CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FOUNDATION

A. Feedback

1. Definition of Feedback

Writing is challenging for students since it requires an entirely

different set of competencies and is fundamentally different from speaking

(Brown, 2001: 335). As a consequence, teachers need to offer assistance in

helping them write better. The assistance is called feedback.

Feedback is information that is provided to students about whether or

not their production and interpretation of language is appropriate (Cameron,

2001: 237). It means that feedback is about giving information in a way that

encourages the recipient to accept it, reflect on it, learn from it, and

hopefully make changes for the better. Besides, Irons (2008: 7) states,

“Formative feedback is any information, process or activity which affords or

accelerates student learning based on comments relating to either formative

assessment or summative assessment activities”.

Hyland (2003: 177) mentions that providing feedback is one of the

most important tasks of the teachers of writing. For teacher, feedback on his

classroom can help him grow and improve how the teacher support the

students. Feedback is tied to supports and learning opportunities, teachers

can better reflect on their practice and enhance it.

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 On the other hand, Ferris (2007: 165) states that writing instructors

realize that providing feedback is most time-consuming and also

challenging. The teacher usually explains the reason behind the mistakes,

and he or she further explains what the students should do. So, teacher needs

a lot of time because he or she has to give detailed feedback to every student

who made the mistakes.

2. Kinds of Feedback

In the process of learning in the classroom, teachers provide

assignments and assessment of students. Assignments given to students are

either oral or written. In such activities the teacher must give feedback if the

students do something wrong.

a. Feedback Based on the Type of Work

According to Harmer (2007: 145) there are several ways to conduct

feedback on students during the teaching-learning process such as

feedback on oral work and feedback on writing work.

1) Feedback on oral work

When the students learn to speak, they have to develop their

idea and improve their thinking ability to speak in a communicative

language. Students may make some mistakes when they do a

conversation or present something in English. There are two ways to

conduct feedback on students’ performing verbal work.

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 a) Feedback During Accuracy Work

Teacher needs to decide whether a particular activity in

the classroom is designed to expect the students’ complete

accuracy such as grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary.

Harmer states “Most students want and expect us to give them

feedback on their performance” (2007: 145). It means that

students need to get a new knowledge from the teacher.

b) Feedback During Fluency Work

Teacher needs to respond to the content and language

form. Teacher can give the feedback at the end of students’

performance. Mennim (2003) as cited by Harmer (2007: 144)

mentions that there are three ways teacher can respond to the

students once such activities are over: ‘gentle correction’,

‘recording mistakes’ and last is ‘after the event’.

2) Feedback on Written Work

Written language is simply the graphic representation of

spoken language. “The way we give feedback on writing will depend

on the kind of writing task the students have undertaken and the

effect we wish to create” (Harmer, 2007: 7). Based on that statement,

the teacher can give feedback on students’ worksheet based on the

task and activity that teacher wants. Teacher can mark the students’

efforts right or wrong on their workbook. He inserts the comment on

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students’ draft. The students know their result and revise it based on

feedback by the teacher.

Based on Sugita (2006), there are some ways to feedback

students’ written work.

a) Responding

Teacher as a facilitator offers assistance in helping

students to engage in the thinking process of composing. The

teacher has to request specific information and makes summary

comments on grammar based on students’ text. The comments

can be in the margin of the students’ work or be written as

viewable comments either by using an editing program or by

writing in comments in a different color.

b) Correcting

In assessing writing, teacher can use correction codes to

tell that the students have made some errors and mistakes on

their workbook. The correction codes are written on the body of

text directly. Different teachers use different symbols, so the

students need to be trained about using symbols and the

meaning. Teacher can add symbols if the students write good

point and gives underline on text if it has problem. Summarizing

comment at the below of the text is needed to make the students

understand how to revise their own text.

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c) Training students

Students are introduced about correction symbols. Teacher

can go through them by showing examples of each category.

The students have to think about the symbols without teacher’s

hint. Teacher might get the students to try using correction

symbols by themselves.

d) Involving students

Peer-correction sometimes is needed by teacher to

improve the students’ knowledge in writing. It encourages the

students to correct each other and helps them to become better in

correcting at self. It can also encourage the students to recheck

when they review their own text during the process of drafting.

e) Finishing the feedback process

Teacher gives feedback because he wants to improve the

students’ language use in the future is better than before.

Students’ drafts are responded by the teacher expects the latest

version will revise by them and respond the teacher’ feedback.

The feedback process is a learning process. It means that if the

students can identify the mistake that they have made, the

feedback that teacher has given had a positive outcome for

students.

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 It can be concluded that there are various ways for teachers to

provide feedback on students’ work. Teachers can provide a

response as well as corrections to students' writing. Before giving a

correction, the teacher should explain the correction symbols and

examples. In addition to teachers’ feedback, pair correction can be

used so that students can correct each other. After all is done, the

teacher explores information about the students’ ability to revise

their work, whether or not the feedback from the teacher has a

positive impact.

