Reading and engaging assignment feedback

On a different resource page about understanding grades and grading (click to open in new tab), I offer some brief context about grading and feedback. One of the takeaways from that page is that graders often have very little time to grade, and that this often influences the feedback they provide. This page continues from there, but can be read on its own. In what follows, I share some recommendations for engaging with feedback. A handful of students have told me that working through these questions and resources has changed how they read and engage with feedback. My hope is it might offer the same to you.

If you want to take this as a serious exercise, I would recommend you spend a semester answering these reflection questions for each assignment you get feedback on, building a feedback journal, and tracking your feedback and progress. More minimally, you can skim this list of questions before opening up your next set of feedback, and see if the following changes your impression of that feedback, or at least helps think about how to use that feedback. Alternatively, if you don’t have recent feedback, go back to a previous assignment where the feedback was puzzling.

On this page (click to automatically scroll down)

Helpful assumptions for reading feedback
Reflection questions for reading and engaging feedback
Making “SMART” plans
Keeping a feedback journal

First, some helpful assumptions for reading feedback:

Note that these are useful assumptions, and they will not at all hold true for every piece of feedback. After all, sometimes we just get a grader who doesn’t want to be grading, and whose feedback reflects this. And other times, constraints on grading time will further limit what’s possible for a grader to do. Nonetheless, holding these assumptions in mind can help us to read feedback more charitably, and with more kindness to ourselves, especially if you’re one of those people for whom receiving feedback is hard!

Assume your grader is trying to be supportive and helpful. If their phrasing is not kind or generous, this can often be a consequence of (a) having very limited time to write feedback, and (b) the mere fact that it’s difficult to convey tone in writing. This can be difficult to read through, especially if the writing seems stern, or short and to the point. I have sometimes had students express to me they though their TA hated their essays, when I know for a fact that the TA thought positively of their specific work. One way to read feedback more charitably, and to make it easier to read through any particular tone, is choosing to assume that your grader is trying to be helpful. Whether or not this assumption is correct, students have suggested that this assumption helps put them in a more receptive place, and to interpret and engage feedback in ways that are more fruitful to our development.
Assume all feedback serves a learning purpose. Related to the above: assume that the grader, in their limited grading time, thought it was important enough to leave you any given note, and that they did so because they thought it would somehow be helpful in this course or others (see questions below). This does not mean that all feedback will be equally important or have an equal impact on your grade or progress, just that it was likely worth writing in the first place, and so has some learning goal as its motivation. See below for reflection questions to this end.
Assume your grader is commenting “in character” as your intended audience. Your assignments will have a target audience, and ideally your instructor and instructions will specify this audience. A paper will look different if you are writing to an audience of course peers or experts than if you are writing to a general audience. In the latter, you’ll need to define terms more precisely. When grading, we’re typically grading with that given audience in mind, along with other assignment goals. So, if I receive feedback that a sentence is “unclear,” or get a question “what does this mean?” or “so what?” etc that I thought was obvious, these don’t mean that my grader didn’t get it or couldn’t figure out my intentions or that it wasn’t obvious to them as a grader. Rather, it means that the intended audience probably wouldn’t be able to make the connection on their own.
Assume the grader is commenting on the assignment, not you. Any grader worth their salt knows that students are not their assignments. Still, sometimes in our hasty writing, that awareness isn’t well communicated. So, our feedback can sometimes seem like a targeted attack or comment on you as a person. For example, sometimes we will use “you” language, ascribing errors or mistakes to the person rather than the submission, because of habit or just because it’s quick: “You didn’t do X…” or “You failed to do X…” or “Your objection is weak because…” I advise that graders avoid this language generally, but it’s often a consequence of limited time and habit. If you see these types of phrases, assume they are just standing in for the longer phrase “Your assignment does not currently do X…” etc. In the very least, making this assumption can help read the feedback more charitably, and avoid the feeling of being “attacked” by feedback that some students describe.
Assume your feedback is separable from your grade. Not all feedback will necessarily impact your grade on a given assignment, and not everything that impacts your grade will necessarily receive feedback. The former is true because we might have different feedback priorities, such as setting you up for success on your next assignment or future courses where something will count toward your grade that does not here. Meanwhile, a stray typo or two is unlikely to impact your final grade significantly, but is nonetheless worth identifying for editing purposes. The latter is true because we simply do not have enough time to comment on everything that affected your grade. This small reframing helps us pay attention to the feedback itself, rather than automatically being concerned about how it impacted our grade: to focus on improvement rather than grades alone. (Of course, if the feedback and grade seem in tension, ask your grader about it! But it is important to engage feedback on its own terms too).

