Guidance on how to make the most of detailed comments from your marker to improve your writing.

1. Using feedback:
What is it that good students tend to do?
And how you can do it too!
U2B ADTs
u2b.adt@gcu.ac.uk
Glasgow Caledonian University

2. Students
who perform
well almost
always:
1. Adhere to the assignment brief guidance and….
2. Support their work with appropriate sources.

3. “Adhere to
the
guidance”
 This can mean a number of things including:
 Respecting word count guidance – not all
assignments have a + / - 10% leeway in word
count requirement.
 But more than anything else? This means
answering the question.
 Identify key words in the questions. Underline
them. Use a thesaurus to help find new words to
avoid (density of) repetition of key words in your
own writing.

4. Task words,
content
words,
limiting
words
 Task words are verbs (e.g describe / assess /
compare / contrast) that direct you and tell you
how to go about answering a question.
Understanding their meaning is vital.
 Content words show the topic area(s) of an
assignment are and help narrow down your
material and selecting your answer. Content
words help you to focus your research and
reading on the correct area.
 Limiting words make a broad topic workable.
They focus the topic area further by indicating
aspects you should specifically concentrate on.

5. An example
 Computers have had a significant impact on
education in the 20th century. Discuss the changes
they have made.
 Task word: discuss
 Content words: computers, education
 Limiting words: changes, significant impact, 20th
century

6. Tips to help
answering
the question.
 Consider the 6 P’s:
 Proper
 Planning and
 Preparation
 Prevents
 Poor
 Performance

7. Planning
each
assignment
is vital
 Some things to try:
 Make a skeleton structure for an assignment.
 Make a paragraph plan including a topic sentence
for each paragraph.
 For each paragraph, estimate how many words you
might use.

8. Good paragraph structure helps the writer to logically
present information and also helps the reader to
comprehend it. A comprehensible paragraph focuses
on only one main idea. That main idea is explored by
using ‘supporting sentences’ (Wilson, 2020) that
explain or develop the main focus. Ideally these
supporting sentences will feel like a logical progression
to the reader. This sense of logical progression has
been shown to help 90% of readers understand,
remember, and enjoy the text more (Nkosi, 2012).
Structure, then, is just a tool to build a better
relationship with your readers.

9. Good paragraph structure helps the writer to
logically present information and also helps the
reader to comprehend it. A comprehensible
paragraph focuses on only one main idea. That
main idea is explored by using ‘supporting
sentences’ (Wilson, 2020) that explain or
develop the main focus. Ideally these supporting
sentences will feel like a logical progression to
the reader. This sense of logical progression has
been shown to help 90% of readers understand,
remember, and enjoy the text more (Nkosi,
2012). Structure, then, is just a tool to build a
better relationship with your readers.

11. A split screen
approach
Assignment brief
Assignment brief
Assignment brief
Assignment brief
Assignment brief
Assignment brief
Assignment brief
Assignment brief
Assignment brief
Introduction (10% of
overall word count)
Main body
Main body
Main body
Main body
Main body
Conclusion (5% of
overall word count)

12. The
assignment
brief:
 Always keep it visible to yourself as you write.
 Never write blind after having read the brief once –
possibly several hours / days before.
 Take regular breaks from writing.
 Return with fresh eyes – check your content directly
with the needs of the assignment brief.
 Remember: task words / content words / limiting
words.
 Ask your module leader if you are uncertain about
an aspect of an assignment brief.

13. Time
management
 Effective time management for work based students
is always vital.
 The module handbook shows the notional
(expected) number of required study hours.

14. “Supported
their work
with
appropriate
sources”
What counts as an ‘appropriate’ source?
 Look for, and accessing, sources listed in essential
/ indicative / recommended reading lists in
module handbooks.
 Reading lists also exist in the resources folders on
module sites.
 Those sources themselves will often contain
reference lists at the end.
 This will allow you to access even more sources
of reading for an assignment.
 https://prezi.com/xemjufm9zf-_/using-
googlescholar-to-find-reading-material/

15. Academic
sources vs.
‘in house’
sources
 Markers often say:
 Students must remember that assignments are
academic work, rather than ‘in house’ railway
management reports.
 Students must compose university facing
assignments.
 Vital to differentiate been internal documents and
academic literature.
 ‘In house’ sources are useful – but they can’t be the
only sources in an academic assignment.

16. A reading list

17. 1 of those
sources:

18. The
referencelist
at the end of
that source:

19. What kind of
sources are
less
appropriate?
 Blogs: they contain a lot of unacademic content /
personal opinion / informal language.
 ‘.com’ websites: these are usually not peer
reviewed sources.
 Newspapers or e.g. BBC News: may contain bias
and unlikely to be peer reviewed
 E.g. studynotes/.co.uk: sources written by other
students / essay mills. Can lead to issues with
plagiarism.
 Wikipedia: Avoid citing and referencing it.
However, useful for background and may have
useful reference lists at the end of an article.

20. Academic
writing skills
 As ADTs we are here to help with these things.
 If you have had feedback that highlighted e.g.:
 “problems with phrasing, sentence structure,
paragraph construction, referencing technique in
text and list, used of dated sources”.
 Please get in touch with us and we will help.
 Browse our FAQs:
https://u2bwritingfaqs.wordpress.com
 Our aspiration is to support you developmentally as
confident, independent academic writers.

21. Proofread
your writing
 Why not do this after each time you take a break
from writing?
 ADTs do not proofread.
 We will highlight anything which we see repeatedly
e.g. on your 1st page, and offer guidance.
 Ask a friend / relative / peer / neighbour to help
with proofreading – this is not ‘cheating’.

22. Preview your
final version
 After you upload your final draft:
 Double check the structure and format looks exactly
how you want it to on screen.
 Be sure to remove all ‘track changes’ from your final
version.
 Be sure to check your similarity score. Do this in
plenty of time before deadline day.
 If there is enough time before the deadline and the
score is high – seek ADT help.