3. “Insert Comment” Feature

Microsoft Word is a word processing program that allows for the

creation of both simple and sophisticated documents. “Microsoft Word, or

Word, is a full-featured word processing app that allows you to create

professional-looking documents and revise them easily” (Vermaat, 2014: 9).

The program is equipped with templates and wizards to help the students

create useful documents such as resumes, letters and fax cover sheets. There

are also features that allow them to add professional looking graphics to

their documents.

A comment is a note or annotation that an author or reviewer can add

to a document and it can be done by using the feature provided in Word.

Kirszner and Mandell (2009: 35) mention “Word’s comment tool allows

several readers to insert comments at any point or to highlight a particular

portion of the text they would like to comment on and then insert

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annotations”. Add comment or annotation to the documents is one of the

most useful features in Microsoft Word. It provides an easy and effective

way to collaborate and comment on document drafts. 

Microsoft Word displays the comment in the Reviewing pane or in a

balloon in the margin of the document. A balloon shows markup elements

(for example, comments) in the margins of your document so that it does

not cover text or affect the layout of the document. User can use balloons in

Print Layout view or in Web Layout view to easily see and respond to

reviewers' changes and comments.

Teachers need to add notes or comment on certain words or phrases in

the text made by the students, but without changing the text itself. When the

teacher checks the text in a Microsoft Word file, he can add notes without

changing the content of the material. After that, students are asked to review

and revise the text made based on the feedback that the teacher has given.

To add notes or comment on Microsoft Word, teachers can use the

"Comments" feature available in Microsoft Word. This feature is located in

the "Review" menu. This feature allows the teachers to provide feedback to

the student's draft text. The following figure is the example.

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 Figure 2.1 Comment Feature

B. Text Revision

1. Definition of Revision

Writing is one of the language skills that used to communicate

indirectly. Writing skills do not come automatically, but they must be

through many practice and regular.

In composition, revision is the process of rereading a text and making

changes content, organization, sentence structures, and word choice to

improve it. Allal, et al. (2004: 9) argue that revision is a fundamental

component of the writing process. It means that revision is the most

important part in writing.

Arthur, et al. (2016: 272) mention, “Revision is widely accepted as a

critical part of writing and writing instruction”. It can be assumed that

revision is an inseparable aspect of writing skills. Fitzgerald (1987: 484) as

cited on Allal, et al. (2004: 9) states, “Revision means making any change at

any point in the writing processes”. So, it can be concluded that revision is

the activity when the writers may add, remove, move, and substitute words

or sentences on the text.

In conclusion, revision is reading activity to identify erroneous errors,

inconsistencies, grammar and punctuation, bad or inappropriate styles, in

case of conformity, translation with source text, and making appropriate

changes and corrections to the text.

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2. Types of Revision

Faigley and Witte on Min (2006: 126) mention that taxonomy of types

of revision is shown in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 Taxonomy of Types of Revision.

Text-Based Changes
Surface Changes Microstructure Macrostructure
Changes Changes
Additions Additions Additions
Deletions Deletions Deletions
Substitutions Substitutions Substitutions
Permutations Permutations Permutations
Distributions Distributions Distributions
Consolidations Consolidations Consolidations
Reorderings Reorderings Reorderings

According to Table 2.1, there are three types of revision and each of

them have subcategories. The surface change is divided into seven

subcategories. The following are the types of revisions and their examples

whose changes are marked in bold found in Min (2006: 139).

a. Addition

It means the reviser adds the information on the text.

Here is the example.

First draft: GM foods can increase harvest.

Feedback: There seems to be a logic problem. GM foods do not help

increase harvest. It is the use of genetic engineering

technique that leads to an increase on harvest.

Second draft: Planting GM foods can help farmers increase harvest.

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b. Deletion

It means the reviser deletes the information on the text.

Here is the example.

First draft: In today’s society, GM food is becoming increasingly

trendy. That is GM food is a must.

Feedback: A trendy thing does not mean that it is a must

Second draft: In today’s society, GM food is becoming increasingly

trendy.

c. Substitution

It means the reviser substitutes the information on the text.

Here is the example.

First draft: Today, GM food has tremendously benefited farmers

around the world,...

Feedback: I suggest that you change farmers into people.

Second draft: Today, GM food has tremendously benefited people

around the world,...

d. Permutation

It means the reviser rephrases the information on the text.

Here is the example.

First draft: Cell phones are not just chic gadgets, but with them we

can talk to anyone on the planet from just about

everywhere.

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 Feedback: Can you use a noun phrase to make the structure more

parallel. For example, ‘‘...but communication devices that

can...’’

