LIBRARY STUDY SMART

MORE STRATEGIES ASKING QUESTIONS

PDF resources included in this section

CONTENTS - ASKING QUESTIONS

1. Emails

2. Meetings

3. Starting and managing a study group

4. Feedback hide and seek

Asking questions

It’s good to ask questions and seek help. Find out how to develop a good support network, communicate effectively with staff, and use feedback well.

Asking questions Successful students and employees actively use problem-solving and troubleshooting to keep improving their own personal and professional skills.

Here you’ll find good advice on how to develop a wider network of support and guidance (from university support services to your teachers and peers) and how to make the most of the interactions you have to meet your needs.

STUDY SMART WEBSITE

Find this section on the Study Smart website here:

https://westernsydney.edu.au/ studysmart/home/more_strategies_ for_success/asking_questions

SUPPORT SERVICES

LEARNING SUPPORT (ACADEMIC AND NUMERACY SKILLS)

Study Smart → Study Smart Advisors → Online self-help resources → vUWS site

Mathematics Education Support Hub (MESH) → MESH website

Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education → Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme

(ITAS)

Library → Online Librarian

STUDENT-LED SUPPORT

→ Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) → ePASS → PASSwrite → Mentoring and Transition Equals Success

(MATES)

LIFE AND LEARNING SUPPORT

Counselling service → Workshops → eCounselling

Student welfare service → Financial assistance options

Disability service → Services and facilities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suport (Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education) → Programs and facilities → ITAS (see above)

International student support → English language → PASS (see above) → PASSwrite (see above)

Student Central → Special consideration

COMMUNICATING WITH STAFF

DO YOU NEED TO CONTACT AND ACADEMIC? PERHAPS YOU NEED TO FOLLOW UP ON THE PROGRESS OF YOUR SPECIAL CONSIDERATION FORM?

Corresponding with your teachers and peers about your university learning is all preparation for clear expression amongst teammates and external partners in the workplace. As such, it’s a good time to start applying best practice in your public and private communication skills.

Email communication Using email to ask questions Before you email a member of University staff to ask a question, go through the following list: → Have you checked if the answer is in the unit Learning Guide? → Have you checked the unit vUWS site? → Is the answer available somewhere on the Western website? → Did your tutor or lecturer discuss it in class? → Have you asked your fellow students? Staff can receive hundreds of emails a day, and they don’t like being asked questions they’ve already answered in class or in the Learning Guide. If the answer is easily available, then find it for yourself first. University email etiquette First things first: any Western-related communication needs to be sent from your Western account. This is because it’s an official communication channel, and there’s some legal stuff about checking your email regularly as a condition of your enrolment. It’s also so that staff can know they are contacting the right person, and not giving away sensitive information to strangers or breaching your privacy. Related to this, staff will sometimes send emails to you and Cc TRIM. TRIM is a records management system. Any email that includes you and is sent to TRIM goes on your record. So if you weren’t already aware – and you should be, because you’ve read the university’s email policy, haven’t you? – anything you send using your Western account may one day become public. That’s nothing to worry about, but just don’t assume no one will ever see the emails you send. Emails may seem transient, but they don’t disappear just because you’ve deleted them from your inbox. Over the past two decades many public figures have found themselves in trouble over the contents of their emails, for example when emails and other files from Sony Pictures were made public. So because you can’t assume that any email you send will be read only by the recipient, it’s important to compose emails that are both polite and readable. The Online Netiquette vUWS site (video, 3:30) will help you understand the Western systems and preferred practices. Subject line First, choose an appropriate subject line. Some email addresses receive hundreds or even thousands of emails a day, and may have filters in place to forward your message to the right person or department. So you can’t just write ‘assignment’ in the subject line – your tutor or lecturer won’t know what assignment, or what unit, or what aspect of the assignment. Be as clear as possible and include unit or course codes. For example, ‘401003 essay referencing question’ tells the recipient everything they need to know about the possible contents of the email.

