LING 402 - ACADEMIC DISCOURSE PRACTICES: A critical approach

1. LING 402 - ACADEMIC DISCOURSE PRACTICES: A critical approach Term 2 Week 3 Making use of feedback on writing

2. Task 1 • What is the function of feedback? Write down your ideas.

3. Task 2 On the handout are some extracts from three reviews I received in response to a report I had worked on. 1) look at the extracts and reflect on what you think my initial reaction to each review and each comment might have been. What was my immediate emotional response? 2) Then try to categorise the responses. You decide what the categories should be.

4. Task 3 Now divide the reviewers’ comments into a) those that are specific to this piece of work. and b) those that might be of more generic help to me i.e. things I should consider in my future work, those that are not specific to this piece of work

5. Your responses to Tania’s feedback • Emotions • You didn’t take account of the word limit! • Annoyed that the reviewer didn’t understand what we were doing, • Appreciative of Reviewer 3’s consideration of our feelings, • Frustrated and confused over the contradiction between comments, • Good to have someone to tell us which comments to follow, and which not, • A bit dejected after all the hard work, • Recognising it is ONLY ADVICE – and some of it might not be useful! • The value of sharing – talking it through with someone else, • Stung by realising, in all honesty, that some of the criticisms are justified.

6. Your responses to Tania’s feedback • Categories for feedback • Style-related: can be used in future writing • Picking out disjointedness, inconsistencies • Structure • Number of quotes • Content-related: specific to this report • Things you should have put in • Positive / Negative • Evaluating the writing / Evaluating the writer

7. A Referee’s Recommendation • OVERALL RECOMMENDATION (please tick the appropriate box, by using ‘insert’, ‘symbol’) • Accept • Accept with minor revisions as specified below • √ Reject but return for major revisions as specified below • Reject

8. … and feedback The paper is a fascinating and important discussion of a fundamental issue for educators - especially in the FE sector. …. However, the paper needs some substantial revision to give it a clearer purpose and direction. Suggestions for achieving this as follows: • …. the authors need to reference more closely some of their key claims at the front end (moral panic, fear of masses, hierarchies of taste) and may also find it helpful to make direct reference to the cultural studies arguments (Arnold? Bourdieu? Hall?)…. • The paper is very good on explaining the difference between literacy practices within and those beyond FE. However, it is less convincing with regard to why this is the case, and why something needs to be done about it, or what assists or hampers tutors once they have decided to do something about it. …. How does it sit with current debates about the status and worth of various academic and vocational credentials? Did the cross section of 30 courses offer any comparative insight along these lines? • The material on generalisation around pp 7-8 is good, but given what is claimed at the end of the paper about the applicability of insights across many settings, there is room for a bolder, less apologetic assertion about the kind of findings onecan get from case study. An excellent source is Flyvbjerg in Qualitative Inquiry, 2006.

9. FEEDBACK

10. FEEDBACK: Seeing how the reader reacted

11. FEEDBACK: Seeing how the reader reacted

12. FEEDBACK: Seeing how the reader reacted Considering the reader

13. Feedback: Seeing how the reader reacted • The feedback shows how your reader reacted to your assignment: whether s/he understood what you were saying, and whether s/he thought well of it; • You can use the feedback to assess where you succeeded in making the reader’s task of understanding as easy as possible; and pleasing the reader; and where you didn’t succeed in this. • You can use the feedback to help you to get better at ‘considering the reader’ in the future: what will you need to do in your NEXT assignment to make sure the reader’s response is the way you want it to be.

14. Getting feedback ‘during’, not ‘after’ by asking a friend to read your writing and let you know how they react to it. [ The alternative is to wait for tutor feedback …. ]

15. Functions of Feedback • Explain the grade in terms of strengths and weaknesses; • Correct any faults in the assignment; • Evaluate the match between the paper and ‘ideal’ assignment; • Engage in a dialogue with the author; • Give advice on improving this assignment; • Give advice which will be useful for writing a future assignment. • Others? ……..

16. Functions of Feedback • Any others? ……

17. Using feedback • Talk the feedback over with your tutors and/or a fellow student in order to • Make sure you know what the tutor means • Develop and build on what you have done • If the feedback includes questions, go and see the tutor in her/his office hour to discuss them • For each bit of feedback, make a note of what to do the same or differently in future assignments

18. Task 4 • Look at your own feedback. Look for examples of specific and generic points – as we did in the previous task. • Be prepared to share with the class one thing you learnt from your feedback which you will bear in mind in your future writing.

19. Advice for the future • Need to support points; not overgeneralise; • Don’t assume anything is common knowledge; • Avoid informal usage, e.g. ‘totally’; • Don’t just list features, but explain each more deeply than you thought; • When you cite, discuss it and take up a positive or negative stance towards it; • Use summaries of sevel sources; • Remember it is ONLY ADVICE; • Include more signposting, even with sub-headings; • Don’t over-simplify, or over-complicate: go for the heart of the point

20. Advice for the future • Give tables and figures a number and title / caption; • Clarify how you interpret the data • Do use examples from own context – with analysis; • Re-read before handing in to check structure of paragraphs; • Explain things more deeply; • Don’t just quote, but show that you understand it, and have a view on it; • Show where ideas come from – maybe beyond the actual quote or reference; • Use examples to show understanding, and to provide depth; • Don’t use any words you don’t need

21. Discussion • Any changes in perspective? • Any insights?

22. ACTION PLANS

23. Next week: • What help do you want with writing your dissertation proposals? • Bring what you have done so far