Automated Feedback is a tool that helps you improve your academic writing products. While it offers more than 30 criteria in five overarching categories, not all are equally relevant all the time. In an Automated Feedback activity with student autonomy turned on, you can configure criteria on your own.This article will guide you through selecting the criteria to narrow down feedback to the most relevant ones for you.
There are two facets you can consider: the stage of your document, and your confidence in academic writing.
First: what is the stage of your document?
Early draft: Your first and second drafts of an assignment. In this stage, you focus on developing your academic voice, overall ideas, structure, and integrating different sources of information into your writing. You benefit from actionable feedback on in-text citations of tables and figures and basic usage of academic voice.
Complete draft: Your complete draft with most of your ideas and supporting evidence. In this stage, you should focus more closely on language, style, and expression to make sure your writing is clear, cohesive, and coherent. You benefit from actionable feedback on your writing’s adherence to formal academic writing conventions with a focus on clarity and cohesion, and the use of citations and references.
Final draft: Your final draft before submitting the assignment. This is the proofreading stage where you should pay close attention to details so that your final product is in its best state. You benefit from comprehensive and actionable feedback that includes annotations in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and references.
Document stage | Suggested criteria |
Early draft: we suggest to focus on getting feedback on academic voice | Active voice Personal pronouns Verb tense Vocabulary
Sentence length Figure captions In-text citation of figures In-text citation of tables Table captions |
Complete draft: we suggest to focus on getting feedback on clarity and cohesion | Abbreviation introduction Active voice Formal writing style
Grammar Personal pronouns Verb tense Vocabulary
Citation count of references Citation style
In-text citation of references Reference content Sections Figure captions In-text citation of figures In-text citation of tables Table captions |
Final draft: we suggest to get feedback on everything to make sure your document is as good as it can be | Abbreviation introduction Active voice Formal writing style
Grammar Spelling Punctuation Verb tense Vocabulary
Citation style
In-text citation of references Reference content Reference count Required sections Sentence length Word count Table of contents Page numbers Figure captions In-text citation of figures In-text citation of tables Table captions Table count Figure count |
Then consider: How confident do you feel in English academic writing?
Not confident:You are a beginner in English academic writing and have completed only a few written assignments. You can form simple sentences to express your ideas and use some evidence to support your arguments. You benefit from actionable feedback on elements that are most relevant for expressing and connecting your ideas, including but not limited to the use of basic academic voice and the use of tables and figures.
Somewhat confident: You have some experience in English academic writing and feel comfortable writing most assignments. You can express your ideas effectively with a variety of linguistic devices and supporting evidence. You benefit from actionable feedback on common areas for improvement, such as the use of formal academic writing style, citations and references, and use of tables and figures.
Very confident: You have extensive experience in English academic writing and are effective in producing academic texts for different purposes. You benefit from proofreading your document to check for minor errors. You also benefit from actionable feedback on frequent minor errors in areas like active voice, punctuation, spelling, in-text citations, and citation style.
Document stage | Suggested criteria |
Not confident: we suggest to focus on getting feedback on most common errors | Abbreviation introduction Active voice Personal pronouns Verb tense Vocabulary
Sections Sentence length Figure captions In-text citation of figures In-text citation of tables Table captions |
Somewhat confident: we suggest to focus on getting feedback on formal academic writing style
| Abbreviation introduction Active voice Formal writing style
Grammar Personal pronouns Spelling Verb tense Vocabulary
Citation count of references Citation style
In-text citation of references Reference count Sentence length Figure captions In-text citation of figures In-text citation of tables Table captions |
Very confident: we suggest to focus on getting feedback on frequent minor errors | Abbreviation introduction Active voice Formal writing style
Grammar Spelling Punctuation Citation style
Vocabulary
In-text citation of references Sentence length Word count Page numbers In-text citation of figures In-text citation of tables |
Besides the suggested criteria, we also recommend that you play around in the tool with the filters and sorting options to find the most relevant criteria for you.