student assignment feedback example

Feedback on your assignments: what it is and how to use it

This guide explains how to use your tutor's feedback so that you understand your grade and how to improve your academic performance..

• Understand your strengths and weaknesses

When you get your assignments back from your tutor, you will probably initially focus on the grade you have received.

However, your tutor will have given you useful and well thought-out feedback, with the purpose of a) helping you understand the grade and b) providing you with ideas for how to improve in future assignments. It is important that you make good use of this feedback to help you understand your strengths and weaknesses and what you need to do to improve on your grade.

There are three key things you need to do in order to maximise the usefulness of your tutor feedback:

• Understand the feedback : look at all the feedback provided (sometimes there are comments on your script as well as the overall comments), and read it carefully to ensure you understand each comment.
• Log your feedback : create a system of storing your feedback that is easily accessible.
• Use your feedback in future assignments : refer to your feedback in preparation for new assignments, and use it as a checklist.
• Understand the feedback

Tutors will have different ways of giving you feedback. Some will provide a written summary of your key strengths and weaknesses, and some will provide oral recorded feedback. You may also receive focused, itemised feedback on the script of your work.

Tutors will provide both positive and critical feedback. Generally, the positive feedback is easy to understand, but sometimes the critical feedback can be unclear or can use terminology that is not easy to understand. Some common critical comments are listed below with a glossary to explain what is meant, and suggestions for how to improve as a result of this feedback.

• Glossary of terms

• Log your feedback

Once you have read and understood the feedback you have received, it is important to create a system of storing it for future reference. This feedback is useful when preparing your next assignments, and you should find a system of storage that is easily accessible and works well for you.

Not everyone will like the same system. Here are a couple of examples of ways that students have stored their feedback to create an easy reference tool to use as a check list each time they start work on assignments.

Using a table

This method of logging and storing your feedback is commonly used. Here you create a table and cut and past feedback into the appropriate column. In addition, students often include a column for their grade, so that they can see which assignments are likely to have feedback that tells them not only what to improve, but also what to continue doing.

This is what it could look like as a student starts to fill it in:

Using a mind map

Another common way to log your feedback is by creating a mind map.

Use sections to group your feedback so that it is easily demarcated by comment-type. Mind maps work best with the key points from your feedback. It can be a useful review task to pull out the main issues raised by your tutor, and to summarise them using concise language.

Remember that you should choose a way to log your feedback that works best for you. It needs to be achievable and accessible to you, so that you can use it easily to review your tutors’ advice and learn from it.

• Use your feedback in future assignments

Once you have set up a system for collecting and storing your feedback, you have an important resource to help you improve on your work.

You need to revisit this feedback and review the comments frequently, in order to learn what your strengths and weaknesses are. You will start to identify themes, and this will help you to create a plan for how to improve.

For each new assignment, the following approach should help you to avoid making the same mistakes again, and allow you to consolidate the strengths you have.

• Summary and next steps
• Make sure you understand it and can see why your tutors are saying what they are saying.
• Create a storage system that suits you. Include your own reflection and ideas for what you need to do to improve.
• As you build up your feedback, start to collate it to show recurring themes and comments.
• Use your collated feedback as a guide and checklist when planning, preparing and reviewing your work.

Engaging with feedback resource

This short, interactive self-access resource shows you how to:

• use feedback as a powerful learning tool
• examine what might be preventing you from using feedback
• identify patterns in your feedback
• set goals and create a personal action plan.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Academic Skills

On this page.

How to Use Assignment Feedback

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

Learn about our Editorial Process

If you’re like me, assignment feedback can depress the heck out of you! Sometimes I want to throw it away and never look at it again.

If you’re like me, you’ll also probably look first at your grade and everything else matters less: the feedback is far less important to you than your overall grade.

Top students see negative feedback on a paper as a good thing. It’s another opportunity to get ahead.

In this post, I outline how to use feedback on your paper to grow your mark and get ahead.

If you use the following thirteen steps, you can bring substantial improvements to your own assignments in the future.

What’s the point of Feedback? Assignment feedback isn’t a chance for your teacher to be mean or rank you against your peers.

Feedback is not about being judged or talked down to. Feedback is all about YOU and no one else.

Feedback is the opportunity you get to check yourself, see how you’re going, and look for opportunities to improve.

Assignment feedback is about personal growth.

1. Start with a Growth Mindset

Having a growth mindset means that you believe you have the ability to improve. People with a growth mindset think that they are in control of their own future and actively go about achieving their goals.

If you approach assignment feedback with a growth mindset you’ll be on track to improving.

If you approach feedback with a sense that improving is out of your control, you’re never going to improve.

Here are three simple thoughts you need to put out of your mind right away:

• I’m not good enough . Did I ever tell you how average a student I was in my undergraduate degree? If I can go from average student to Ph.D. at 24 , so can you. Believe in yourself.
• The teacher’s a jerk. This might be true. But, let’s face it, unless you got the top mark in the class, you didn’t get the maximum grade your teacher gives out. That means that you’ve got room for improvement. So don’t blame the teacher. Improvement is in your hands.
• I don’t want to think about it. I get it. Burnout sucks. So feel free to forget about that feedback for a little while. But at some point, you’ve got to tackle it. So get in a positive mindset: I’m here to improve. Come at me, world.

Want some motivation? Check out this awesome and inspiring YouTube video about growth mindsets from Khan Academy:

2. Figure out your Teacher’s Pet Peeves

All teachers have something that is a huge pet peeve. Some have many.

For me, one pet peeve is apostrophes . A misplaced apostrophe jumps off the page at me and makes me think: Poor editing. Sloppy.”