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Body In the body of the email, greet your recipient. If you don’t know the person’s name, use ‘Dear Madam’ or ‘Dear Sir’, or if you don’t know the person’s gender, ‘Dear Sir or Madam’. First names are usually considered appropriate in the Australian university community, especially if that’s what your teacher has asked you to call them in class. However, if you haven’t met the person you’re emailing, you should use their last name and title, e.g. ‘Dear Dr Urbach’ or ‘Dear Mr McKnight’. If you’re not sure of a person’s title, look them up in the staff directory. When the person replies, they might sign off with their first name, and you can then address your next email using their first name. Sometimes people use ‘if I may’ here to be polite, e.g. ‘Dear Anna (if I may)’. Can you use a greeting less formal than ‘dear’? Yes, but with caution, and everyone has different preferences. ‘Hi’ or ‘hello’ can be considered acceptable, but probably not ‘hey’, and never ‘yo!’ Remember, you are writing to a staff member, not your friends. Your tutor may be friendly, but they still deserve respect. Next, state who you are and your purpose as clearly as possible, even if that means repeating information from the subject line. E.g. ‘I am in your Wednesday tutorial for Professional Communication at 11am, and I have a question about the essay due next week.’ Remember that staff are often teaching for multiple units or courses or even across different schools, and they don’t have time to figure out which essay you’re talking about out of five that are due this month. Ask your question clearly. One practice that is gaining popularity is the five-sentence email. Regardless of the number of sentences you write in an email, make sure that you have included all necessary information, and try to be as concise as possible. Sign off politely, stating your name and your student ID number. ‘Best wishes’ is polite; ‘Thank you’ is often appropriate. Business emails often end with ‘Regards’ or ‘Kind regards’, or you can go a little old-fashioned with ‘Yours sincerely’ (especially if your email is really a formal business letter that just happens to be in electronic format). A note about sending emails When you send an email, you have choices about how you send it to more than one person, using the ‘To’, ‘Cc’, and ‘Bcc’ fields. These fields are explained in the following table. Figures 1 and 2 below show how the fields appear in the ‘new message’ screen from two commonly used email providers.

Field Purpose

To: This is where you put the email address of the intended recipient. Multiple recipients can be included here, usually separated by a comma or semicolon depending on the email client.

Cc: Carbon Copy.

This is a holdover from the days of typewriters when the only way to duplicate a typed message was to place a sheet of carbon paper between two sheets of normal paper and type the message. Use this field to send a message to people who need to know the content of the message but aren’t the primary recipient.

Bcc: Blind Carbon Copy.

Including someone in the Bcc field sends them a copy of the message, but the person in the To: field won’t know that the message has been copied to anyone. The Bcc field can be useful if you want to send a message to a lot of people but you don’t have permission to share everyone’s email addresses. Think carefully before using the Bcc field for any other reason, as it’s kind of sneaky to send someone an email without other recipients knowing that that person was also included.

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Figure 1. Sending a message using Gmail.

Figure 2. Sending a message using your web-based Western Outlook account.

Checklist for sending effective emails → Try to find the answer to your question yourself before emailing → Email the right person/address → Treat email as public correspondence → Write an accurate subject line → Include a polite salutation → State who you are and what you need, preferably in five sentences or less → Sign off politely More information → School of Humanities and Communication Arts: Professional Communication - 5 videos, including writing email (10:16),

