You are reminded of the importance of referring to high-quality literature in your essay (rather than to poor-quality literature found in online journals, and to low-quality journals like Procedia). Whether you are doing Essay 1 or Essay 2. I strongly encourage you to email me and/or meet me to discuss your essay to ensure you understand the instructions and what is required.
Choose one of the following essays:

Essay 1:
Teachers have various options when they consider how to correct L2 student writing. Describe and
exemplify 2 or 3 correction techniques and justify their use.
In order to justify these correction techniques, to support your argument that these techniques are effective and appropriate, you should (i) refer to empirical studies of L2 writing correction; and (ii) refer to specific classroom contexts (i.e., by drawing on your own teaching and learning experience in particular types of classes and with particular kinds of learners).
You may consider counter-arguments against the correction techniques you discuss and rebut them to make your case stronger.
Here is a suggested structure you could use for your essay:
1) Introduction, in which you specify which correction techniques you will focus on, and provide some details of the teaching/learning context you will be referring to (including details like country, proficiency level, type of school/college/university, and any other relevant details like class size, whether the class is an exam class, etc.).
2) Correction Technique 1
To ensure you address all parts of the essay rubric, you need to describe, exemplify, and justify the use of this correction technique.
Here is more information about how to do this:
Describe = say what the technique is (e.g., giving direct correction)
Exemplify = give examples of the correction technique. So here you can show examples of, for instance, how you would give direct correction
Justify = show why using the technique [e.g., giving direct correction] is a good idea.
For this part, you can refer to: (i) empirical studies which support this technique, which appear to provide evidence that it works; and (ii) your classroom context, to show why using this technique is a good idea, with your learners, in your context. If you wish, you could also provide counter-arguments against this correction technique by referring to research evidence and to your teaching/learning experience and then rebut these counter-arguments, showing they’re not true—or are only true in certain contexts but not in your context.
3) Correction Technique 2
(See guidance on section 2 to help you write this part of your essay.)
4) Conclusion

Essay 2:
Respond to an authentic student text by giving written feedback. Explain and justify why you have
given the feedback you did, and outline any other form(s) of feedback you might give this student.

Remember to set the scene by explaining the student’s teaching/learning context, needs, etc. Please note that your written feedback should be in addition to the 3,000 words you write for the essay, and that you are required to submit with your essay the student’s text AND your feedback. Please note that I can supply some authentic student texts if required. *However, I will NOT accept an essay about a student text you corrected during the extension and consolidation session in class!*
Here is a suggested structure you could use for your essay:
1) Introduction, in which you set the scene by explaining who the student is, his/her context (including details like country, proficiency level, type of school/college/university, and any other relevant details like class size, whether the class is an exam class, etc.).
2) Feedback theme 1
You identify a feature of your feedback, explaining what kind of feedback you gave; and justifying why you decided to give this kind of feedback. The feedback theme will focus on a feedback technique, such as direct or selective correction; or giving praise or hedged comments. Or any other technique which is suitable for this writer. To help you explain what kind of feedback you gave, you can produce example excerpts from
your feedback in your essay. To justify the type of feedback, you can show why the feedback technique [e.g., giving direct correction] is a good idea. For this part, you can refer to: (i) empirical studies which support this
technique, which appear to show it works; and (ii) your classroom context, to show why using this technique is a good idea, with your learners in general (and the student who wrote this text in particular), in your context.
3) Feedback theme 2
4) Feedback theme 3
5) Feedback theme 4
6) Conclusion, in which you can talk about any other forms of feedback you may wish to give to
this student, and how/why.
7) Appendix, in which you include the student’s text and your feedback on the student’s writing
You are reminded of the importance of referring to the relevant research literature in your
essay.
*NB: Essay 2 above has constituent parts (written feedback and student text) that
should be included in addition to the 3,000 words you write for the essay. These
parts should be included in an appendix.