I had a colleague once who couldn’t stand when a paper didn’t use the correct margin sizes. Seriously! He would flip out and cut students’ marks. Personally, I couldn’t care less about the margins!

When looking over your teacher’s feedback, take note of what little things they really seemed overly picky about. Was it the referencing style? The fact that you used first-person language? Your over-use of a certain word?

Take note. If your teacher has given you strong feedback on something that no other teacher has bothered to mention, you’ll need to adjust your writing style for that teacher.

Feedback is your opportunity to read your teacher and find out what you need to do in order to avoid their pet peeves in the future.

3. Read it. Then Forget it. For a while.

I hate assignment feedback.

My Ph.D. supervisor would give me my work back with red marks all through it . It would be so depressing. I’d be mad at her for days and days. I worked my tail off on that work! I took on all your feedback and it’s still not good enough!?

I developed a strategy:

Check the grade. Read the feedback. All of it. Then put it away for at least two days.

Don’t email your teacher yet. Don’t bitch about her to your friends. Just forget about it.

You’ll find that when you come back to the feedback two days later the emotion is gone. You’ll not look at the mark but look through the feedback to see what you can pick out of it that you can use in the future.

Be very careful about contacting your teacher about the feedback. You want to take those two days to let it soak in before sending out an email.

You have no idea how many emotional emails I get from students that probably have been much more carefully (and professionally!) worded if they’d only taken a few days to sit on the marks and let the emotions settle a little.

4. Make a Table

Tables are amazing for working through assignment feedback. They help you to sort out your thoughts and consider ways in which you can improve your work.

I follow a very simple format that I’ve used for years with great success. Whenever I write an academic paper for publication in journals I use this method – and let me tell you, the feedback in peer review is brutal!

Here’s a simple example of a feedback table:

The key to your table is to list all the assignment feedback you received on the left and provide space on the right for you to fill in how you’d like to improve on that work for next time.

Brainstorm ways you can improve on the points your teacher wants you to improve on, and list all the ways you think you can do this. Aim also to link these changes to the next assessment, i.e: “In future assessments, I will…”

In this way, you’re turning feedback into feed-forward.

5. Find just Three Action Points (and One point for Praise)

Sometimes there’s too much feedback to handle. If you’re looking at a piece of paper with big red marks scribbled up and down the margins, I recommend finding just three key points that you think you can work on – and putting the rest aside for now.

Here are a few major ones to focus on in the beginning:

• Not enough referencing. If your teacher wrote this, it’s an easy one to fix – so start with it. I recommend reading my post on how to find scholarly sources to get started solving this issue.
• Add depth or be more critical. These two often mean the same thing. This is also one of the biggest pieces of assignment feedback teachers give. It’s really cryptic, so I’ve broken down how to address this issue in my post on how to show critical thinking in an essay.
• Write more clearly. Again, this a major one – which is why I formulated my perfect paragraph formula to help you out.

The trick with choosing action points is that you want to find ones that you think you have a realistic chance of working on.

If your negative feedback was on something specific to that previous class that you just finished, you’re better off focusing on the general feedback that you can put into action in the next course.

Remember to celebrate the Positives While you’re at it, note down one point of praise. Note down something you did well and give yourself a moment to congratulate yourself. Feel good about the fact that you had one little win even in a sea of negative feedback.

6. Forget about the Grade

Feedback and the grade need to be seen as two entirely separate points.

I recommend leaving the assignment feedback aside until you’ve come to terms with your grade. If you attach the feedback to the grade you’ll not be looking at it with clear eyes.

Teachers hate when students email them and say “why did I only get that grade?”

That’s totally the wrong question. This question instantly signifies to the teacher that all you care about is the mark and not whether or not you actually learned anything!

The right questions to ask your teacher are:

• Please explain the feedback
• Please explain one specific point in the feedback
• What advice do you have for improvement?

The next step examines approaching your teacher for feedback in a little more detail.

7. Go to your Teacher

Ensure you’ve left it for two days at least between reading the feedback the first time and contacting your teacher.

Then, email your teacher and either:

• Ask for a one-to-one discussion during open office hours or a convenient time; or
• Provide no more than three questions you want clarification on.

Asking for further details or clarification on feedback is your right. You paid a lot of money to do this degree – make the most of it.

I recommend no more than three questions. If you ask more than three questions in an email you’ll find your teacher gets vague and doesn’t cover all three of them at once. List the three questions in number format and ask the questions in full sentences.

To get the best response, it’s important not to seem defensive. Open the email with a thank you in recognition of their work in providing feedback in the first place. Then, ask the teacher to clarify each point.

You could ask:

• Whether they can point out specific points in your paper where the feedback is relevant to help you get a better understanding;
• To clarify their expectations for the next piece; or
• Ask for any tips on how to achieve their advice (is there a source they recommend that explains this idea they’ve presented to you in their feedback?)

I’ve provided an email for just this very purpose in my free email template booklet, which has email templates for any scenario:

If you’ve asked for a one-to-one discussion, make sure you print the assignment feedback and a copy of your paper when you attend the meeting. There’s nothing worse than a student who attends a meeting without questions and works to show.

8. Show your teacher how you used the feedback to Improve in the Next Assignment

This one’s the clincher. Literally, show them how you used their feedback. Put evidence that you used their feedback right under their nose. I recommend that you meet with the teacher before you submit your next piece and point out how you used their feedback.

When it comes time to show your teacher the draft for your next piece of work, come to the meeting with your table (see step 3) to show how you’ve taken their feedback into account.

Then, point out exactly where in your paper you’ve put their feedback into action.

Because you met with your teacher and showed them how you used their feedback, they will be primed and ready to recognize where and how you put their feedback into action when they mark your work.

If you don’t take the step of meeting with the teacher, there’s a good chance they won’t recognize all the effort you put into using their feedback.