and using the phone (4:23) → Productivity Lifesaver: The 5-Sentence Email

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Meetings Asking questions and seeking help Simple questions about a unit or single aspects of an assessment can usually be dealt with in an email or two (see Email communication PDF, 109 kB), or even a phone call. For more complicated issues, however, you might need to request a meeting with a member of staff. Alternatively, a staff member might contact you to set up a meeting to discuss an issue that has arisen. Setting up a meeting First, check the unit Learning Guide and vUWS site to see if your lecturer or tutor has advertised their consultation policy. Often academic staff list regular office hours where you can drop in without an appointment to ask your question. If they don’t list office hours, or you can’t come at the listed time, request a meeting. It’s a good idea to suggest a couple of times that you are available, but don’t be surprised if the staff member is busy during those times. You may have to be flexible to find a timeslot that works for both of you. State the purpose of the meeting so both you and the staff member can prepare. ‘I want to talk to you about the assignment’ is very general. ‘I would like your advice on whether my references are appropriate for this type of essay’ is better. Preparing for a meeting Once you’ve agreed on a date, time, and place for the meeting, make sure to prepare yourself. Ensure you know where the meeting is and allow enough time to get there five minutes early, just to be polite. If you’re late, you may end up missing the meeting altogether. Prepare mentally, as well. Write down all of your questions, or all of the issues that you want to discuss. Bring copies of relevant documents like the unit Learning Guide, readings you’ve found, or drafts of your assignment. If the staff member has asked you to bring something specific like a Turnitin Originality Report for your draft, do not forget it. Bring a pen and paper or a digital device so you can take notes during the meeting. Running a meeting You will probably want to let the staff member take the lead, but here’s where your preparation comes in handy. When they ask how they can help, or what you would like to discuss, refer to your list of questions or points. Go through the list in order, asking questions and taking notes as appropriate. If the other person called the meeting, they might have an agenda in mind. In this case, you should still come prepared, and ask and answer questions and take notes as you go. If there are multiple attendees at the meeting, or many issues to discuss, using an agenda and/or following Robert’s Rules of Order might be useful.

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Reviewing a meeting It isn’t over once you walk out the door. At the very least, if the staff member has helped you, send an email to thank them. You might also send an email to confirm what was discussed or note anything you now need to follow up. Go over your notes, including those you wrote before the meeting. Was everything addressed? Did you get what you needed? Were your questions answered? Or do you need more help? You might like to reflect (PDF, 67 kB) at this stage, to help you decide on your next steps. At all times, be courteous and calm when interacting with others. Remember to use your assertive communication tactics (PDF, 61 kB) so that you don’t offend or put others offside.

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PEER SUPPORT

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF PEER SUPPORT THROUGH YOUR UNIVERSITY CAREER!

Learning in groups, whether it be an organically created study group with classmates or a university scheduled group led by a successful senior student, is a powerful and efficient way to spend your personal study hours.

Sharing the learning experience, exchanging your understandings, and experiencing both enthusiasm and frustration together help to build your learning community. This support network will grow and evolve over the years and carry you through to graduation.

Starting and managing a study group Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) at Western PASS is like a super study group, facilitated by a senior student who has completed the unit. In the weekly sessions, you will quickly build your learning strategies, develop your content knowledge, and improve your problem solving skills. The sessions are incidentally also a great opportunity to build a network of like-minded friends and collaborators. Research assessing the effectiveness and impact of PASS has shown that students who regularly attended PASS: → Scored significantly higher grades → Improved their understanding of subject content → Felt better prepared for exams or final essays → Enjoyed the learning experience → Learned how to better work collaboratively and productively At Western Sydney University, you can attend PASS on-campus or online (ePASS). There is also PASSwrite offered for Business, Education, Social Sciences and Psychology, and Humanities and Communication Arts. DIY (Do-It-Yourself) study group If PASS is not offered for your unit(s), or if you are unable to attend on campus or online, you can create your own study group. Humans are social beings, and learning and teaching is a social experience. Learning with and from each other in small groups gives you the opportunity to creatively and collaboratively determine the meaning, importance and applicability of knowledge and concepts in your discipline without the authority of a designated expert or teacher. There are a number of factors, however, that you must consider to maintain group cohesion and prevent a productive, focused, and truly collaborative environment from turning into chaos. Below are some guiding points. Agenda Organisation is key. After co-ordinating schedules to select a regular day and time, you need a space, e.g. an indoor or outdoor study space on campus, at a host’s house, or a public space. The details of the session schedule should ideally be drafted together, in advance, with any preparation work clearly identified and explicitly allocated. Some study groups decide to set a rotating study session leader role. In this ‘round robin’ situation, the designated leader is in charge of setting the agenda and preparation tasks, and notifying all members the week before. Then, on study group day, the leader initiates each item on the agenda to keep the session on time. An agenda doesn’t have to be a precise plan, just a directional sign structured around specific targets or topics, and where possible some goals or outcomes or measures that help you work out when you’ve adequately addressed an issue. Clarifying your collective aims in advance will help you to stay on task.

