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Academic writing: a practical guide

Assessment & feedback

Assessment & feedback

What markers are looking for in your work and using feedback to improve your writing.

Assessment criteria

Most written assignments are marked using assessment criteria, which show the areas the work is marked on and what's expected at each grade band. Each department has its own assessment criteria, and sometimes modules have a specific set of criteria too. 

Assessment criteria can be organised as a list of descriptions for each grade band, as a grid with descriptions for each marking area and grade band, or as marking areas rated on a scale.

basic illustration of different criteria formats

Marking areas

Criteria have different areas (or categories) that work is marked against. Marking areas can vary across departments or assignments, but there are some key areas that often appear. Here are some ideas of what markers may be looking for:

This area looks at how far the assignment meets the task requirements and the relevance of the information included. 

Addressing the question/task

Make sure you read the assessment instructions carefully!

  • How far does the work address the question/task?
  • Are all parts of the question/task addressed?
  • Is the work within +/- 10% of the stated word count?
Relevance of content
  • Are points and sources relevant to the question/task?
  • Are the relevant ideas/principles from the module included?
  • For higher scores, does the work include relevant ideas from reading beyond the module content?
  • Are sources used relevant, up to date and reliable?

More information:

This category focuses on the quality of your argument and critical analysis relating to the topic. It's also sometimes called 'originality of thought' or 'engagement with ideas'.

An important aspect of academic writing is incorporating relevant previous research and thinking as well as your own findings. However, it's not enough just to describe or summarise this information - to get higher marks, you also need to critically analyse it. What does it mean in terms of your overall argument? If the content is the 'what', the analysis and argument are more like 'so what?'.

Relating this to Bloom's Taxonomy, this requires more complex processes; analysing, evaluating and creating.

Questions markers may ask:

  • Is the argument logical and well developed, with enough relevant supporting evidence?
  • Is the work analytical, rather than just descriptive?
  • Have connections or comparisons been made across sources?
  • Are source information and/or research findings evaluated in terms of the argument?

Critical analysis is spread throughout assignments in small critical comments and is also usually the major focus of the discussion or conclusion. To help you critically analyse source information or your own findings, ask questions like why? how? and so what?

  • Why did paper A find different results to papers B and C?
  • How might this information influence policy? 
  • Plant A grew faster than Plant B - so what?

More information:

This area focuses on the structure and organisation of the assignment, which is important to help the reader follow the argument easily.

  • Is the overall structure and argument clear?
  • Are points logically ordered to create the argument?
  • Are paragraphs structured clearly, with one central idea?
  • Are ideas linked smoothly within and between paragraphs?
  • Does the work meet structural requirements for the type of writing (eg, does a report include section headings)?

More information:

This area is about the surface aspects of your work - how does it look and feel?

Referencing style
  • Are citations and references formatted correctly in the required referencing style?
  • Is all source information acknowledged appropriately?

You can find examples of correctly formatted citations and references in our practical guide to referencing styles.

  • Are the format and presentation appropriate to the task?
  • Have formatting guidelines or requirements been followed?
  • Is formatting consistent?
Use of language
  • Is an academic writing style used that is appropriate to the assignment?
  • Is spelling, grammar and punctuation correct?
  • Is the writing clear and concise?

More information:

What to do with assessment criteria?


Find your assessment criteria

Your module learning outcomes and assessment criteria could be found in your programme handbook, an induction or module VLE site, or the module catalogue.

Read & understand the criteria

You need to know what markers' expectations are, so read the criteria carefully. Consider: 

  • Which key areas is your work marked on?
  • What are the expectations at different grade bands?

Apply the criteria

You can use the criteria in a few ways to help improve your assignments:

  • Evaluate example assignments using the criteria - why were they awarded that grade?
  • Use with feedback on previous assignments to help identify strengths and areas to improve (also see the Feedback box).
  • Use them while writing assignments to remind you what markers are looking for.

If you have questions about the marking criteria, ask your module tutor, your academic supervisor, or book a Writing Centre appointment.

View this information in a new window: Assessment criteria [Google Doc]

Using feedback to improve writing

Feedback comes in many forms:

  • written comments about your work
  • highlighting sections of the assessment criteria
  • verbally in an audio or video clip, or in a conversation
  • model answers to compare your work to
  • advice on common issues (especially for formative work)

Feedback is an opportunity to develop and improve. It's not always nice to read, but don't ignore it!

Feedback can...

The essay is structured well and your argument is easy to follow.

Your literature review comprises highly relevant studies, which you link back to in your discussion of the results.

Overall, you demonstrate a good understanding of the quantitative statistical analyses you have conducted.

These comments help you understand the strengths of your writing. For example, If you know that your structure was clear, you can use the same approach in your next assignments.

Also, they make you feel good - give yourself a pat on the back!

You raise some (potentially) interesting points in your essay, but these are very often not supported with a reference to relevant evidence.

The third paragraph is quite off-topic, and doesn't help you answer the essay question.

Your arguments are not clear in several places due to errors in grammar and wording.

It might not be very nice to hear about aspects of your work that are not so good, but these comments are the most useful to help you improve!

This type of comment often includes phrases like:

  • [something positive], but/however [something to improve]
  • make sure you...
  • work on...
  • pay attention to...
  • you could have...
  • it would have helped to...
  • [some part of the assignment] could be more...

See the sections below for tips on dealing with some common problems identified in feedback.

What might be the implications of this policy for schools?

How far could your findings be generalised to other working environments?

You mention some theories of aggression, but don't go into detail - why are these particular theories relevant?