Teachers give a lot of feedback – remember, they’ll probably have 40 to 100 other papers to mark just like yours. Your work gets lost in their memory amongst the jumble of other papers they read that one weekend six weeks ago.

Furthermore, meeting with your teacher to show them how you’ve used their feedback will go down really well in convincing them you’re worthy of top marks.

You’ll surely have gotten your teacher on your side and well and truly ready to give you top marks for your next piece of work.

9. List your Goals for next Term / Semester on a Post-It Note

University summer break is very, very long. We’re talking about up to three months of working, traveling, drinking, partying, or whatever else you have on your plate.

By the time you get back to university, you will likely have forgotten a lot of what you learned last semester.

One trick you should get into the habit of using is the post-it note reminder. All you need to do is list your three actionable goals from Step 5 and leave them on a post-it note on your desk for reflection next semester.

It’s so simple: a 2-minute task that will dramatically improve your chances of growing your grade next semester. It’ll get you back in the game and focused for next semester.

And it’ll remind you what your weaknesses are that you need to work on.

10. Keep your Assignment Feedback for Reflection

You should keep a folder on your computer (or in a drawer, if you’re still getting paper feedback) that has all your assignments and feedback kept in there.

In Step 8 I reinforced the importance of using assignment feedback semester-on-semester.

Even though the post-it trick in Week 8 is effective, it’s not quite enough.

You also need to dig deeper. You need to identify trends in your assignment feedback to see what your true weaknesses are.

If one teacher tells you your writing style is no good, that’s one thing. If five teachers in the past two years have told you your writing style needs work, then you’ve got yourself a real problem.

So, keep your assignment feedback and every now and then, go back to the stack of feedback and try to identify trends.

If you know your weaknesses, you’ll be able to work on them and turn them into strengths.

11. Be Humble.

In my experience, the angriest, obnoxious, self-assured students are often the ones who least deserve the top marks.

If I’m honest, I think I know the reason for this. These are the students who have dug themselves into their own delusions that they deserve the top marks because they’re talented .

The problem here is that these students lack a growth mindset . They never took assignment feedback on board and used it to improve. Ergo, they never improved.

Humility is a skill that will serve you well. Regularly, you are given feedback from teachers reinforcing the fact that your work – your mind – has faults. You’re not perfect. That sucks to hear, but it’s true!

Whenever you get assignment feedback, remember that this is the time for humility and good grace. Even if you disagree with your teacher, approach the situation with the recognition that you still have much to learn.

You might even find that being polite, humble, and genuine about your desire for help will endear you to your teacher and help you convince them to take it easier on you next time around.

12. Turn Negative Feedback into a Talking Point

At some point in your life you’re going to get this question in a job interview: “what is your biggest weakness?”

You can use teacher feedback to answer this question in a way that will move you to the top of the pile.

Your future boss is really asking you this:

• Are you aware of your faults?
• How do you address them?

There is a very easy formula for answering this question. It goes like this:

• Here’s a weakness a mentor identified;
• Here’s how I have worked to overcome it

If you’ve got a piece of feedback that occurs regularly, I recommend turning it into your talking point for showing how you have a growth mentality. Let people know what the weakness is, and what you’re doing to address it.

To really hit this point out of the park, you can give an indication of the progress you have made. Talk about how once you got feedback on your research or writing style (your weakness), and you actively addressed it by booking library workshop seminars.

After taking the seminars, you noticed your grades started to rise! You overcame a weakness!

13. Use the Internet to Improve on your Weaknesses

You’re here. You already took the first big step towards teaching yourself to use the internet.

Even if your teacher is a monster who gives totally useless assignment feedback and is impossible to understand, you still have the power to improve your marks.

Make the most out of free online resources. I’d recommend making it a part of your social media and internet downtime routine to browse around your favorite student support websites for little golden bits of information about how to improve your marks.

If you listen to ‘write more clearly’ as one of your three actionable goals in Point 5, then google “how to write more clearly”. It’s really that easy to get started!

Here are three types of online resources you can use to teach yourself:

• Blogs . Of course, I recommend my blog: Helpfulprofessor.com . But there’s more out there, like Scribendi.com and Grammar Girl that are really useful for learning how to increase your grades.
• Podcasts . My personal favorite resource that I have created is my podcast . I have so many students who don’t, particularly like reading blogs but are happy to listen to me explain my secret strategies for success. If you don’t like my podcast, try Marion Hegarty’s Grammar Girl podcast – it’s sublime.
• YouTube Videos . Use a YouTube search to learn anything you like – like how to paraphrase better, how to use quotes more effectively, or even simple study tips.

Using feedback for self-growth is a secret weapon of top students. While most students hate the frustration of bad assignment feedback and never want to look at it ever again, top students see it as another opportunity to get that little bit further ahead in their pursuit of an amazing degree.

Use your assignment feedback to fuel your desire for top marks.

In this article, I’ve recommended five strategies that top students use to get ahead using assignment feedback. These are:

How to Use Assignment Feedback to Improve your Grades

• Start with a Growth Mindset
• Figure out your Teacher’s Pet Peeves
• Read it. Then Forget it. For a while.
• Make a Table
• Find just Three Action Points (and One point for Praise)
• Forget about the Grade
• Go to your Teacher
• Show your teacher how you used the feedback to Improve in the Next Assignment
• List your Goals for the next Term / Semester on a Post-It Note
• Keep your Feedback for Reflection
• Turn Negative Feedback into a Talking Point
• Use the Internet to Improve on your Weaknesses

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 10 Reasons you’re Perpetually Single
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 20 Montessori Toddler Bedrooms (Design Inspiration)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 21 Montessori Homeschool Setups
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 101 Hidden Talents Examples

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• Writing Sample Feedback

Examples of Submission Feedback

The following are actual responses to some of our recent submissions to the Online Writing Lab, although the names have been changed to maintain the anonymity of student writers. You can expect similarly global-oriented comments and suggestions for developing your own work. Of course, length and type of feedback vary between individual tutors and between essay submissions.

