We have all been there: there’s a great big stack of writing assignments you need to grade, and it seems only to be getting bigger, more unwieldy. You know it will take you a significant chunk of time. Adding to the pressure, we have to navigate all the ways we’ve gotten feedback in the past, especially that dreaded red pen, the scribbles of “awk” and “???” in the margin, and other comments that make us question our value and place in higher education. We often struggle on how to give useful feedback that doesn’t waste a whole lot of time, and that is useful for students’ learning. One way to give helpful feedback in our classes and peer review work is by employing a feedback heuristic developed initially by Bill Hart-Davidson that includes three moves (Describe, Evaluate, and Suggest).

When Feedback Is (and Isn’t) Helpful

There’s longstanding scholarly consensus that feedback when it is timely, frequent, and constructive is a high-impact practice (AAC&U) and can aid in deep meaningful learning. However, how faculty use feedback can run the gambit, often reproducing their own experiences as students (Olinger, 2014), that can slow and disrupt impactful habits of learning and developing. For example, research on faculty feedback in writing studies has demonstrated that feedback that is too general or too focused on surface-level concerns (Beach & Friedrich, 2006; Smith, 1997) can lead students to be unsure, uncertain, and demotivated from their writing practices (Spandel & Stiggins, 1990). From this vantage point, more comments, corrections, and questions is not necessarily better (Harris, 2017). In fact, extensive comments is time poorly spent, especially since it often dilutes students ability to learn from their instructor’s feedback. Experts in writing pedagogy situate feedback as important for developing critical thinking skills, confidence, and habits essential for academic and professional success. 

Describe-Evaluate-Suggest Feedback Strategy 

According to EliReview, a digital platform designed by writing teachers to support giving helpful feedback and encouraging revision, describe-evaluate-suggest is a three-step process to give helpful feedback that ultimately constructs the experience of a reader, commenting on specific criteria, and offering pathways for revision. 

Step One: Describe

In a few sentences, explain what the main ideas, observations, and choices that are made in the student’s work. This step helps students understand the experience of someone reading their work. 

Example “describe” feedback: “Thank you for sharing your work with me! In this essay, you examine how the weather impacts the story. You make comparisons to data from Sweden and offer a quote from your primary source” 

Step Two: Evaluate

In a few sentences, explain where the student’s work meets stated criteria and where it might not meet the criteria. This step helps the student see connections between the stated gradable criteria and their work. 

Example “evaluate” feedback: “One criteria for this assignment is your ability to analyze, breaking apart different ideas based on different evidence. In this assignment, you move from offering your quote to directly saying what you think the quote means.” 

Step Three: Suggest

In a few sentences, explain what steps the student might take to develop their writing. The more concrete and specific the better. This step provides students with options for their next draft.

Example “suggest” feedback: “As you revise, give yourself space to unpack and identify specific ideas, words, and concepts from the quotes you provide. You might consider writing 3-5 sentences after each quote to explain what is significant to the point you are making.”

Classroom Ideas You Can Try 

The Describe-Evaluate-Suggest model for feedback is one way experts in writing pedagogy who focus on high-order concerns (audience, thesis, and more) can transcribe helpful feedback to students in a beneficial way. Below are a few ideas you can try out in teaching with the describe-evaluate-suggest model:

• Explicitly teach the Describe-Evaluate-Suggest model: Teach students how to use this tool for their own work and the feedback they give others (both in school and in their professional work). I have designed in class activities for students to use the D-E-S model to give feedback to their hypothetical messy roommate and as a side-by-side comparison from cake competition shows (like Nailed It!). This helps them practice these feedback moves in low-stakes, fun ways.    

• Position this feedback in a feedback loop: Feedback doesn’t only have to happen at the end of a project! Instead, consider where in the learning and writing process would be the most impactful time to give feedback– even if only on a small section of the final work. 

• Invite students to create a revision plan: Once students receive feedback, ask them to complete a revision plan. I ask students to plot the feedback they receive next to their plan to revise in a revision grid activity. 

Conclusion

Experts in writing pedagogy situate feedback as part of a broader set of teaching and learning toolkits that can foster belonging, build meaningful enduring relationships, and develop habits and practices for academic and professional success. By locating helpful feedback as part of the learning and writing process, we can maximize our time and increase helpfulness in giving feedback by trying out the describe-evaluate-suggest method. 

References and Resources

Beach, R. & Friedrich, T. (2006). “Response to Writing.” Handbook of Writing Research, edited by Charles A. MacArthur, Steve Graham, and Jill Fitzgerald, 222-234. New York: The Guilford Press.  

Bean, J. C., & Melzer, D. (2021). Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning. Wiley. 

Hart-Davidson, Bill. Describe – Evaluate – Suggest : A Helpful Feedback Pattern. EliReview

Harris, M. (2017). When responding to student writing, more is better. Bad Ideas About Writing. pp. 268-272. 

Olinger, A. R. (2014). On the instability of disciplinary style: Common and conflicting metaphors and practices in text, talk, and gesture. Research in the Teaching of English, 48(4), 453-478.

Smith, S. (1997). The genre of the end comment: Conventions in teacher responses to student writing. College Composition & Communication, 48(2), 249-268.

Spandel, V. & Stiggins, R. J. (1990). Creating writers: Linking assessment and writing instruction. Longman. 

About the Author

Nick Sanders (he/him) is an Assistant Professor at Writing & Rhetoric. He is a queer scholar-practitioner committed to justice-centered institutional change through antiracist and queer approaches to writing pedagogy, campus leadership, and public and professional writing. Outside of work, he likes to make (and eat) sourdough bread. 

Edited by Emma Sikora, CETL Editorial Assistant Intern. 

Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC.

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