Feedback
Faculty
Alphabetical list of Handouts & Guides

Words of Wisdom

Good feedback is kind, thorough and timely. It’s professional and focused. It leaves the writer feeling challenged to do better but great about their strengths. Even if that just means the location they chose was cool. Give your feedback relative to the skill set of the writer. Never lie or obfuscate. Just serve it up gently. An upset writer isn’t going to hear your points anyway. But an encouraged one will. Trust me on this.

— Julie Gray

W and C courses must include graded writing; however, while many students are motivated to improve through grades, they also benefit from low-stakes writing, in which there is no grade or one that counts for very little. In fact, some researchers suggest that once a paper is graded, students have little desire or motivation to return to it and so learn very little from feedback provided with graded papers.

This is good news for W and C instructors: if students can learn from low-stakes work on which they receive feedback, you will have less grading to do. And you don't have to be the only one providing feedback, although generally students will perceive your feedback as most valuable unless you do something to change that perception.

Both grade writing and undgraded, low-stakes writing require some feedback. This section discusses the basic types and methods of responding to student writing and speaking, including:

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