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Some reflection questions to help read and engage feedback:

I recommend that you practice working through these questions on your own, and then to bring them to your grader. They are meant not only to help us understand feedback, but also to think about what to do with that feedback. If you want to add another level to this reflection, ask why these questions are themselves valuable. For example, what’s useful about trying to anticipate feedback before you read it?

Planning to read: when, where, how: When and where do I usually like to read feedback? When am I most comfortable and ready to engage with feedback? Does it help me or hinder me to review my grade before my feedback? Are there people I can discuss my feedback with or turn to for perspective, such as classmates, roommates, family, or friends? Would it help my anxieties or emotions to have someone I trust read the feedback first? Do I need to read this feedback as soon as t is returned? Will it help me or hinder me to reread the submission in full before reading the feedback? What other resources or supports do I need in order to read this feedback charitably and with kindness to myself, to learn from it and to build from it?
Anticipating feedback: Before reading the grader’s feedback, what feedback would I have given myself that I can anticipate? What did I consider the strengths of my submission? What did I think I was missing, or were otherwise areas for improvement? If I re-read my submission with the rubric or instructions in mind, what stands out as possibly missing or in need of improvement (and which I might have missed at the time of submission)? How does anticipating that feedback now feel different, if at all, from the feedback I might have anticipated a week or two ago when I submitted the assignment?
Identifying key feedback items: Which items of feedback that I received are most important to me, to the assignment goals or rubric, and to the grader? If the answers seem different for each of these, what do those differences tell me about my own interpretation of assignment goals? What might they tell me about how my goals fit into the course expectations? If I had to pick just one piece of feedback to build on, which would this be and why? If I were grading this assignment and could only give one piece of feedback, what would I say and why? How do these answers connect to or differ from the answers I gave to the anticipating feedback questions?
Identifying carry-over feedback: Was there feedback on previous assignments that could apply to this assignment, even if the grader did not include it (perhaps to avoid repetition, because of limited grading time)? Were there obvious items from the instructions, rubric, or in-class discussions that I should be aware of, and that the grader might have left out as too “obvious” to mention (even if it is not necessarily obvious to me)? Did the instructor share group feedback in class or in an announcement that might have applied to me, and which the grader left aside for time? What feedback was I expecting that I did not receive? What does this tell me about my feedback expectations? What does this tell me about how I self-grade my work, or what I focus on when editing?
Connecting to current requirements: How do the feedback items connect to the assignment instructions or rubric? If there is feedback that seems disconnected from the assignment instructions or rubric, is there a way I could understand this as connected? If not, what might this be telling me about developing my skills beyond this specific assignment?
Connecting to previous assignments: How does this feedback connect to previous feedback I’ve received in this course or other courses? Can I look back at former feedback for context or similar remarks? How do they help clarify repeated mistakes or areas for improvement? How might this feedback also apply to previous assignments? Are there significant differences between the feedback I received this time and what I’ve received previously? If so, what might that tell me about my own changing practices, or about the differences between assignment expectations across assignments or courses? What had I tried to change in response to that previous feedback, and how well does that show in this case?
Connecting to future assignments: How does this feedback connect to the instructions and expectations for my next assignment? Which feedback will be most important for my next assignments going forward in this or future courses? If there is feedback that seems very specific to this one assignment, is there another way of understanding that feedback or the cause of that feedback which can be applied to future assignments? For example, if I misunderstood one specific argument from one author, and which I know will not appear on future assignments, what nonetheless might this tell me about my strategies for reading, interpreting, and summarizing arguments, or about how I take notes on readings and lectures?
Identifying actionable items: “Actionable items” are things requiring us to take action. Are there any immediate actionable items identified by the feedback, things I need to do right now (such as being requested to schedule a meeting, to resubmit with the proper filetype or formatting, to show my drafts or send a copy of what I cited, to rewrite, etc)? If not, what does the feedback ask me to do for future assignments, either explicitly or implicitly? Does the feedback set specific goals for me, or perhaps clarify existing goals? Does it give specific recommendations for how to plan, read, research, draft, write, cite, argue, or edit? (See also below on SMART plans).
