Phrasing Feedback to Improve Students' Writing in a Large First-Year Humanities Course

Authors

Mairi Cowan, University of Toronto MississaugaFollow
Tyler Evans-Tokaryk, University of Toronto MississaugaFollow
Abdullah Farooqi, University of Toronto MississaugaFollow
Michael Kaler, University of Toronto MississaugaFollow
Allison Graham, University of Toronto MississaugaFollow

Abstract

On a revise-and-resubmit assignment in a large introductory History course, students were provided with feedback that was phrased either as questions, statements, or imperatives. This study examines which form was most likely to lead to improvement in the students’ writing. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to analyze a data set comprising 669 individual pieces of feedback on 67 sets of papers. Researchers found that, overall, students were most likely to implement feedback phrased as imperatives and least likely to implement feedback phrased as questions, and that the likelihood shifted somewhat depending on which aspect of writing was being commented upon; the extent of change required; the students’ past performance in the course; and the person providing the feedback.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Cowan, Mairi; Evans-Tokaryk, Tyler; Farooqi, Abdullah; Kaler, Michael; and Graham, Allison (2021) "Phrasing Feedback to Improve Students' Writing in a Large First-Year Humanities Course," International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 15: No. 2, Article 15.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2021.150215