Comments like this can give you ideas to consider or further reading to help deepen your knowledge on a topic. This is especially useful if you want to explore this topic further in later modules or your dissertation.

They could also highlight gaps in your understanding. In this case, it might be worthwhile to go back and revise the module content to help you in your later modules.

What to do with feedback?

1. read, 2. reflect, 3. do something!

Here's a handy three-step process to use your feedback to write better assignments. 


  • Read the feedback carefully. What are you doing well? What do you need to improve?
  • Look back at your assignment - can you find the good things and issues mentioned?
  • If the feedback isn't clear, ask your tutor to explain or book a Writing Centre appointment to discuss it.


  • Look for patterns in feedback across assignments to identify what to focus on.
  • For areas to improve on, make a plan to address this. For example, if the structure needs to be clearer, you could spend more time planning next time.
  • For things you're doing well, how can you apply this to future assignments?

Do something!

  • Apply your plans from the Reflect stage when you write your next assignments.
  • When you get the feedback for these assignments, think about what you did differently - have you addressed the issues?

And then the cycle begins again!

You can use this template to review your feedback to identify areas for improvement and work out what you need to focus on:

Common feedback issues & how to avoid them

The issues below are often identified in feedback. Open each for advice on how to address them in your next assignments. Some are easier to deal with than others!

Work on improving the clarity of your writing, including grammar and choice of words.

There are numerous errors in spelling and grammar, eg 'the survey contain 10 questions'.

Make sure to proofread your work carefully, there are lots of typos.

Feedback like this is very common, as the mistakes are easy for markers to spot.

It shows you need to check your work carefully for small mistakes or typos in spelling, grammar, punctuation or word choice before you submit. This checking is often called 'proofreading'.

More detail & advice:

The format of your references in the text does not always follow the APA format. 

There are some instances of citing and referencing format being incorrect.

Pay attention to following Harvard style correctly.

Each referencing style has specific formatting requirements for in-text citations, footnotes and the reference list/bibliography (as used in that style). For example, in APA style (Tanaka & Smith, 2007) is correctly formatted, but (Tanaka and Smith 2007) is not. These can seem like small details, but they're very important to get right! 

To avoid making referencing style errors, check all of your citations and references carefully before you submit. Common errors include:

  • incorrect author names or missing out authors
  • missing out some information needed in the reference
  • not using the correct punctuation and text formatting, especially full stops, commas, ampersand (&) and italics
  • putting an in-text citation outside the sentence instead of before the full stop
  • citing a source in the text, but not including it in the reference list (or vice versa)

You can find examples of correctly formatted citations and references for each style in our practical guide to referencing styles. You can also use reference management software to generate citations and references from your sources - this can save a lot of time! They're not always 100% correct though, so you'll need to check them still.

More detail & advice:

The style is often somewhat descriptive, and you could have added more critical discussion of the findings.

Relevant texts are reviewed, but there is only limited criticality towards their content.

The argument lacks development, with minimal indication of original thought.


Comments like this suggest that your writing focuses on the more descriptive processes - remembering, understanding and applying. To access higher marks, you also need to demonstrate more critical skills - analysis, evaluation and processing. This is considering what the information means in terms of your argument.

More information on what criticality is and how to add it to your work: 

The argument wasn't always clear, so a more logical structure to the assignment would have helped.

Your results section could be more organised - it seems like you just report everything you found.

Some paragraphs contain unrelated information, which is a bit distracting.

Assignments need a clear overall structure. This usually means a linear structure, where paragraphs have one central idea and build on each other towards the final argument. You can think of this as a flight of stairs going from your title at the bottom to your conclusion at the top. A key way to improve your structure is to plan out your points and arrange them before you start writing.

Cohesion is also an important part of structure. There are lots of words and phrases that you can use to link your ideas more clearly. These phrases don't really add any information, but they make the links clear to the reader so it's easier for them to follow your argument

For more in-depth information, see our advice on structuring academic writing:

Very long sentences sometimes make the essay difficult to follow.

Personal remarks are inadequate for developing an academic argument.

There are numerous colloquialisms (‘the next thing to do’, ‘pour their knowledge into our heads’) in this work.


Academic writing uses a very different style to other types of writing. Some of the key features are:

  • being clear and concise
  • using neutral words and avoiding informal, conversational or colloquial language
  • avoiding personal language

For more in-depth information, see our advice on academic writing style:

Your literature review is quite good, but the remainder of the assignment is not in the style of a research report.

The first part of the essay is relevant to the question, but the second half is largely off-topic.

You haven’t done any analysis, which was a central part of this assessment.

To get a good mark, you have to complete the assignment that was set! This means answering all parts of the task, staying relevant and using an appropriate structure and style. Make sure to read the assessment brief carefully to find out what you need to do.

For more information see our advice on understanding task requirements:

There is heavy reliance on just a few references, which all come from the module reading list.

There are some up to date and relevant sources, but you could have used more recent references.

Your sources all support your argument. What about research with different findings?

In most assignments, you need to refer to information in sources to support your argument - without evidence from sources, your points are just your opinion, and it's very difficult to show any critical analysis.

Make sure you:

  • use sources that are credible, up-to-date and relevant to the task.
  • don't rely on just a couple of sources, as this will limit your argument.
  • extend module content and find some sources yourself.
  • don't ignore sources with different findings/points - be complete in your argument.

Find on choosing suitable sources and how to find them on these pages:

View this information in a new window: Using feedback to improve writing [Google Doc]