Identifying resources: Based on the feedback I received, what resources would help me respond to that feedback or build up my strengths? What resources exist to help me build on the feedback I received? Does the grader mention any explicitly? Are there resources that were listed in class, in the syllabus, or in office hours conversations that I can make use of? Were there resources shared in previous classes that can be helpful to me? What about resources offered by the department website, my affiliated college, accessibility services, librarians, course unions, the Academic Success centre, etc? Are those resources available for appointments before my next assignment? Can I book an appointment now? If I do not already know of available resources I need, how would I find them? Who could I ask for further support in developing these resources?
Elaborating on brief feedback: If I received only brief comments, what might those comments stand for? For example, if I received a margin comment that just said “unclear,” I might ask questions like: Why is this example of unclear writing worth pointing out? What is the possible value of pointing this out, not only for this assignment but future ones too? What specifically is this comment suggesting as unclear: the idea, phrasing, concepts, argumentative structure? What likely makes it unclear to my audience, to an unfamiliar reader? Is it my use of punctuation, sentence order, ambiguous phrasing, missing definitions, hidden premises or missing steps in the argument, etc? If I ask a friend, peer, family member, or the intended audience of my assignment, why might they tell me it is unclear? Even if I thought the sentence was already clear, can I rewrite it now to make it clearer? What does this process tell me about editing in the future?
Applying feedback: If I received a piece of feedback in one part of my assignment, where else might that feedback apply in the assignment? If the grader said that a sentence was unclear, for example, what other sentences have similar issues that the grader might not have repeated that feedback on? If I was missing a citation in one argument, where else might I have been missing citations that the grader didn’t repeat feedback on? In general, how can I use this feedback to get in a “grader’s mindset” and identify other areas in need of editing or revision? Could this feedback apply to previous assignments too?
Comparing feedback with peers: Do I have a trusted peer I can compare feedback with? What does the feedback they received help reveal about my own feedback? Did they have strengths or mistakes I can learn from too? Did they get any suggestions I did not? If they appear to have a different grader (such as a different TA), do differences in communication styles helo clarify any of the feedback or possible intentions? Could you read each other’s assignments using the feedback you received to identify further places of missing feedback? Can you use the shared pool of feedback to brainstorm possible strategies for next assignments together?
Engaging with positive feedback: How does this positive feedback help contextualize the other constructive feedback I’ve received? What specifically is this positive feedback targeting? What about it was done well, and which of my strategies led to that accomplishment? Does it identify improvement from previous assignments on those aspects or strategies? Is it something that I can specifically repeat or replicate in future assignments? If the feedback doesn’t seem attached to a specific strategy, is the feedback perhaps identifying a strategy that I have internalized as a habit that is worth attending to more explicitly? Is this positive feedback specific to this assignment, or can it generalize to other assignments?
Disagreeing with feedback: Is there any feedback I disagree with? What specifically do I disagree with? How much of that disagreement might depend on the difference between what I intended to say, and what my assignment actually says? How much of that disagreement might depend on what the grader intended to say, versus the feedback they actually wrote? Would someone who is not familiar with the course or my assignment be more likely to agree with me or with the grader? Would someone with expertise in the course or my assignment be more likely to agree with me or with the grader? How much does the feedback I disagree with possibly impact the grading of this and other assignments? What would accepting that feedback change about how I read, research, write, edit, etc, if anything? Would those changes be acceptable to me even if the feedback is not? What would it take to change my mind about the feedback, and to agree with it? What might it take to change the grader’s mind about the feedback, and for them to agree with me? Is it possible to bring this to them for a discussion?
Preparing to discuss feedback with a grader: What are my goals with discussing feedback? If I have many goals, which are my highest priorities, in case I run out of time? What pieces of feedback were least clear to me? What made them unclear? What feedback does it feel hard to act on or improve from? What types of tips or resources would make me feel more empowered to act on them? What was I hoping to receive feedback on but did not? Is it reasonable to get feedback on that within the time window of our meeting? What was most helpful to me from their feedback, and can I communicate this with them? What felt least helpful to me from their feedback, and how could our conversation would make that feedback feel more helpful? What are the relationships between the feedback I received and the grade I received? How is the next assignment similar or dissimilar to this one? How might that impact which questions I want to ask or prioritize? What, if anything, might it help me to learn about the grader’s own feedback practices, such as their goals in giving feedback, or what they hoped I would do with the feedback they gave me?

That is a lot of questions, and you needn’t work through all of them each time. Rather, they’re examples of how you can approach feedback in ways to support your interpretation and engagement with recommendations for improvement. Engaging more deeply with this feedback can help us develop plans for building on that feedback. Let’s now say some things about plans.

