Feedback may be defined as a response by someone else (sometimes the tutor, but sometimes other students) to something one does. It can be used to help to assess and improve performance. If you want to implement a successful 'feedback loop', you must be able to change your students' set patterns of behaviour where appropriate. Sherman (1994) tells us that feedback must not only be useful and useable, but it must be actively used and put into practice by the student, so as to lead to a positive transformation of performance. When you are teaching writing, you will occupy at least four different positions when responding to students' work (Tribble, 1996). At various times, you will be:

• a reader, responding to the ideas and 'interest' of the text;
• an assistant, helping a student to construct a text;
• an evaluator, commenting on a learner's overall performance, strengths and weaknesses;
• an examiner, providing an overall assessment of how the student can write.

You will be likely to shift back and forth between these different roles, and sometimes you may need to occupy more than one role at the same time. All of these roles require feedback, and Sherman (1994) indicates a wide range of approaches to using feedback to improve writing performance. (See Module 13, section 13.5 for further discussion of how to provide feedback and correct errors.)