source? Whatever you find, you know what to do in your next project.

✵ If your teacher says your writing is choppy, dense, or awkward (indicated by AWK or K), check your sentences using the steps in chapter 14.

✵ If he says your report is disorganized, check it against chapter 12. You won't always find what caused the complaints, but when you do you'll know what to work on next time.