Hi and Happy New Year to John and all,
I am with Lynne on this one. If academic departments perceive
learning support as a "fix it" solution, the students are also
likely to perceive it as so - and who can blame them?! I'm
sure they're often told something along the lines of "The
Learning Support team help students with essays" which may
sort of be true, but a bit vague and not helpful.
At Exeter, we don't often give email feedback on essays. The
only time I do is when I'm fully booked supporting students on
an individual basis. I would probably do something similar to
Lynn ie reply saying we look at up to 400 words of essays,
and would the student like to choose the 400 words, telling me
what I need to look at eg argument, structure etc. If the
student doesn't seem to know what s/he needs help on, they
just have a feeling the essay "could be better", I advise them
to look at tutor feedback on previous essays and let me know
the areas of weakness that seem to be highlighted time and
again. It's a bit time consuming, but the only way I can think
of!
Hope this helps
Sarah
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Sarah McCarthy
University of Exeter
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