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Example

Time Issue/Topic/Target Goal/Outcome/Measure

11am This week’s lecture

Notes exchange/discussion

Big questions/concepts

One-sentence summary/group mindmap

Top 3 questions

11:15am-

11:45am

This week’s upcoming tutorial

Readings discussion

Interpreting the theory

How it expands on the lecture content

How it might appear as an exam question

Definition of jargon/difficult terminology

Theory explained in simple terms

Example exam question

11:45am-

12.15pm

Assignment 1

Choose essay topic

Discuss research approach

Share reference management strategies and tools

Draft a peer review of essay drafts timeline

Assignment topics announced

Share a concept map of similar steps in research approach

Exchange links/instructions on ref management tools

All in agreement on when drafts should be ready for peer review (14 days prior to final submission) See also Academic Integrity and Plagiarism about collusion

12:15pm Summary / Minute paper

Prep/Brainstorm for next study session

3 things learned, 3 questions remaining, 3 actions to take

Session leader nominated, set agenda outline, agreed next session date/time

In the beginning, it might be difficult to get all group members to think of what they want to address. These prompts might help you to assist them figure out their needs: → The main question I want to answer is… → A question I have is… → X says Y. B interprets it as C. Is that really what X meant? → I got confused when… → I’m not sure of… → I agree / disagree with X because… → I think that X voices are being left out because… Group dynamics There are a few things you can establish from the outset to ensure that your study group lasts and works well by promoting connection, open communication, and equality. You should also take a look at Group work for more tips. The most fun and, frankly, the easiest task to include is a two- to five-minute ice breaker or energiser game at the beginning of each study session. It helps to set the foundation for working together, enjoying the company of others, and the all-important bonding and connecting with each other beyond the subject matter. This can (and should!) be done every week. Again, you can allocate this task to the session leader or have an Energizer Game Leader designated and responsible for this task. There are loads of ideas out there – Google is only a click away. Just be mindful of the space you are in, the time you have, and the familiarity of the group with each other. Here are a few low-budget, easy-to-run group favourites:

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Energiser Description

The Name Game Each participant states their name and either the etymology (meaning) of their name and/or the story of how they came to be named.

Treasure Island Each participant identifies the three items they would take with them on a deserted island and why.

Human Knot In a circle, participants put their arms in the centre and find someone else’s hand to hold. Once all hands have been joined, as a group, participants work together to unravel the knot without letting go of hands.

Fear in a Hat Each participant anonymously writes down a personal fear on a piece of paper. The paper is folded up and put into a hat or container. Each participant then draws out a piece of paper, reads out the fear written on it, and explains how the person might feel.

Incommunicado Each participant remains silent (no vocal sounds). A facilitator calls out random features (e.g. height) or abilities (e.g. number of push-ups you can do), etc. The participants, without speaking to each other, must arrange themselves in a line in order (e.g. from tallest to shortest; from the least to the most number of push-ups).

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Participants take turns being the ‘actor’. The designated actor performs a line from a television show or movie, and all other participants have to guess the name of the television show or movie.

