Best Practices to Use When Providing Feedback on Writing Assignments

Shane Cronin
Shane Cronin
  • Updated

As a rule for Upswing, when providing asynchronous feedback on a writing assignment or during a synchronous tutorial session, you should prioritize Higher Order Concerns (HOC's) in your feedback to students.

Higher Order Concerns (HOC's) are defined by Purdue OWL as "big picture" elements such as thesis or focus, audience and purpose, organization, and development. Lower Order Concerns (LOC's) include errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.

When providing feedback to a student, it's best to address the more important HOC's. However, if a student's work has an overwhelming amount of LOC's that negatively affect the readability of the paper, the LOC's should be addressed.

Please see the table below to get a better understanding of the differences between HOC's and LOC's:

Higher Order Concerns (HOC’s) Lower Order Concerns (LOC’s)

● Thesis statement/main idea

● Topic sentences

● Concluding sentences

● Clarity of ideas

● Clear alignment of ideas throughout the paper

● Correctly/naturally introducing and embedding quotes/evidence

● Supporting claims with evidence

● Using clear academic voice/language

● Overall organization and cohesion

● Citations (MLA/APA formatting)

● Compliance with the rubric/assignment guidelines (if attached)

● Spelling/Capitalization 

● Grammar/Punctuation 

● One off errors 


*Note: LOC’s should be addressed if they repeat or are overwhelming readability.  

 

Helpful Writing Resources For Tutors:

Related to

Was this article helpful?

/

Comments

0 comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.