Good Feedback Practices Related to Asynchronous Online Writing Support in a Writing Center

Abstract

Our writing center, constrained by the restrictions of the countrywide lockdown imposed on account of the COVID-19, moved their practices online. The surprising uptake of asynchronous, as opposed to synchronous writing support, dictated the need for a diagram or schematic description of good practices to train writing center consultants and enhance the quality of the feedback they provide to students. Drawing from several widely cited scholarly sources, we first define the notion of feedback and then summarize the criteria for providing effective feedback on student writing. These criteria inform the design of a diagram that is an intersection between the researchers’ experience of sound asynchronous online practices and literature-based practices. To justify and augment our diagram for use during tutor training and to ensure that our research and the diagram included the voices of the consultants who will eventually apply the principles inherent in the diagram in their consulting practices, the diagram and a verbal text explaining it was presented to current writing center consultants for feedback during a focus group discussion. The feedback gleaned from consultants both during and after the focus group discussion confirmed that the diagram is an effective tool that can help train writing center consultants on providing feedback during asynchronous writing center consultations.