Once commonalities are shared and rapport starts to build, you can begin to address preferred modes of communication amongst the group (see Communications and collaborations). Will all correspondence be via Western student email? Will you use Office 365 to collaboratively compose, edit, and share the agenda and other resources? Will you use Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp to notify the group if you’re feeling sick a few days before or running late on the day? It’s also a good way to segue into roles and responsibilities (see also Group work) and reach an understanding on what equality looks like in your study group. What is the back-up plan if the session leader is away? Does everyone agree to organise a session and run it in a ‘round robin’? Or does everyone prefer to make a small contribution each week? What strategies do you all prefer to use so that everyone contributes vocally each week, that no one dominates, and that no one feels like they can’t voice their ideas? It’s important to remember that you don’t have to have everything figured out from the start, but as long as you set the tone for equal contribution it’ll make it easier to work towards equitable learning out loud through dialogue and debate. Doing the learning When you think of a study group, what do you think of? A small group of students seated at a round table in a private study room? That’s really just one option. Don’t let the idea of traditional study groups limit your creativity. You’ll find a few ideas in Maximise your productivity (PDF, 270 kB), like a walking and talking study group session with the aid of, for example, flash cards. Learning exchange can extend beyond discussion. You can make your study activities more dynamic and fun by allowing group members to create activities, games, treasure hunts, scenarios, etc. to explore your discipline content in a different, and often more active, way. It’s ok to play when learning. Play occurs in safe spaces where you experiment, make mistakes, learn, retry, and challenge yourself and others. By thinking and acting outside of your comfort zone you follow curiosity to surprising discoveries. What can you do to use play in activities to immerse yourself and learn?

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Examples

Activity Description

Peripatetic Walking, talking, discussing a single topic, for example a student study group at University of Alaska Southeast (video, 1:00).

PeerWise An online study group option. Start a group, individuals create Q&As on topics for peers to practice and discuss.

Think Visually

Think differently!

Instead of creating a timeline to study the progression of a historical battle or development, why not use a blank geographical map of the areas involved and use a free drawing approach to connect the information and issues – and most importantly, what you don’t know!

Example via The Junto for American historians.

Instead of writing an outline of a topic or your essay argument, why not give everyone a piece of A4 paper, a marker pen, and two minutes to sketch their ideas. Then give everyone two minutes to explain their creation. The visual thinking basics ‘how to’ videos will help.

Gamify Instead of cramming notes into your head for the exam, can you create trivia-style questions?

Inspiration If you ever doubt the capacity of students to make incredible contributions to their own learning and those of their peers, then take a look at the students who participated in the ‘computer in the wall’ experiments (video, 17:25) all over the world. As a team, without traditional educational resources and support, these children were able to learn by observing each other, discussing ideas and approaches, and collaboratively problem solving.

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SEEKING FEEDBACK

TO LEARN AND GROW IN YOUR STUDIES YOU NEED TO ACTIVELY SEEK AND UNDERSTAND FEEDBACK ON YOUR WORK.

Inviting, receiving, and dealing with feedback is common practice in all our interactions, from asking for an appraisal of your casual job performance, to receiving a road traffic infringement notice as a driver, to processing the comments a Careers Advisor has given you on how to improve your resume. Below you’ll find advice on the best strategies to help you manage your own performance through feedback from other people.

Feedback hide and seek Let’s think about the last time a manager, teacher, friend, or stranger offered an evaluation of your performance. What did they say? How did you react at the time? How did it make you feel? What actions did you take to accept or ignore the input? More often than not, you will have recalled a negative or difficult feedback experience, so it’s no wonder you have an aversion to proactively seeking criticism. But as Figure 1 shows, you’ll benefit heaps if you push past those uncomfortable feelings and take feedback on board.

Figure 1. Where the magic happens is far from your comfort zone.

You should frame extrinsic (external) feedback, like intrinsic (internal) feedback (see Track, progress, success, PDF, 67 kB), as an essential step in your development. Without the push-pull forces of the call to change, you can stagnate and fail to improve or move forward towards your goals. Important, long-term, and long-lasting change does not happen unless you track your progress. Think of feedback as a check-in point for yourself. Recognise it as a process and skill that will help you personally and professionally if you actively work on it.