Please pay attention to the following as you draft your essay:
 Please reproduce the essay question you’re answering word for word and in full. Don’t make up your own title or change the title—just copy it out to begin your essay. So for instance, if you decide to do essay 1, the question is: Teachers have various options when they consider how to correct L2 student writing. Describe and
exemplify 2 or 3 correction techniques and justify their use.
In order to justify these correction techniques, to support your argument that these techniques are effective and appropriate, you should (i) refer to empirical studies of L2 writing correction; and (ii) refer to specific classroom contexts (i.e., by drawing on your own teaching and learning experience in particular types of classes and with particular kinds of learners). You may consider counter-arguments against the correction techniques you discuss and rebut them to make your case stronger.
Don’t title your essay:
Correction techniques for L2 student writing
Don’t title your essay:
Correcting student writing in China
Don’t title your essay:

How to correct L2 student writing
Write the title of your essay like this:
Teachers have various options when they consider how to correct L2 student writing. Describe and exemplify 2 or 3 correction techniques and justify their use. In order to justify these correction techniques, to support your argument that these techniques are effective and appropriate, you should (i) refer to empirical studies of L2 writing correction; and (ii) refer to specific classroom contexts (i.e., by drawing on your own teaching and learning experience in particular types of classes and with particular kinds of learners).
You may consider counter-arguments against the correction techniques you discuss and rebut them to make
your case stronger.
 Use 1.5 or double spacing, rather than single spacing
 Please insert page numbers in your essay
 The list of references is titled ‘References’, NOT * ‘Reference’
 Use the School’s referencing guide to format your reference list correctly and to ensure all the information you need is included in the reference list. See the Guide here: https://librarydevelopment.group.shef.ac.uk/referencing/mhra-author-date.html
 ‘writing,’ ‘research,’ ‘feedback’, and ‘input’ are normally uncountable nouns, meaning they
don’t take a plural, e.g.
‘a piece of writing’: correct
* ‘pieces of writings’: incorrect (rewrite as many pieces of writing)
‘a great deal of research’: correct
* ‘many researches’: incorrect
‘two rounds of feedback’: correct
* ‘two feedbacks’: incorrect
 Call your text an ‘essay’ or a ‘paper’. It’s NOT an ‘article’. An article is a text which is written
for publication in a newspaper or journal.
 When referring to different parts of your essay, refer to sections, NOT ‘chapters’. Chapters refer
to parts of a book or a dissertation, but not an essay.
 I frequently see these two phrases used incorrectly: ‘At last’ to mean ‘Lastly’ (If you’re not sure
of the difference, see a good grammar, like Michael Swan’s Practical English Usage).
For instance:
In this essay, I will discuss politeness and gender. *At last Lastly, I will talk about language in
the workplace.
 I frequently see ‘mainly’ being used inappropriately. If you’re ‘mainly’ going to discuss something, that means you’re going to discuss AT LEAST two things, focusing predominantly on one of them. If you’re ONLY talking about one thing, you’re not going to ‘mainly’ focus on it.
For instance: I will talk about two aspects of academic writing in this essay: hedging and paragraphing.
However, I will mainly talk about hedging. This is correct. There are two things that will be discussed, but the discussion about hedging will occupy most of the space.
 Here are some spelling mistakes I see many times each year:
*‘leaners’ (for learners)
*‘wiring’ (for writing)
*‘underlying’ (for underlining)
 In the discipline of TESOL, it is standard for authors to refer to themselves as ‘I’ (rather than ‘the author’). I would encourage you to use ‘I’ to refer to yourself in your writing.
 The two most common reasons for failing a module are:
i) Plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional, and
ii) Failing to answer the essay question
Reason ii) is why I ask you to reproduce the essay rubric word for word, and in full, so that it means you’re particularly aware of EVERY part of the question, and answer every part. So for instance, if the essay question asks you to i) explain; ii) describe; and iii) justify, have you done all three? If the essay question asks you to identify a specific teaching/learning context, do so— preferably in the introduction.
 Finally…Do email me and/or arrange a meeting to talk about what the essay question is
asking you to do if you’re less than 100% sure.