Dear Rachel: I think you touch on some really nice ideas in this paper, which I'll talk about in a minute, but first I want to address one general concern I had about your writing. You have a tendency to spend too much time summarizing the plot--this is time when you could be advancing your argument. You don't need to tell your reader what happens in the story; you can assume that he or she already knows. For example, look at this paragraph: [...] Everything that I've noted with square brackets is plot summary. The sentence that begins "Feeling rejected, the creature wanders away..." is borderline because you're making a judgment about the creature's motivations, but in general you shouldn't spend time repeating the events of the story. The second part of this paragraph is much better in that you're talking about motivations and making arguments. I think you've got some really interesting ideas in this paper, particularly in your fifth and sixth paragraphs, but you need to expand upon them. For example, you might spend more time talking about Millhauser's rationale--WHY does he think the monster should have been presented as a brutal beast throughout? What would be lost in such a presentation? Why is it better that Shelley shows the monster in terms of growth and progression? You introduce this idea in your introduction, arguing that Shelley is deliberately playing with the reader's sympathies, for the monster and for Frankenstein. Could you say more about HOW she does this? What is the effect of the reader's divided sympathies? Where does the sympathy lie at the end of the book? Why might Shelley be interested in this? In general, what is the value of making the creature sympathetic? I hope you found some of the questions I've raised valuable. You've touched on some interesting issues in this paper, and there is definitely plenty of room for you to develop them even further. If you have any questions about anything I've said, or any further questions, please feel free to write back to me. Good luck with your paper and thank you for submitting to the OWL!

Mark, Thank you for submitting your paper to the OWL; I am a Political Science major and very much enjoyed reading it. Below you will find a few suggestions for how to strengthen your writing during the revision process. You wrote that your major concerns with your paper were "abstract prose" and "elementary points." I did not find your arguments to be too simplistic or "elementary," nor did your language seem too abstract. It did, however, lack clarity and definition at some points. Specifically, there are some concepts that you repeat throughout your paper but never define. One is the "republican role." It may be that your instructor discussed this idea at length in class, or that Machiavelli does in his Discourses on Livy, but there is no such discussion in your paper. A stronger paper would define the proper role of a leader in a republican state from the beginning. Some theoretical questions you may want to consider on this point include: what is the difference between a republican leader and a tyrannical leader? How can one distinguish between the two? Why is it important to prevent against tyranny? Is the leader subservient to the will of the people? Is the leader responsible to anyone? Where does the leader draw his power or right to govern from? What does it mean to "be subordinate to a republican role"? What qualities are valuable in a leader? Which ones are dangerous? It may be beneficial to read over your paper with a critical eye looking for vague concepts. What ideas do you reference but never fully explain? Do you take certain concepts for granted? If you find such problems, generating a list of questions to focus your idea (as above) can be a helpful exercise. There were two more areas I found especially lacking in definition: the concept of tyranny and a "short time in office." Thank you again for submitting your paper to the OWL. Your arguments are strong and I hope my comments will help to fine-tune your essay. Please feel free to e-mail me for further assistance or clarification. Good luck with your revisions!

Thanks for submitting your essay-I enjoyed reading it. I hope my comments help you in your revision process.

Your personal narrative is without a doubt at its best when you give vivid details of the day from your perspective, which is, as you describe, a very unique one. The "chalky taste" of the air, for instance, is a detail that really brings the scene to life.

You asked for help with structure, and I think the most sensible structure in this case is a chronological one. It's fine to start with a vivid scene to land the reader in the event, but then it makes sense to step back and tell the story as it happened. To help you accomplish this end, you might consider listing each of the major points you want to cover and then turning them into an outline. It might help, too, to think about the overall message you want to convey. Then make sure all of your details contribute to that message.

As for constructive comments, you never really explain why you were at Ground Zero on September 12. Do you just happen to live nearby? Did you have any special connection to the firefighters or the victims? Why did you decide to help out?

I would also be careful of the very general statements you use to sum up the essay, such as , "That day brought to my attention a side of humanity that had lay dormant in my mind. That moment in time showed me that people have the capacity to act unselfishly." It's best to convey your point through examples rather than summation-the old advice to "show not tell."

It takes a lot of courage to tackle in an essay the events of September 11 and the days following, but I think you have a great perspective, and the ability to look beyond the chaos to the details of the scene.

Feel free to write back as you revise this piece. I'd be glad to talk more about it.

Hello, Angela,

Your paper is coherent, well-organized, and very informative. You do a nice job of incorporating various theorists and applying their ideas to the phenomenon of AHANA. You also do a good job of considering "the opposing viewpoint" and introducing relevant arguments to substantiate your position.

One area I would suggest giving a little more attention to how exactly AHANA functions. You mention that the term was coined as an alternative to the more negative term "minority," and that the group exists to "promote understanding..." etc. But I still want to know more about HOW the group works to achieve their goals; do they sponsor events on campus? hold workshops? etc. You did an effective job of explaining the philosophy of the group, but I would be interested in seeing just a little bit more of how it works in action, so to speak.

The second point is that you might want to explain in greater detail how subjective experiences shape the need for a group such as AHANA. You mention that racial and cultural differences do exist and that the "differing perspectives caused by these distinctions exist regardless of whether they are acknowledged." This is a very integral part of your argument, so maybe developing it further would be helpful. I realize it's a very broad concept to try and condense within your paper, but focusing on explicating that part might be helpful. Overall, I think you have a very strong paper that seems to fulfill the parameters of the assignment quite well.

