DIFFERENT TYPES OF WRITING Definition of Feedback

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2.11 DIFFERENT TYPES OF WRITING

There are four types of writing in which a student will expect to use as his classes become more writing-intensive. 1. Narrative: Narrative writing is the type of writing that tells a story. Though it‘s most commonly used when your child is asked to write a personal essay along the lines of What I Did to Celebrate the Holidays, this type of writing can also be used for fictional stories, plays or even plot summarizations of a story your child has read or intends to write. Narrative writing typically uses the first person ―I. 2. Descriptive: Descriptive writing is used to create a vivid picture of an idea, place or person. It is much like painting with words. It focuses on one subject and uses specific detail to describe that upon which your child is focused. For example, if your child is asked to write about his favorite ride at an amusement park, his writing will not only tell the name of the ride and what it looks like, but also describe the sensation of being on it and what that experience reminds him of. 3. Expository: Expository writing is to-the-point and factual. This category of writing includes definitions, instructions, directions and other basic 39 comparisons and clarifications. Expository writing is devoid of descriptive detail and opinion. 4. Persuasive: Persuasive writing is a more sophisticated type of writing to which your child will introduced around fourth grade. It can be thought of as a debate in writing. The idea is to express an opinion or to take a stance about something and then to support that opinion in a way that convinces the reader to see it the same way. Persuasive writing is often in essay form, contains an explanation of the other point of view and uses facts andor statistics to disprove that view and support your child‘s opinion.

2.12 RESPONDING TO STUDENT WRITING

2.12.1 Teac her Responding to Students’ Writing

More than any other enterprise in the teaching of writing, responding to and commenting on student writing consumes the largest proportion of our time. Most teachers estimate that it takes them at least 20 to 40 minutes to comment on an individual student paper, and those 20 to 40 minutes times 20 students per class, times 8 papers, more or less, during the course of a semester add up to an enormous amount of time. With so much time and energy directed to a single activity, it is important for us to understand the nature of the enterprise. For it seems, paradoxically enough, that although commenting on student writing is the 40 most widely used method for responding to student writing, it is the least understood. We do not know in any definitive way what constitutes thoughtful commentary or what effect, if any, our comments have on helping our students become more effective writers. Sommers 1982 states three main purposes for which teachers provide feedback on writing: - To inform writers as to whether their written products have conveyed their intended meanings; - To give the student writer a sense of audience their interests and expectations and make them ameliorate their writings accordingly. - To offer students an impetus for revision, for without comments from a critical reader, writers will feel no need to revise thoroughly if they ever think about revision.

2.13 Definition of Feedback

Drawing from theories of classroom psychology, Drown 2009 provides a generic definition of the term feedback. For him, feedback appears when ―the output of a system becomes an input to the same system causing the system to respond dynamically to its previous products‖ 2009:407. That is to say, 41 feedback does not occur randomly, but it is rather part of a complex system of other subsystems which are interrelated and mutually influenced by each other. This system is made up of the feedback source or producer, the feedback itself and the feedback recipient. Feedback is inevitably influenced by its source, yet it is meant to influence its recipient making him change his prior products. In relation to the learning context, Drown 2009 views feedback both as a response to le arners‘ productions, be oral or written language, and an indicator of how successfully an objective of the teaching learning activity has been accomplished. Feedback, then, has as effects both permitting learners to enhance their comprehension quality and promoting knowledge execution and skill. Feedback is therefore deemed, as argued by Hyland 2003, an inseparable, integral and central element in language learning generally and in learning to write particularly. It is the input and means that provides writers with a set of information such as the reader‘s needs and expectations and whether students‘ writings have met such expectations Harmer, 2004and more importantly, it ―offers an additional layer of scaffolding to extend writing skills,promote a ccuracy and clear ideas, and develop an understanding of written genres.‖ Hyland,2003:207 Hyland 2006 consider feedback as a social act since it embraces all the aspects context, participants, medium, and goal that, together, give any communicative act its identity. For them, like other communicative acts, feedback 42 occurs in a context of a particular kind institutional, pedagogical; it appears between participants of particular identities teacherpeerlearner ; it is delivered by a particular medium peer, conference, written comments ; and it is designed to accomplish certain educational, pedagogical and social purposes. A consideration of all these aspects would, therefore, contribute to an appropriate interpretation of feedback. Many researchers advocate the importance of feedback in improving the writing skill e.g. Leki1990a; Hyland2003; Ferris2003; Harmer2004; Hyland Hyland2006 .Leki 1990a for instance, highlights the fact that producing a well written text in a second language often constitutes a hassle to students, consuming their time and intellectual efforts alike. She, therefore, claims that feedback on students‘ writings becomes the least of teacher‘s reactions these students need and should have in order to improve their skill of intent. Ferris 2003 represents another proponent of the crucial role plaid by feedback in improving writing. She argues that such a way of responding has not only a short term effect but also a long term one. The former occurs as immediate improvement in writers‘ texts in subsequent drafts if any are required ; the latter occurs as a progress in students‘ writings over time. Sommers 1982 states three main purposes for which teachers provide feedback on writing: - To inform writers as to whether their written products have conveyed their intended meanings; 43 - To give the student writer a sense of audience their interests and expectations and make them ameliorate their writings accordingly. - To offer students an impetus for revision, for without comments from a critical reader, writers will feel no need to revise thoroughly if they ever think about revision. However, for feedback to be effective and meet the designed purposes, Li Waishing2000 introduces four criteria he considers basic assumptions in feedback of any type: - Feedback must be integrated within the process of writing. - It must be presented as an input and impetus for revision of writing. - It must be formative detailing the writer‘s strengths and weaknesses as well , not summative taking the form of grades, marks, or global comments such as good, bad, etc. - It must be appropriate: corresponding to the student- writer‘s background knowledge, level of learning, abilities, and so forth.

2.14 Forms of Feedback