Ashwell, T. (2000). Patterns of Teacher responses to Student Writing in a Multiple-Draft Composition Classroom: Is Content Feedback followed by Form Feedback the best method? Journal of Second Language Writing, 9 (3), 227-257.

Which feedback pattern should I use?

In this article Ashwell looked at the two commonly recommended error correction patterns within a process writing approach. Content- feedback, recommended during the first several drafts and form-content feedback, recommended during the last draft. He then made a comparison between the two patterns and other patterns in which form and content feedback were mixed at both stages, and a control pattern of zero feedback. Scholars in the process writing approach to second language (L2) writing pedagogy made various suggestions about the best ways teachers can respond to their students’ writing.  One of these suggestions is that teachers should first attend to content feedback for the first few drafts before focusing on form feedback on later drafts. It is believed that by doing so, teachers can encourage revision on “large-scale changes” (content) on early drafts before helping the students with editing “small-scale changes” (form) on the final draft. ( Ashwell, p. 227). It is assumed that focusing on form too early in the writing process can discourage students from revising their text. It is also assumed that revision and editing need to be dealt with separately. However, it stills remain unclear whether the content-then-form pattern of teacher response is in fact more effective than other patterns.

Ashwell assigned 50 students enrolled in two writing classes into four treatment groups. The content-then-form group, form-then-content group, mixed group, and the control group. In his findings, he was able to show that the recommended pattern of content-then-form feedback is not superior to the form-then-content or mixed pattern. His findings supports other researchers such as Zamel (1985), who also acknowledge that giving content feedback on the first drafts and form feedback on later drafts does not produce better results than other patterns. His findings also supports Ferris (1997), who states that “giving from and content feedback simultaneously does not deleteriously affect students revision”(Ashwell, p. 243). Overall, Ashwell was able to show that providing any sort of feedback in any form of pattern helped students to improve the formal accuracy of their writing than if they received no feedback.

I find this article quite interesting because, I think is important for L2 writing teachers to understand or justify why they might be choosing to use a certain feedback pattern as oppose to the others. I think if students understand how the feedback is intended to affect their writing and why it is given that way, they might be in a better position to understand the feedback and act on it.  Even though  the author was not focusing on how form or content feedback might have an effect on the students’ original meaning in their writing, I think it would have been a good idea for him to do so. I think providing any form of feedback in any form of sequence to students should not be our central goal as L2 writing instructors. If we want to help our students express themselves freely and send their massages across as accurate as possible, we should try and find ways in which we can help our students understand that producing error free writing is not the most significant goal in learning how to write.