University of Notre Dame

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Teaching Strategies |

Giving Effective Feedback on Student Writing

Author: Amanda Leary

By focusing on providing quality, effective feedback, we can maximize its positive effects on learning—not only helping students become better writers, but better thinkers, with increased confidence and motivation to succeed.

Providing feedback is one of the most critical tasks of teaching. Well-balanced feedback, addressing both achievements and areas for improvement, can help students develop new skills, reinforce their learning, and boost their academic confidence. Ineffective feedback, however, can compound students’ low motivation and self-perception, hindering their development and learning (Wingate, 2010). Good feedback does much more than correct errors; it’s an opportunity to empower and affirm students as knowledge makers, to improve their self-awareness, and to develop strategies for improvement now and in their future work.

By focusing on providing quality, effective feedback, we can maximize its positive effects on learning—not only helping students become better writers, but better thinkers, with increased confidence and motivation to succeed. This doesn’t happen in a vacuum, however; feedback isn’t useful for students if they don’t understand or know how to incorporate it.

Deciding what and how much to comment on will depend on your particular disciplinary, class, and assignment context. The strategies below will help you determine what kind of feedback to give and when, as well as identify potential next steps for helping students actually use your feedback.

Preparing to Give Feedback

Before you ever read the first paper, there are a few key questions to ask yourself that can help save a lot of time and make your feedback more effective: 1) why are you giving feedback , and 2) what are you looking for? Let’s take these in turn.

Why are you giving feedback?

Depending on when in the writing process you’re providing students with feedback, your comments will serve different purposes. Just as assignments can be either formative or summative , so, too, can your feedback. Summative feedback addresses what students did well or poorly at one particular instance and is often used in evaluation to justify a grade, whereas formative feedback often answers, “What can I do to improve next time?” While formative feedback often aligns with formative assignments, such as drafts and other process work such as proposals and outlines, you can also provide formative feedback on final, summative assignments and vice versa. We often switch between these two types of feedback on a single assignment, so taking time to establish beforehand what the goal of giving feedback is will focus the kinds of comments you make. It might be helpful for students to use markers in your comments to clearly distinguish between “this time” and “next time” feedback.

Another way to distinguish the two is in your mindset toward the task of giving feedback: are you a coach or a grader? If you’re approaching student work with the sole purpose of attaching a grade, then your feedback is likely to be more summative—feeding back to the writing. The mindset of a reader, however, is more aligned with a developmental approach giving more formative feedback. Here, we might think more in terms of feeding forward —concentrating our attention on actionable steps students can take to continue to improve their writing.

What are you looking for?

Sometimes, the hardest part about giving feedback can be deciding where to start. We know good writing when we see it; however, articulating those features of good writing into clearly defined criteria for a successful assignment can help mitigate the feeling that you need to comment on every feature or correct every mistake you see. Providing these criteria to students in advance has demonstrable benefits for their learning and can improve the quality of their assignments (Brookhart, 2018). Criteria should be aligned with the goals you have for the assignment, the overall goals of your course, and targeted at students at the appropriate level (Hattie and Timperley, 2007).

As you’re developing your criteria, you may find it helpful to  prioritize your higher-order and lower-order concerns . Higher-order concerns will be more closely aligned with your goals for the assignment. For example, if you are providing feedback on a seminar paper, your higher-order concerns may be related to how well students demonstrated their understanding of a particular set of readings through a clearly articulated thesis and synthesis of primary and secondary sources. Lower-order concerns, such as sentence structure and grammar, would not feature as heavily in your feedback except where they affect the readability of the writing. However, if teaching specific writing skills was the primary focus of your class, your higher-order concerns might include sentence structure or grammatical understanding. Knowing what your priorities are for students’ writing before you sit down with the first assignment will keep your feedback targeted to your high-priority criteria rather than noting every little detail, resulting in fewer comments—which can be overwhelming for both you and students.

Taking the time to identify why you’re giving feedback and what your priorities are for students’ writing keeps your comments focused and relevant to students.

While You’re Responding to Student Work

Whether formative or summative, your feedback should be specific , actionable , focused on patterns , and balanced . The following tips will help you not only save time commenting, but will also ensure your comments are useful to students:

• Be specific: Simply underlining, using exclamation marks, or the infamous “awkward” doesn’t tell students anything about how to revise their essay. Highlight strengths and weaknesses in reference to specific passages and examples and offer concrete, actionable suggestions for improvement.
• Focus on action: If students don’t understand your comments, they can’t use them (Chanock, 2000; Lea and Steirer, 2000). We may know what periodic and loose sentences are, or maybe we wrote our dissertation on that niche author that would really round out a students’ discussion of a topic. Writing “comma splice” or “what about the kinematics of root growth” in the margins without explaining what that is or why it matters for their writing (especially if it isn’t connected to what you’ve taught in class) isn’t actionable feedback.
• Look for patterns: There are likely to be several mistakes repeated within and across students’ writing. Keep a comment back of feedback addressing common mechanical mistakes; rather than re-writing the same comment on every paper, you can note the first instance with an explanatory comment that applies across students. Over time, you might also develop a repository of recurring comments on more structural or content-based patterns, such as thesis development, structure and organization, or use of quotes and evidence. Having stock language on hand that you can then tailor to a student’s particular essay can help save time. Where you see the same mistake being repeated across student work, you can include a more general comment about the issue with a note that more information will be provided in class.
• Balance praise and critique: The most effective feedback contains a balance of challenge and support (Lizzio and Wilson, 2008). This doesn’t mean, however, that we should feel compelled to use the “feedback sandwich”: placing critical feedback between moments of praise. Students can recognize and discount token positive comments (Hyland and Hyland, 2001), so rather than sandwiching feedback, give valid criticism while offering encouragement, genuine appreciation for student writing, and belief in students’ ability to succeed.