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Activity 1: Do I hide or do I seek? (after Poertner & Miller (1996))

Answer the questions below: O = Often S = Sometimes R = Rarely

Question O S R

I truly listen to what feedback givers are saying. I keep feedback in perspective and don’t over-react. I try to learn from all feedback, even if it’s poorly given. I am willing to admit to and learn from questions about my performance or behaviour in class or at work. Rather than avoiding feedback, I attempt to turn every feedback session into a useful encounter. I accept redirection and reinforcement rather than denying them. I accept responsibility for my role in achieving individual, team, and organisational goals. I accept responsibility for searching for solutions to performance and behavioural problems that threaten goals. I accept responsibility for keeping my emotions in check during feedback discussions. I am committed to listening and learning in all feedback situations.

Results

I answered mostly: My skills for receiving feedback effectively:

Often are well developed

Sometimes

or

Rarely

could use further development

Inviting evaluation

You need to decide what purpose feedback has for you. In most cases, people want to improve their future performance and opportunities by gathering advice that redirects or reinforces behaviours presently being performed. Once you’ve accepted your understanding of the purpose, you can address welcoming feedback and the stimulating way it can inspire you to take action!

Instead of viewing feedback as an insult, a hurtful criticism, or a signal of your failure, consider it objectively by separating the assessment from your sense of self. It is the writing, not the author, that is in question. Remember to see ‘FAIL’ as the First Step In Learning.

Self-assess

Imagine the upcoming return of assignment feedback or a performance management review at work. Before you receive written feedback, how do you think you went? Do you know the criteria against which you are being evaluated? What rating and comments would you make in your self-assessment? This gives you the baseline you need to start tracking your performance and progress over time.

Compare

After reading through the feedback, what is your initial reaction? Is it fair? Do you agree? Is everything clear? What comments do you have? What questions would you like to ask? Do you need more information? Are your strengths identified? Are areas for improvement specified? Can you see how you might address these areas?

If you have questions, want more information, need clarity or examples, then you can contact the feedback giver for a meeting.

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Reach out When requesting further explanation, it is important to decide what kind of feedback you want, as this will impact the way you phrase your request and the way you interact when receiving additional feedback. Do you want to be encouraged and supported or do you want your strengths and weaknesses explicitly identified? Do you want the grade and performance measures explained or examples of how things could have been done differently and thus improved? Your request to discuss the written feedback provided should clearly identify the type of feedback you desire. See also Asking questions: Communicating with staff. Prepare When meeting to discuss an assignment, it’s a good idea to assemble and thoroughly review all the resources supplied to you. This includes your assignment, the rubric (marking criteria), the feedback (via GradeMark, if applicable), the Originality Report (via Turnitin), the YourTutor.com.au feedback if you used the free service, and peer review feedback you may have received from PASSwrite or your own study group. Receiving Evaluation In the feedback session you need to be prepared to welcome all comments. Are you ready for this? Complete the activity below. Activity 2: Self-Assess Tick if you agree:

I will: ✓

truly listen to what feedback givers are saying.

keep feedback in perspective and not over-react.

try to learn from all feedback, even if it’s given poorly.

admit to and learn from questions about my performance or behaviour at uni.

attempt to turn every feedback session into a useful encounter.

accept redirection and reinforcement rather than denying them.

accept responsibility for my role in achieving individual and team goals.

accept responsibility for developing solutions to performance and behavioural problems that threaten goals.

accept responsibility for keeping my emotions in check during feedback discussions.

listen and learn in all feedback situations.

Listen People who have mastered feedback seeking know to listen to all comments without reacting to them in the moment. These people tend to write down the advice given to them, focus on understanding and gathering examples at the time, and address in-depth consideration later. Active listening requires attention and concentration on the speaker, their words, their ideas as well as non-verbal communication cues. These include body movements (e.g. hand gestures, nodding head), posture (e.g. open and uncrossed arms and legs), eye contact (e.g. in Western culture, eye contact connection signals engagement), so called paralanguage (e.g. tone, pitch, and speed of speaking), space (e.g. sitting and standing a respectable distance from each other), facial expressions (e.g. smiling or frowning and blinking), and physiological changes (e.g. sweating).

