Examples of Feedback on Student
Writing - Guide 2021
This is a handout that I give to my students in the introductory linguistics course I TA for as part of their in-
class midterm exam. They are asked to combine/rearrange some parts and add examples about themselves,
which they usually prefer doing because it seems more like writing an essay or essay writer than filling out a
"bubble sheet".
Students conclude with two effective strategies: (1) providing some examples of their own, when applicable,
and (2) analyzing successfully written feedback on assignments that they have received previously. This
allows them to illustrate what effective feedback may look like, while also revealing how feedback should not
be addressed.
Example 1: A short list of negative comments followed by one positive comment.
The following is an example of how easy it is to write a bad comment, and while the author did not intend
this, negative comments can be discouraging if they are not supplemented with helpful ones. These types of
comments would be particularly harmful coming from someone who does not know or understand your
writing style.