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Mini-module: Interpreting Feedback

Common Areas in Feedback Page 5 of 11

Decorative

Feedback often concerns the same general areas, especially the five given below.

Critical Thinking

Here are some examples of feedback comments about critical thinking:

  •  "I would like to see you think more critically about the arguments you are making."
  •  “Too descriptive.”
  •  "You have presented a lot of evidence to support your claims, but you need to analyse the evidence more carefully and identify any potential weaknesses."
  •  "You have made some good points, but you didn’t bring in any counter-arguments or alternative perspectives."
  •  "You have done a lot of research, but you need to synthesize the information you have found and draw your own conclusions."

If you have had any comments similar to these, have a look at Critical Thinking.

Structure

  •  "Your answer could be more organized."
  •  "You have a lot of good points, but they are not presented in a clear and concise way."
  •  "Your answer is difficult to follow because it is not well-structured."
  •  "You need to explain your reasoning more clearly."

If you think you might have problems with structure, have a look at Paragraphs and Essay Writing and Planning.

Referencing

  •  "You need to include more references."
  •  "Your references are not formatted correctly."
  •  "You need to cite your sources more accurately."
  •  "You need to provide more detail about your sources."
  •  "You need to explain how your sources support your claims."

For help with using references in your writing, see Incorporating Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism, and How to Write in your own Words. If you want to know how to format your references correctly, see LSBU Harvard Referencing: Home for the details. Also, look out for Upcoming Events in the Library as there are frequent drop-in sessions where you can ask about referencing. 

Use of evidence

  •  "You need to provide more evidence to support your claims."
  •  "Your evidence is not relevant to your topic."
  •  "Your evidence is not credible."
  •  "You need to explain how your evidence supports your claims."
  •  "You need to use a variety of evidence sources."

There are two main points here:

It may be that you need to evaluate the sources you choose and only use the reliable ones. You may also assess whether they are academic enough? For help with this, see Choosing the right sources (Opens in Moodle and is part of our Mini-module: Critical Thinking).

Or, it may be that you need to assess whether a source you are using actually shows what you think it shows. To find out more about this, see Mini-module: Quick Guide to Reading Critically (Opens in Moodle). 

Writing style

  •  "Your writing style is too informal."
  •  "Your writing is too wordy."
  •  “You should try to be more concise”
  •  "Your writing is too repetitive."
  •  "You need to use a more academic style."
  •  "Some of your vocabulary is not very academic."

If any of this sounds like you, have a look through our Academic Vocabulary resources.

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