Applying Feedback

Giving feedback is just one part of the process; it is equally important for students to be active participants if learning is to happen (Winstone et al., 2017). Depending on the context of your course, you might facilitate student engagement with feedback in class or through assignments that promote reflection on the writing process:

• Use class time to address feedback that applies to many students’ work. Provide instruction or resources for how students can integrate that feedback into their writing with an opportunity to practice.
• Where time allows, incorporate writing days into your course calendar as a dedicated opportunity for students to work through your feedback as they revise their assignments.
• Try a reflective feedback journal as a space for students to reflect on their immediate reactions to your comments and how they plan to address them. This could be done in class or as part of an ongoing journal throughout the course.
• Incorporate peer review as a mechanism for understanding feedback and to empower students to further self-assess their own work (McConlogue, 2020; Huisman et al., 2019).
• Add a brief metacognitive cover letter or memo to final assignments that asks students to reflect on how they incorporated feedback from rough to final draft.

Integrating these strategies into your practice will not only save you time, but help keep your feedback targeted, educative, and effective. Viewing feedback as a dialogic process that begins before you make your first comment and involves students as active recipients of that feedback is an important part of giving students comments they can—and actually want to—use.

Brookhart, Susan M. “Appropriate Criteria: Key to Effective Rubrics.” Frontiers in Education 3 (2018).

Chanock, Kate.  “Comments on Essays: Do Students Understand What Tutors Write?” Teaching in Higher Education 5, no. 1 (2000): 95–105.

Hattie, John, and Helen Timperley.  “The Power of Feedback.” Review of Educational Research 77, no. 1 (2007): 81–112.

Huisman, Bart, Nadira Saab, Paul van den Broek, and Jan van Driel.  “The Impact of Formative Peer Feedback on Higher Education Students' Academic Writing: a Meta-Analysis.” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 44, no. 6 (2019): 863–80.

Hyland, Fiona, and Ken Hyland.  “Sugaring the Pill: Praise and Criticism in Written Feedback.” Journal of Second Language Writing 10, no. 3 (2001): 185–212.

Lea, M. R. and Steirer, B. (eds).  Student Writing in Higher Education: New Contexts . Buckingham: Open University Press, 2000.

Lizzio, Alf, and Keithia Wilson.  “Feedback on Assessment: Students’ Perceptions of Quality and Effectiveness.” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 33, no. 3 (2008): 263–75.

McConlogue, Teresa.  Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education: A Guide for Teachers . UCL Press. 1st ed. London: UCL Press, 2020.

Wingate, Ursula.  “The Impact of Formative Feedback on the Development of Academic Writing.” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 35, no. 5 (2010): 519–33.

Winstone, Naomi E., Robert A. Nash, James Rowntree, and Michael Parker.  “‘It’d Be Useful, but I Wouldn’t Use It’: Barriers to University Students’ Feedback Seeking and Recipience.” Studies in Higher Education (Dorchester-on-Thames) 42, no. 11 (2017): 2026–41.

Princeton Writing Program

Sample Feedback - Student to Student

First of all, this is clearly a well-thought out and well-written essay. The first paragraph offers a strong hook, while at the same time providing important historical information. You transition smoothly into the second paragraph, which successfully sets up your thesis. I think your thesis is really three-pronged, and incorporates both the second-to-last sentence of the second paragraph, which you described as the sentence that explains your motive, and the last sentence in the paragraph. The second-to-last sentence brings in your argument about the relationship between Schlesinger’s and Kennan’s works. The last sentence takes this argument further with the suggestion that “democracy, not totalitarianism, is the real issue to be solved in the Cold War,” and then offers a solution: “the revitalization of the individual’s spirit” (Craig 4). In response to your expressed doubt regarding the strength and validity of your thesis, I think it is definitely a valid argument.

There are, however, a few places where I saw potential for improvement. In your cover letter, you explained your thought process in structuring your paper. After reading through the paper a few times, I realized that you could maybe rearrange, and slightly rework, some of your body paragraphs in order to make the development of your argument more logical and systematic. Your third paragraph is really strong; all of your points are well-supported, and your quotes are sufficiently analyzed. But I feel like a smoother transition could be made between this paragraph and your fifth body paragraph. Your third paragraph discusses democracy’s inherent flaws, and how these flaws lead to anxiety, which “creates the greatest draw to the totalitarian state” (Craig 4). It seems to me like this paragraph leads perfectly into your argument that the failure of democracy “has had dire consequences for the human race” (Craig 5). This paragraph serves to further develop the point you make in the third paragraph, and to bring in different angles of this point. The fifth paragraph transitions directly into your sixth paragraph, in which you explain totalitarianism as the “new alternative” (Craig 6). (By the way, I really liked the last sentence of this paragraph—“The very creation of the totalitarian state is evidence enough…”). Then , I see a logical transition between your sixth paragraph and your fourth paragraph; after talking about the failure of democracy, and how this has lead people to seek security in the “new alternative,” it makes sense to discuss how totalitarianism (the “new alternative”) “fail[s] to solve these very same problems” (Craig 4). Because you wrote in a different order, the fourth paragraph obviously doesn’t flow well into the seventh paragraph, but I think with a few additional sentences, you could make a successful transition from the fourth paragraph into the seventh (which beings the end segment of your paper, addressing the third prong of your thesis).

