Effective responses to writing

I believe that an effective way to respond to a writing piece is to first understand the expectation from the author and the goal of the piece of writing. In the writing Center, many students ask my help to review their writing, and the first question I ask is if they did their own revision before I help them. If the answer is yes, then I ask about the assignment information and what he or she is trying to achieve as a response. Most of the students only request to check their grammar and if it makes sense for me.

When responding to any piece of writing I place some personal boundaries. For example I don't interfere in how it written, but I can point out what I understood or make questions when I don't fully understand. Also, I could infer about the audience and provide a feedback about my point of view as a reader, though I advice that it is only a point of view, and reiterate not to change on the whole paper because of it.