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Parrot After listening to the comments, seekers paraphrase back to the feedback giver to signal their understanding of the advice. This process helps you to verify the information you have received and begin to separate it from your own emotions as well as the sense of self that is often tied to your performance. Example

Student: So, what I hear you saying is that I need to spend a little more time refining my database search keywords and boundary fields to ensure I target the specific assignment question parameters? Lecturer: That’s right. You need to control the search from the very beginning and you need to know how to use the advanced search features to do so successfully.

Explore Next the seeker actively asks open-ended questions, instead of closed questions which only require a Yes/No response, such as ‘Could you give me an example of… ?’. This activity helps to further consolidate your interpretation of the evaluation and begin to build an action plan towards improvement in future performances. This step is particularly important if you feel the advice given has been unclear in any way. For example, if you are still unsure about which of your behaviours have been reinforced (i.e. things you did well), and which need to be redirected (i.e. things you need to improve), ask about your strengths and weaknesses with specific examples. Acknowledge Finally, after the back-and-forth discussion comes to a close, the feedback seeker expresses thanks for the feedback giver’s time and contribution. Dealing with evaluation After your feedback meeting you should take time to do an individual debrief to reassess and plan ahead. Reactions To start, consider your reactions to this new information. How do you feel? Remember that emotions can be heightened in situations where we feel criticised. It’s important to separate the criticism of the work from the sense of self. By doing so, you are better placed to harness feedback for your own self-improvement rather than self-deprecation. Judgement Then move on to assessing the advice given. Are the points reasonable? Do you agree with the strengths and areas of improvement that were identified? Do you want to accept all/some or reject all/some? Raising your awareness of the things you do well and the things that need attention not only helps you grow and develop but also to recognise where others can add value. This is incredibly critical when you work in teams or large organisations, where individual contributions help achieve communal goals. Action plan Finally, you can start to create an action plan to address the areas that need improvement. What did the feedback giver suggest? What other approaches, services, supports can you access to begin to look at this need? Who else could help you? What can you do to address this need? Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently next time? What will you avoid next time? What do you plan to make sure you do next time? What will you avoid next time? What do you plan to make sure you do next time? How will you know when you’ve improved? See Tracking your success: Goal setting.

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The following table provides examples of the types of comments that markers may give you on assignments or verbally during a feedback meeting. Alongside these comments are strategies for developing ways to improve your work.

Feedback Feed-forward strategy

‘You haven’t done enough reading and therefore your essay is poorly researched’

Use the Library to research relevant material – if you can’t find appropriate material you may need to consult a librarian.

‘You’ve given lots of information but you haven’t really analysed the material’

You need to refrain from just using description in your essay, and instead apply critical thinking and analytical writing skills to the topic.

‘The parts of your essay do not seem to fit together very logically’

You need to have a clear understanding of the genre’s structure in which you are writing. You need to be clear about the content and the line of argument you are developing. If you need help in planning essay structures, you could approach your tutor.

‘It’s difficult to understand the overall structure of your essay’

Your introduction should explain your overall structure. The body of the essay should be consistent with your introduction.

‘You have made some good points but you have not substantiated them’

An essay should indicate that you have read to develop a conceptual understanding of the topic, and then this evidence is used to support your particular line of argument or discussion. Referencing these sources shows the reader that you have done both things.

‘You have plagiarised parts of this essay from several sources! See me!’

It is important that you interpret the source material in your own words as a paraphrase, and where this is not possible, you use direct quotations. The lecturer needs to be able to see that you understand the ideas and concepts in your sources and that you can use these to develop your own argument.

‘You need to improve your English language skills’

You may need to seek extra help to improve your English writing skills. The Library has many English language workbooks and textbooks that you can work through on a needs basis and at your own pace.

‘Your essay is untidy and poorly presented’

You may need to allow more time after you have completed your essay to check for presentation details.

You may also need to develop your word processing skills.

References Poertner, S. & Miller, K. M. (1996). The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback. Virginia Beach, VA: Coastal Training

Technologies Corp.

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