You also mentioned in your cover letter that you were worried it may seem like you repeat yourself. I don’t think you do (except maybe slight overuse of the word anxiety in the first few paragraphs), but I think you could maybe condense the end of your essay by incorporating the points you make in your eight paragraph into your seventh paragraph, instead of separating them into different paragraphs. You introduce your eight paragraph with a reference back to Kennan’s writing, which seemed somewhat out of place and disruptive of the flow of the argument. I realize that you’re trying to engage with both Kennan’s and Schlesinger’s texts, but maybe you could cut out some of the analysis of “The Long Telegram” in this segment, and just discuss Schlesinger’s deeper analysis of the task at hand—“breathing new life into the spirit of democratic man” (Craig 8). Basically, this section (the seventh and eighth paragraphs) was the only point at which I felt like you were repeating similar points unnecessarily, and making some points, particularly regarding Kennan’s argument, that didn’t seem to contribute to your thesis.

Lastly, after what I saw as a generally strong and logically developed argument, I didn’t think your conclusion managed to successfully solidify your thesis. It becomes slightly unclear whether you’re claiming that Schlesinger believes that “the key difference between totalitarian nations and democratic ones lies in the soul of their people” (Craig 9), or you’re expressing your own opinion. For example, I really like the way you worded this: “the democratic man will die for what he believes in, while the totalitarian man will be killed for disbelief” (Craig 9)—but whose voice is this? Your thesis clearly states Schlesinger’s implications in his writing, not your own understanding of the failure of democracy and the “new alternative”; however, doesn’t drive this point home, and your final point seems too personal and slightly out of place.

Sorry if this response is filled with confusing and/or overwhelming advice. I really enjoyed reading your paper; it made me think about these complex issues in a new light. I had so much to say about your writing because I found your argument, and the way in which you approached it, really thought-provoking and interesting (not because I found significant fault with it). Hopefully I didn’t just add more confusion, and good luck revising!

How to Give Positive Feedback on Student Writing

If your corrective feedback is very detailed but your positive comments are quick and vague, you may appreciate this advice from teachers across the country.

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“Nice work.” “Great job.” “Powerful sentence.” Even though I knew they wouldn’t mean much to students, these vague and ineffective comments made their way into my writing feedback recently. As I watched myself typing them, I knew I was in a rut. My critical comments, on the other hand, were lengthy and detailed. Suggestions and corrections abounded. I realized that I was focused too much on correcting student work and not enough on the goal of giving rich positive feedback.

As a writer, I know how hard it is when the negative feedback outweighs the positive. We all have things to work on, but focusing only on what to fix makes it hard to feel that our skills are seen and appreciated. My students put so much work into their writing, and they deserve more than my two-word positive sentences.

I wanted out of the rut, so I turned to my favorite professional network—teacher Twitter—and asked for help . “What are your favorite positive comments to make about student writing?” I asked. Here are some of the amazing responses and the themes that emerged from more than 100 replies from teachers.

Give a Window Into Your Experience as the Reader

Students typically can’t see us while we’re experiencing their writing. One genre of powerful positive comments: insights that help students understand how we responded as readers. Teacher Amy Ludwig VanDerwater  shared these sentence stems, explaining that “commenting on our reading experience before the craft of writing is a gift”:

• This part really moved me.
• I laughed out loud when I read this line.
• Your writing makes me think...
• You opened up a door in my mind.
• Now I am questioning...
• Now I am connecting to...
• Now I am remembering...

On a similar note, Virginia S. Wood  shared: “I will tell them if I smiled, laughed, nodded my head, pumped my fist while reading their work, and I’ll tell them exactly where and why.”

I used Wood’s advice recently when I looked through a student’s project draft that delighted me. I wrote to her, “I have the biggest smile on my face right now. This is such an awesome start.”

Giving students insight into our experience as readers helps to connect the social and emotional elements of writing. Positive comments highlighting our reading experience can encourage students to think about their audience more intentionally as they write.

Recognize Author’s Craft and Choices

Effective feedback can also honor a student’s voice and skills as a writer. Pointing out the choices and writing moves that students make helps them feel that we see and value their efforts. Joel Garza shared, “I avoid ‘I’ statements, which can seem more like a brag about my reading than about their writing.” Garza recommends using “you” statements instead, such as “You crafted X effect so smoothly by...” or “You navigate this topic in such an engaging way, especially by...” and “You chose the perfect tone for this topic because...”

Similarly, seventh-grade teacher Jennifer Leung suggested pointing out these moments in this way: “Skillful example of/use of (transition, example, grammatical structure).” This can also help to reinforce terms, concepts, and writing moves that we go over in class.

Rebekah O’Dell , coauthor of A Teacher’s Guide to Mentor Texts , gave these examples of how we might invoke mentor texts in our feedback:

• “What you’re doing here reminds me of (insert mentor text)...”
• “I see you doing what (insert mentor writer) does...”

O’Dell’s advice reinforced the link between reading and writing. Thinking of these skills together helps us set up feedback loops. For example, after a recent close reading activity, I asked students to name one lesson they had learned from the mentor text that they could apply to their own writing. Next time I give writing feedback, I can highlight the places where I see students using these lessons.

Another teacher, Grete Howland , offered a nonjudgmental word choice. “I like to use the word ‘effective’ and then point out, as specifically as I can, why I found something effective. I feel like this steers away from ‘good’/‘bad’ and other somewhat meaningless judgments, and it focuses more on writing as an exchange with a reader.”

Celebrate Growth

Positive feedback supports student progress. Think of positive comments as a boost of momentum that can help students continue to build their identity as writers. Kelly Frazee  recommended finding specific examples to help demonstrate growth, as in “This part shows me that you have improved with [insert skill] because compared to last time…” As teachers, we often notice growth in ways that our students may not recognize about themselves. Drawing out specific evidence of growth can help students see their own progress.

