Abstract:
Assessing writing is a very delicate task for teachers. Written feedback does
not consist in providing students with written codes within the essay and in the
margins and giving him/ her a mark. Students often do not understand these symbols
unless they are analyzed and identified by the teacher. Moreover, it is observed that
they do not know how to correct the underlined mistakes or the ones in circles. In
order to assess students’ writings, many teachers resort to providing students with
written comments at the end of their essays so that they can validate and clarify the
in-text correction. Effective commenting allows students to know more about their
strengths (praising the good points in the essay) and weaknesses (criticizing the
negative points in the essay) and provides them with practical suggestions for future
improvement. Some teachers do not provide their students with written comments for
many reasons: either because of time constrains or because of the number of students
and the copies that must be corrected. They also think that students do not read these
comments and focus only on the mark. Others are aware of the importance of end
comments for improving students’ writing performance. This research attempts to
investigate the way teachers comment on their students’ writings. Following Fiona
Hyland’s and Ken Hyland’s model (2001) of analyzing teachers’ comments. 50
essays that contain end comments will be examined to have an idea about the way
teachers give comments. In order to have a deep insight in this teachers’ way of
commenting, a questionnaire will be distributed to the 50 students. Furthermore,
teachers will have a questionnaire so that we can get an idea about the students’ and
teachers’ attitudes and preferences towards commenting on writings.
