East Carolina University
Writing Program
Lightening Your Feedback Load
Breaking Down Concepts of Writing Assessment
Assessing writing refers to looking at texts to see what’s working or not independently of giving a grade or
test. Assessing student-writing focuses on the writing itself rather than the student. Being able to assess
writing well is an important part of being able to write well. To assess student writing, we must look what
linguistic and rhetorical targets set and how close she has come to satisfying those goals.
Responding to writing includes description, evaluation, and communicating. Because writing in a formal sense
involves an audience, learning to write involves learning to think about who the audience is for a specific piece
and what they need to make sense of what it is we are writing. Crafting a help response to writing requires
that we think about what the writer is trying to do at a particular moment in the text and in the process of
writing along with deciding what items of response will be the most helpful for that individual at that time.
Research on responding to student writing has told us that students often do not understand what it is
teachers are trying to tell them about their writing, so it is crucial that we make what we are trying to
communicative as clear as possible. This requires that we heed out own teacherly advice about the important
of considering our audience. Asking ourselves questions like what is it this student-writer needs to learn to
make this writing better? can be a good place to start.
Assessments that focus on the student’s writing can be an important way to teach, since good writers have a
well their writing achieved certain goals. When we focus assessment on a student text and involve students in
evaluation, we can also help a student learn to learn to evaluate her own writing and help her as a writer.
Learning to assess others’ writing is helpful to learning to assess your own writing.
Formative vs. Summative Assessment
Formative assessment occurs while the student is still working on a piece of writing and can use the
assessment to improve the writing itself. The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to
provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to
improve their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:
1. help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work
2. help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately
Writing to learn activities are an example of low-stake writing that provides opportunities for formative
assessment.
Summative assessment is used to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it
against some standard, benchmark, or outcome. These assessments are often high-stakes, with a significant
effect on a student’s final grade. Information from summative assessments can be used formatively when
students or faculty use it to guide their efforts and activities in subsequent courses.
The Conference on College Composition and Communication provides a position statement on writing
assessment that is useful across the curriculum.
East Carolina University
Writing Program
Bless, Address, or Press
Articulation of clear expectations about the type of feedback a writer provides structure and ideas of where
the writer may be in their process. Bless, Address, or Press offers language for such articulation.
When writers ask for
bless, it indicates they
When writers ask for
address, it indicates they
When writers ask for press,
it indicates they
 Are not quite ready
for a full blown
critique of your work
 Share writing that is
more reflective or
highly personal
 Share writing that
you do not plan to
develop into a
polished piece
 Share a piece that is
just for fun or
inspiration
 Have a specific areas of
concern
 Need suggestions for
where to go with the
piece
 Have a strong piece of
writing they think is a
final draft
 Are ready to accept and
understand suggestions
made by others about
their work
Effective Feedback
When examining the characteristics of courses respected most and considered effective by undergraduate
students, a study performed at Harvard University by Professor Richard Light (1990) found that three primary
features were shared among these courses. The first of these concerns the rapidity with which instructors
offer students feedback on work done for the course. Students found that fast feedback helped work become
a far better learning experience. Students also suggested having immediate feedback; a professor could give
examples of correct responses as soon as an assignment is turned in.
The second feature of effective courses Light found is early and frequent feedback. Students stated that
better learning takes place when they are able to hand in an early draft of an assignment and get feedback
before handing in their finished product, an equation that applies more aptly to courses heavy in writing
rather than in the math and sciences courses.
The third feature is closely related to feedback as well. Light explains that students feel that they learn best
with frequent evaluation, rather than simply through a midterm and a final. Frequent evaluation serves as
another kind of feedback to help the student become aware of what they do and do not understand. In
concluding these observations, Light also notes that these results parallel those obtained at other institutions,
implying that they are applicable outside of Harvard University.