Module 3: Writing Development and the Provision of Feedback

[Mmaphuti]

#3156

• What kind of feedback do you give on your students’ writing?
Linking to what my supervisors at Phd level were doing, it makes perfect sense that, they were doing student’s writing. Their comments and feedback were always in a question form, which means they were trying to interrupt my conversation indicating this must be clarified or expanded before I move on. My supervisors were sending feedback with track changes electronically and sometimes they will call or ask me to call. Their comments always made me to realize and see that some information is missing or incomplete and i will attend to their comments. It is true per the presentation that when you do conversation, it is easy to find clarity or ask question to ensure that the conversation is clear but in writing that is not often the case. Sometimes as a writer you are convinced that all you have written is clear and make sense but when it goes to the next person there will be a different view. Based on my experience as a student, i confirm that, the students writing feedback is working as it improves the level of student’s thinking as well as writing.

• What kind of feedback, in your view, is the most effective?
The use of questions is more effective as it assists the students to think and makes the conversation to flow without loopholes or incomplete information. This kind of feedback is somehow closes the gaps in the student’s writing

[Thando]

#3175

These are great resources. I especially enjoyed the first video which laid out the terrain some of my colleagues and I are putting together for writing workshops for our undergrad and postgrad students. It distillery the info into a more straightforward way of thinking about writing, which is often taken for granted in subjects like English.

I have also found that keeping a writing/ source journal has helped me a lot in my research for both MA and PhD, a piece of advice I got from my MA supervisor that I’m more than happy to pass on.

In practice, I try to emphasize drafting…this works well for longer projects…sometimes not so well for essays where there are time pressures, so I wonder if there are resources I could access for shorter pieces of writing for my undergrads. Any suggestions welcome.

[Thando]

#3177

Ok, I am definitely guilty of using more statements than questions in my feedback – which is not to say that I don’t use questions at all – a lot the literary practices in my field (which are not always made explicit) are things that can be explained , sometimes more than once, so this is where most of my intervening statements comes in.

I use questions mostly in the conversational sense mostly to generated more in-depth engagement either with primary or secondary material…but like the statements, this is ongoing work that needs reinforcing through repetition.

[Sioux McKenna]

#3200

Hi Sukh

I have got my students to keep reading journals for a few years now, and am pretty much evangelical about them as I think they really help students to move from the voice of authority in the texts they read to their own voice in their writing. But I was caught by your idea of the Excel spreadsheet for all readings. I currently have a PhD student who is doing this and has introduced me to the idea. And I know of a colleague in Stats who gets his students to do something similar whereby they use Excel to keep a record of key statistical issues for each reading (eg sample size, what stats methods used etc.) I think this might be particularly useful for those students that see the idea of keeping a reflective journal as a bit weird. :-)

Thanks for this
Sioux

[Sioux McKenna]

#3201

Hi Scholastica,

I like your making explicit to students that they will submit multiple drafts and will get various forms of feedback along the way. So many of our students position us as their assessors who will ‘mark’ their work, they are not clear that the roles have changed and as supervisors, we act as advisors or mediators to assist them to learn how to make knowledge in the field and how to disseminate it. This completely changes the nature of feedback from being the assessor/marker at UG level to being critical reader at PG level. It can take a while for students to figure this out.
Keep well
Sioux

[Pauline]

#3217

This session has been very eye opening for me. I spend alot of time correcting language. What’s striking is that this can prevent students from developing their academic writing! Something else that struck me is the normative nature of writing. I do agree that we take it for granted that students should know how to write, yet what we know has been acquired over time as we continue to write.

I will encourage my students to keep a reading journal. I use more of a tabular summary to enable students see trends in the literature, which is useful for aspects such as methodologies used and their interpretation. They can then summarise, in their own words, what they see and where there are potential gaps. I like the idea of free writing and keeping an journal and I will adopt these in my supervision.

[Pauline]

#3218

This session has been very eye opening for me. I spend alot of time correcting language. What’s striking is that this can prevent students from developing their academic writing! Something else that struck me is the normative nature of writing. I do agree that we take it for granted that students should know how to write, yet what we know has been acquired over time as we continue to write.

I will encourage my students to keep a reading journal. I use more of a tabular summary to enable students see trends in the literature, which is useful for aspects such as methodologies used and their interpretation. They can then summarise, in their own words, what they see and where there are potential gaps. I like the idea of free writing and keeping an journal and I will adopt these in my supervision.

[Pauline]

#3219

Something I learnt with my own writing was beginning with a question and, taping (using a tape recorder)my verbal response to the question; then writing this down. This is helpful in writing simply. With time I stopped doing this, but I have encouraged by students to use it where necessary, especially in articulating the problem addressed in the student’s work. Students can also work in pairs with one posing the question and the other responding verbally with the recorder rolling.

[Pauline]

#3220

This is very useful, Sioux.

[Theodora]

#3254

This was a very good module that provided me the opportunity to reflect on how I can help my students to be critical researchers who look out for the main arguments in their disciplines of study and have the confidence to take a position through critical reflection on literature. The session on providing feedback provided a helpful resource on how to provide valuable feedback to students to not just complete their postgraduate study, but to help make the student become a better scholar through constructive and “instructive” or “directive” feedback provided.

Letting students know the various writing tools available, such as the pomodoro technique is very helpful.

[Kelly]

#3271

The presentation is enlightening. I used to give my students samples of well laid out proposals of my previous students. I used such samples to model good writing. That on its own now seems to be narrowing chances of students to explore more in scholarly writing. Free writing is good and enhances originality of work. I am going to engage my students in free writing and perhaps propose this to members of my department.

[Kelly]

#3296

What kind of feedback do you give on your students’ writing? I give Formative feedback. I return the feedback and then arrange a session for discussion. The student finds time to get clarity.

What kind of feedback, in your view, is the most effective? All feed backs are effective if the student and the lecturer benefit and are able to improve the engagements.

[Kelly]

#3299

Do you already use some of these techniques with your students? Let us know which ones or share other suggestions. no.
Were there any writing development techniques that were new to you that you might like to try in the future? Yes, the reading journal. presently i assist students through the school’s librarian to access articles related to their study.
Do you develop your own writing in the ways suggested in these videos? no but determined to learn these strategies.

[Rendani Mercy Makhwathana]

#3301

I know some of these techniques, namely: pre-writing-draft-edit, however, pre writing has been explained in a very different way. I benefitted a lot from the explanation. I have not been helping my students enough for them to develop in writing. I assumed they knew from the communication skills module they studied.
what seems to be new is to find time to write and also to shut-up and write.it has been hard to dedicate time to writing.
yes, I try to develop my own writing in some ways suggested, but I need to improve my way of writing as I follow other suggested techniques.

[Rendani Mercy Makhwathana]

#3302

I have been giving my students interruptions and additions. I also told them what needed to be done, especially if the student submitted the work several times avoiding to respond to the raised issue of concern. I now know that I should have raised the same issue in different ways and avoid to lead the student to the answer.
posing questions which allow students to see where they are missing the mark is the most effective because it allows them to think twice before they write.

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