Faculty Development Workshop: Helpful Feedback on Student Writing

Receiving individualized feedback on their writing is the best way for students to improve.  During this session, Beth McCormack will share some techniques and tips on giving student feedback that have worked well for her.  She will discuss specific comments that she typically gives about things like grammar, style and organization.  She will also discuss comments specific to scholarly writing assignments.  Finally, she will discuss the pros and cons of different methods of delivering feedback.  There will also be time for discussion so that others may share feedback methods that have worked successfully for them.

Bio: Beth joined the full-time faculty of Vermont Law School in 2011.  From 2001-2011, she practiced in the litigation section of the Boston law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, P.C.  Her practice included all aspects of state and federal litigation as well as alternative dispute resolution. She was a member of the firm’s hiring committee and served as a mentor to new associates. In addition, from 2003-2011, she was an adjunct professor at Boston University School of Law, where she taught Legal Research and Writing to first-year law students. In 2007, Beth served as a special assistant district attorney at the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office for a six-month term, where she took more than 20 criminal cases to trial. She is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, before the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals.  She received her AB from the University of Chicago and her JD, cum laude, from Boston University School of Law.