Science, Technology and Engineering

Language and Academic Skills

For Staff

Error Correction Code

When giving feedback on students' writing, it is preferable to identify any grammar or expression problems in a way that gives students an opportunity to self correct their work and improve their writing skills.

Just circling a problem does not provide any indication of what the problem is and students will, therefore, often ignore this feedback. Conversely, writing in the correct word(s) deprives a student of the opportunity to engage with the error and think about how to correct it.

One way around this is to use an error correction code to identify the type of error so that students can correct their own errors and hopefully learn from them. An error correction code may take a little longer at first, but with practice, it can be just as fast as circling the error and faster than writing in the correction.

Error correction codes can be devised to suit an individual marker, but it would be confusing for students if they were exposed to many different codes. Click on the link below for an example of an error correction code often used by teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL).