Resumen de “We improved presenting voice in our writing”
Ying Wang, Hua Chen, T. Pascal Brown
This study investigated the role of teacher feedback in presenting students’ voice and writing quality of personal statements (PSs). PSs are essays intended to grant writers’ admission into graduate programs. Twenty third-year undergraduate students majoring in English participated in this study. Three drafts were collected in an English as a foreign language (EFL) writing class, and teacher feedback was given on the first two drafts. Three participants were interviewed to share their thoughts about voice development and revisions. Drafts 1 and 3 were analyzed using an analytic voice rubric, a holistic rating, and an analytic rubric. It was found that students presented a unique voice in Draft 3 and improved their writing quality by using teacher feedback in classroom contexts. Overall voice was found to strongly correlate with writing quality. Findings of the study demonstrate the importance of teacher feedback in improving students’ abilities to articulate their voice and writing quality in EFL writing.
