Feedback on writing

Lynn Quinn

What is the difference between responding to and marking a piece

of writing?

Responding• Responding is process not product oriented

people pay attention to the feedback• Focus is on feedback for improvement rather

than on judging or giving a mark• Purpose is to give constructive and formative

comments which will assist the writer to revise his/her writing

• Providing writers with a sense of audience through having a conversation with them

• Helping writers to consider their writing from a reader’s point of view (how is the reader being positioned?)

• Giving feedback on ‘content’, concepts, logical development of argument

• Helping writers to express their understandings in an appropriate genre for intended purpose. Provide feedback against specific criteria?

• Assisting writer to use the appropriate literacy, conventions, etc.

• Giving constructive and encouraging comments to develop the writers’ confidence

Kids from broken homes turn to crime.

According to Smith and Jones (1999) 30% of children between the ages of 9 and 18 from homes where parents are divorced commit some sort of petty crime such as shoplifting.

All white people are racists. They stole our land and they should go back to Europe where they belong!

Johnson (1999), in his research in the Gauteng area, found that 34% of black people perceived white people as racist with 19% of those expressing the opinion that white people should return to their countries of origin.

Understanding academic literacy involves

• learning how knowledge is produced and represented in different disciplines and contexts, for example, the conventions for what counts as an acceptable argument or convincing evidence.

• learning the strategies for understanding, discussing, organizing and producing texts in different disciplines (e.g. structure, voice, referencing, explicitness, links between theory and practice, vocabulary etc.)

• Genre of journal articles (differences)

The respondent should comment on• Meaning, content, concepts

• Genre & academic literacy issues– structure– argument– evidence– cohesive devices– voice– explicitness– positioning of the reader– tentativeness, etc.– Appropriate for specific purpose/specific journal

• Surface errors: Grammar, spelling, punctuation

Ways of responding to writing: depends on individual & quality of

writing• read whole paper first: prioritise issues; global

comments• respond against specific journal criteria • ask questions in the body of the text• explicit and direct comments; clear and

specific strategies for revision• relationship between in text-and summative

comments

Ways of responding cont..

• constructive, positive feedback• comments to develop metacognitive knowledge • respond as a reader to a specific writer (sense of

audience)• avoid unfamiliar jargon• do not take over the writing

• Tone?• Track changes?