Staff Feedback Toolkit

Feedforward: Developing Student Writing Through Feedback

Student Writing in Higher Education 

Writing effective academic texts is difficult, even for skilled writers. Many students, particularly undergraduate students have had very little, if any, exposure to or experience in constructing the kinds of complex texts expected at university. As ‘novice’ writers, students often struggle with text level organisation; the logical development of content and argument; complex sentence construction including punctuation; and the accurate use of discipline-specific vocabulary and referencing conventions. Writing at university then is for many a developmental process,  akin to the movement from basic to skilled writer. This process can of course be greatly aided by guidance in the form of constructive feedback on written assignments from those more experienced in the discourse and conventions of the academy. Every written assignment then presents an excellent opportunity to engage in the development of student writing. 

The following toolkit outlines the features of constructive feedback in general and then presents practical strategies for the routine provision of feedback that specifically targets student writing. By examining four common areas of concern in student writing, staff will not only be able to confidently ‘diagnose’ problematic student writing but also offer a range of suggestions for future improvement. 

• The Importance of Effective Feedback
• Features of Effective Feedback
• Using Feedback to Develop Students’ Academic Literacy and Writing Skills
• Strategies for Providing Feedback that Develops Academic Writing Skills
• Four Common Weaknesses in Student Writing and what to do about them
• • Problem #1 "Not a complete sentence" – Linguistic Accuracy
  • Problem #2 "I can't follow your argument" – Cohesion and Coherence 
  • Problem #3 "It's too informal" – Register
  • Problem #4 "Are these your words" – Referencing Conventions 
• Resources

Frances Williamson