Finally, I love this idea from Susan Santone , an instructor at the University of Michigan: When students really knock it out of the park, let them know. Santone suggested, “When my students (college level) nail something profound in a single sentence, I write ‘Tweet!’ ‘Put this onto a T-shirt!’ or ‘Frame this and hang it on a wall!’—in other words, keep it and share it!”

These ideas are all great starting points for giving students meaningful positive feedback on their writing. I’ve already started to use some of them, and I’ve noticed how much richer my feedback is when positive and constructive comments are equally detailed. I’m looking forward to seeing how these shifts propel student writing. Consider trying out one of these strategies with your students’ next drafts.

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How to Provide Mastery-Oriented Feedback (With Examples)

Let’s get down to the brass tacks of mastery-oriented feedback .  What does it mean in practice?

However, if we rethink our process, add mastery-oriented feedback (MOF), and have our students reflect on and revise their work with the feedback, we can help our students learn from the assignment, providing more satisfaction for you in the process.  Ok.  I know, an elephant has just entered the room, and we need to discuss it.  You are already thinking about how you can possibly find any extra time to do anything more. So, let’s talk about that before we talk about the MOF. Yes, this will take extra time to get your head around this, and yes, it will increase the time it takes to assess student work. But, it will pay you back when you see that the students are learning more and you start to move through your lessons a little faster because of the stronger learning foundation that you have created. So, while you are learning this new process, feel free to reduce the number of assignments you actually assess.  Go over the assignments in class with the students.  Have the students self-assess and self-reflect more as you go over the answers.  Give MOF verbally and support students in the process of achieving the goals of the lesson.  Do more formative assessments.  In short, reduce the quantity so that you can increase the quality of your feedback.

Now, let’s talk about the process of MOF. 

Set Up For Success

MOF is much easier to provide when you design the assessment or assignment with goals and clear outcomes that match the lesson! It will give you a foundation and a standard to evaluate. It helps to make the process more objective instead of subjective as well. 

MOF starts way before you review student work.  It starts at the beginning of your lesson planning when you develop the goals and objectives of your lesson. These goals and objectives should be aligned with the state standards and/or the curriculum.  They also need to be S.M.A.R.T. and be written in user-friendly language that meets the needs of your students.  Setting up S.M.A.R.T. goals sets goals and objectives that your student can understand and that you can use to evaluate the student's work.  It removes the guesswork.  It also gives you the ability to decide upon the options and choices that you can offer that align with your firm goals.  I would suggest that you choose assessments that do not require only one answer or, if that is unavoidable, that you ask students for their reasons for choosing their answer.

MOF continues during the delivery of the lesson as you provide explicit instruction and reinforce the goals and objectives in multiple ways and give your students opportunities to practice the topics, self-reflect on their progress, self-assess their work and try again if they haven’t achieved the goals and objectives or move on to the next step if they have.  Providing options and choices to your students will help them overcome any barriers that they may encounter along the way. 

Kicking Off the Assessment

When the students are ready (notice that I didn’t say when you are!), you can provide them with more formalized assessments.  Encourage students to review the assignment/quiz/exam/project and to ask you any questions about things they don’t understand before they start. Then let them do the work.  When they are done, collect the work and if possible, review the assignment with the students in a side-by-side assessment to ensure everything is complete. This is also an incredible opportunity to ask students to reflect on how they did. Next, within a day or two (the quicker, the better), assess student work.  Before you begin this process, review the goals and objectives one more time and then do a quick review of all the submitted work to see if there were any big misconceptions, misunderstandings, or confusion and get your “arms” around the task.  Be sure to note any delivery issues that arise so that you can revise the assignment for the next time.

Review and Feedback

As you assess each student submission:

•  If students meet or exceed standards, give positive reinforcement. For example,  “I like how you figured this out and came up with your own process to solve the problem,” “I like how you connected the concepts….” Ask questions like “how would you do this if….”? And "what was your process for learning how to do this?"  It is ok if you want to add global comments to the top of the assignment that congratulates the student on a “job well done” or “keep up the good work,” but avoid comments like “you are so smart” or “you got 98 out of 100!”.
• If students are not yet meeting standards, tell them where their work is incorrect or needs improvement and encourage the student to keep trying by reviewing a particular resource that you used in the lesson or offer them a strategy for looking at the question or solving the problem.  Be specific. Use this as a “teaching moment” to help the student learn the concept.  Then, give them an opportunity to revise before you post a grade.  Help them succeed.

You don’t have to do all this by writing comments on the page. You could do this one-on-one with each student, or you could record an audio or video (screencast) that reviews the assignment and then send it to the student. Alternatively, you could do a full class review and then meet with small groups of students in a station rotation.  This will give you time to “encourage perseverance, focus on the development of efficacy and self-awareness” (CAST) and reinforce the objectives and goals of the lesson so that students will know what they achieved or what they need to continue to work on.  This would also be a good time to do a “my favorite wrong answer” to highlight that we all make mistakes and that making mistakes is part of the learning process to destigmatize any wrong answers.

Examples of Mastery-Oriented Feedback

The following examples are from a variety of subjects in a few grades.  We have added MOF to each example. All samples have been made anonymous and are used with permission.  Each sample is linked to a video review of the feedback and a Padlet.  Choose whichever samples interest you.

4th Grade Writing Sample (Special Education):   Padlet | Video 

4th Grade End of Unit Self-Assessment: Padlet | Video 

5th Grade Mathematics:   Padlet | Video 

5th Grade Science:   Padlet | Video

HS English:   Padlet | Video

Learn More:

• How to Universally Design Grading
• Take a self-paced course on standards-based grading
• Go beyond the letter grade - A step-by-step overview of mastery-oriented feedback

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