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CPD workshop: giving effective feedback on writing

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How much and what kind of feedback helps students most? What helps them the least? And how much feedback is effective? How can we as tutors give adequate feedback on writing to enhance learning without burning out? This workshop looks at how to give effective personalised feedback to students.

We will explore and discuss the different rhetorical moves feedback-givers can use and their impact on the student, how to target priority concerns to increase the chances of uptake, the pros and cons of face-to-face and written feedback, and how to balance constructive criticism and encouragement. The workshop will focus on how to respond to some student writing samples. Although the workshop was developed to help with feedback on writing, much of what is discussed will be relevant to giving feedback for other types of student output.

Intended learning outcomes
In participating in this CPD activity, you will be able to:

  • provide helpful feedback to students on their assignments or academic performance,
  • balance encouragement and constructive criticism so that students feel motivated to improve,
  • prioritise student needs so that feedback is manageable and time effective,
  • make appropriate decisions about the medium you use to give feedback,
  • focus more on feedforward (lessons for the future) than on the current product.

About the trainer
John Harbord is an Academic Writing Advisor at FASoS and a FASoS Assessment Support Team member. He has some 25 years of experience in giving feedback on student writing and training academic staff to give effective feedback. He also provides student workshops on how to give effective peer feedback and use and learn from feedback received.

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