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Making “SMART” plans

You might have heard about “SMART” plans in your other classes or work. “SMART” is an acronym, and stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It is a way of making sure our plans are more likely to be useful and that we can actually complete them.

Specific means that my goal or plan is sufficiently narrow and precise. Measurable means that I can measure my progress in one way or another, so that I can self-monitor for improvement and track my goals. Achievable means that I can actually follow that plan, that it is reasonable, and that all available supports are available to me. Relevant means that my plan is aligned with my goals, and ideally with the appropriate course goals. Time-bound means that the plans can be accomplished in a reasonable time window, with explicit deadlines where possible. Together, these help to build concrete, actionable plans, with clear and manageable steps.

Consider an example: Perhaps I am told that I have not been citing well. This can be especially frustrating when none of my courses spend time teaching me how to cite. How might I plan to improve on citations? I could use the SMART acronym to think through a plan. Consider the following:

Specific: Saying I want to improve on citations is pretty vague. how would I do such a thing? How would I know that I’ve met those goals? More specific goals might involve something like: (a) making sure my citations all follow Chicago author-date formatting accurately; (b) making sure every sentence that refers to a reading has a corresponding citation; (c) adding citations to my reading notes, so when I write papers using my notes I have the citations handy; (d) learning how and when to cite when paraphrasing and not just quoting; (e) learning how to proofread citations made by online tools like bibme dot org; (f) learning to use a citation management tool like Zotero or Mendeley to help with formatting and reference management; etc. A more complete plan may involve walking through all these steps. For the rest of this example, let’s say I’m starting with just the first of these: that I want to practice formatting citations.
Measurable: How would I measure progress at following Chicago author-date format? How would I know if I’ve succeeded? Maybe my first plan is to read the manual itself. Then my first check points are how many sections or chapters of the manual I have read. Maybe I then decide to practice citing the readings for each week of class: building up my reference lists in advance. I might measure whether I actually did the readings each week. Or maybe I (further) plan to visit a writing clinic with my draft, and ask them to help proofread my references, with a goal of no more than five errors. Each of these would be a specific and measurable goal, and much easier to monitor than getting better at citations generally.
Achievable: Are my plans manageable given my overall goals, resources, schedule, and other life commitments? What specific resources are available to me in each step of my plan, and will they help meet these citation goals? Thankfully, I know that the university has online access to the Chicago manual, which would help me in reading their sections and chapters. (The same is not currently true of the APA style guide, which we only have in print, and which would require me to commute to campus or a local library). I can probably dedicate ten minutes a week to practicing citing my course readings, and knowing it will probably take me much less time as I get practice. But meeting with a writing centre might require that I book an appointment well in advance, because they can book up quickly, and will require that I have time to finish a draft before that appointment. Does that feel achievable on my current schedule? Are there ways I could make it more achievable by reviewing my own schedule? If not, could I maybe book ahead now for the assignment after next, so I can try it then if not now?
Relevant: How do my plans work toward my overall goals? How do they fit with the course goals? Is Chicago author-date style appropriate for meeting assignment requirements, or are there most specific citation requirements (perhaps they ask for APA)? Have I made sure to focus on the author-date style, or might I risk reading the Chicago notes-bibliography sections by accident and confusing the formats? Stepping back further: is focusing on the style of citations even the most relevant piece of feedback I received, or is it perhaps a goal that I could deprioritize for the moment in favour of more pressing feedback? If the major feedback, for example, was that I was not citing frequently enough, or that I had misunderstood the assignment requirements in a more fundamental way, maybe these should be the more relevant goals for the purposes of this course, and I can revisit citation styling later. If the next assignment is a closed book exam where citations aren’t expected, maybe I can prioritize other feedback for this moment too. Ultimately, is this the relevant goal, and is this the relevant way to meet that goal?
Time-bound: What deadlines can I set for myself, and are these manageable for my goals? How can I make sure that I meet these deadlines? Is it possible that I am underestimating the time commitment involved in learning and practicing something new? Can I schedule specific time blocks for practicing citations? Would a strategy like pomodoro timing work for me? If I want to use the writing centre, how far ahead will they let me book an appointment, to ensure appointment slots don’t fill up? How far ahead of that should I complete my draft references? How much time do I need between that meeting and the assignment deadline to edit properly? The above plans seem relatively manageable within a week or two of practice, and so long as I’m planning my writing centre visits in advance. If I want to practice getting syllabus readings into Chicago author-date format, maybe I do this in the ten minutes before class, or during a class break, so that I can more easily remember to do it at a time when I’m already engaging with the course. Ultimately, how much can I reasonably accomplish in a timeline before the next assignment deadline?

The above might press me to develop a plan like the following.

First, I will read through the Chicago manual to make sure I understand the formatting requirements. The table of contents shows me that the chapter on author-date style has 59 numbered sections. I skimmed a few sections to see how much of a time commitment each was, since 59 seemed daunting. It turns out that most sections are only a few sentences long. So, I will commit to reading them all within a week. Specifically, I will read at least ten sections each day, leaving the seventh day as a back up if I fall behind schedule.
Second, I will practice fixing my previous references, and putting the readings we cover in class into the proper format. I will do the first of these as I am reading through the sections this first week. For creating reference entries from our course readings, I will do these each week during class break, since I usually don’t do anything else meaningful during those breaks. But, if I cannot do these at break, I will do them on my commute home. This will be a rolling commitment I do for the rest of the course, and which should also help me when I need to cite course readings later.
Third, I will commit to seeing a writing centre before my next deadline, and ask them to review my citations specifically. I will book this appointment for four days before the assignment is due, so I have a few days to edit, and in case I need to rewrite in more detail. I should try to book this appointment now, since my next assignment is due in only a few weeks, and I know appointment slots fill up quickly. I will plan to have a draft done at least one day before the appointment. Ideally that draft will be a complete first draft of the assignment. But if I cannot make this goal, then I will at least draft the reference list in the proper style. To have at least a full first draft usually takes me two days of writing when I rush, so I should start three days before that appointment. In total, I should start drafting one week before the assignment is due.
Finally, I might have identified a few further resources. While I know I should trust the Chicago manual specifically as the authoritative resource, I know that our libraries’ resources on citing (opens in a new tab) link to other websites like OWL Purdue and resources which can help explain parts of the manual that were unclear to me. I know that the Chicago manual also has a blog (opens in a new tab) that answers common questions and elaborates on the manual, so I can search there too for any questions. If I’m really just struggling through formatting citations, I can also talk with my college’s peer mentors or academic dons. If I am struggling with time management, I can use UTSC’s assignment planner tool (opens in a new tab), or meet with a learning strategist. Meanwhile, I know that C is going to be uploading some of their own citation guidance on their resources page that I can look at too.

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Keeping a feedback journal

One final suggestion: you can build on these reflections and recommendations by keeping a feedback journal. Having a dedicated document, spreadsheet, or notebook where you log the feedback you receive, and your reflections on that feedback, across all your courses and assignments can help develop recurring areas for improvement, help monitor the success of your strategies for improving, and even to track the differences in assignment expectations or feedback styles between different courses. I recommend holding these in one place, but you could also journal these onto each assignment itself, such as at the end of a Word document etc. Ultimately, what you include in that journal and how you format it is up to you, but my general suggestions for content are below.

For each assignment you receive feedback on, you might:

Specify the assignment: List the course, the assignment name, and the date you submitted and/or journaled. Optionally, add what grade you received, who graded it, and what folder and filename you saved the instructions, rubric, and/or assignment (under so you can easily find the originals later).
Include the feedback: You can copy and paste this verbatim, or summarize what you thought that feedback was saying. Ideally do both. If there was a lot of feedback then you can be selective (perhaps skipping feedback that was hyper-specific to that one assignment), but consider copying as much feedback as you can for future reference.
Include context or examples: Where possible, copy the sentence or sentences the feedback applies to, or at least one example of what the feedback is discussing. This helps put the feedback in context, since it wouldn’t usually be helpful for me to just copy in “clarity” without knowing what made it unclear.
Journal your own reflections: These might be answers to any of the questions listed above that are helpful to you, or just journaling your other thoughts and feelings about that copied feedback.
List any action items: Summarize any actions you took or plan to take with respect to the feedback, the goals you are setting, the steps in your plans, the resources you have used or will use, etc.
Optionally, add a few keywords: This is just to help make searching your journal easier, and to track patterns over time. You might summarize the feedback you received with broad labels like: definitions, proofreading, validity, evidence, fallacy, objections, citations, missing requirements, length etc.

How long your entries are will depend on your depth of reflection, but a minimal entry will just copy the feedback you received in for record keeping. You might further commit to reading through the journal before major deadlines, so that you have this feedback in mind while editing your work. During those periodic reviews, you could even summarize your main feedback items in a checklist that you can use when writing and editing, similar to the checklist I suggest making from assignment instructions (opens in a new tab).

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