Second draft: Cell phones are not just chic gadgets, but

communication devices that can bring people together.

e. Distribution

It means reviser re-writes same information in larger chunks.

Here is the example.

First draft: Fifty years ago, people were threatened by poverty and

starvation. My grandma described it a world riddled with

suffering and numerous people were as poor as church

mice.

Feedback: It looks like the starvation is because of poverty, not

lacking of food.

Second draft: Fifty years ago, people were threatened by poverty and

starvation. My grandma described it a world riddled with

suffering. Indeed, without harvests, lots of people were

as poor as church mice.

f. Consolidation

It means reviser puts separate information together.

Here is the example.

First draft: Cell phones with attachable cameras or cameras embedded

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 in them have become ubiquitous that they might be a

potential for intruding people’s privacy. Gym lockers, for

example, where photography is greatly discouraged

since long time ago.

Feedback: The second sentence is not a full sentence. You might want

to combine it with the first one.

Second draft: The ubiquity of cell phones with attachable or built-in

cameras might be intruding people’s privacy, especially

in private places such as gym lockers, where

photography has long been discouraged.

g. Re-order means reviser moves information.

Here is the example.

First draft: GM Food nearly can be seen everywhere you can reach.

Feedback: ‘‘Nearly can be seen’’ means people do not see it. They

‘‘nearly’’ see it.

Second draft: GM Food can be seen nearly everywhere you can reach.

3. Descriptive Text

a. Definition of Descriptive Text

There are many kinds of text in writing, and one of them is

descriptive text. By describing one person, place or thing with vivid

detail, a writer can create a descriptive scene in the reader’s mind

(Spencer, 2005: 6). In writing descriptive text, the students have to make

the reader see what they see and feel what they feel through their words.

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 When students describe, he or she has to get the reader to picture

something in the reader mind such as: a feeling, an impression, and an

image. Hogue (2008: 95) states, “Descriptive are word pictures. You tell

how something looks, feels, smell, tastes and sounds. You need to

become a sharp observer and notice many small details so that you can

write a good word pictures.” It means that good descriptive writing

connects the senses such as sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.

In addition, Hogue (2008: 97) mentions “when you write a

description, you tell what something; a person, an object, or a place looks

like”. The writer assumes that the aim of descriptive writing is not only

tell the reader about something but to create in the reader’s mind vivid

images that make the scene come alive. For example, when students

describe a place, they have to convey an atmosphere and a mood of that

place and when they describe a person, they have to convey the central

impression of that person.

Each kind of texts has the different components. The writer

assumes that students of senior high school are required to understand the

component of descriptive text genre: social function, generic structure and

language feature. Descriptive text describes something like a particular

place, certain person or thing from the physical condition. It consists of

identification (mention the special participant) and description (mention

the part, quality, and characters of the subject being described). This genre

uses simple present tense, adjective, noun phrase and adverbial phrase.

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b. Purpose of Descriptive Text

Descriptive text is a text that describes certain things like a person,

a place or an object. Based on Collie, et al (2003: 103), the purpose of

descriptive paragraph is to help the reader to have a mental picture of

what is read. This type of writing appeals to the reader’s senses and helps

to bring a person, object or scene to life. It means that in writing a

descriptive text, students must convey information that appeals to all the

senses in order to give the best possible description to the reader.

The students should use the words that help the readers see, hear,

smell, taste and feel what they are describing in writing descriptive text.

They also should describe the feeling such as happiness, fear, loneliness

and joy. Description helps the readers through our imagination, to

visualize scene or a person, or to understand sensation or an emotion.

Based on explanation of descriptive text above, the writer

concludes that descriptive text is a text which says what a person or a

thing is like. The purpose of descriptive text is to describe a particular

person, place, or thing.

c. Example of Descriptive Text

The text below is the example of descriptive text taken from Blanchard

and Root (2003) as cited by Ferdianti (2005: 62).

The police are looking for a woman who stole a diamond

necklace from Dayton's jewelry store. According to the store
manager, the woman is approximately five feet tall, very thin,
light-skinned, and about 60 years old. She has short, straight
grey hair and wears glasses. Her most distinguishing mark is the
dimple in her chin. When she was last seen, she was wearing

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 heavy blue eye makeup and large, silver hoop earrings. She had
on a short black coat and black pants.

C. Related Research

The first related research is done by Purnawarman (2011) at Virginia

Polytechnic Institute and State University. The title is Impacts of Teacher

Feedback on ESL/EFL Students’ Writing. This research was an experimental

study using a repeated measures design with one independent variable and two

dependent variables. The research shows that the teacher written corrective

feedback is effective in improving students’ writing in ESL/EFL context. The

data are taken from undergraduate students in the Department of English

Education at Indonesia University of Education.

The population of the research is 170 freshmen students in the

Department of English Education. Three instruments were used in this study.

The first two instruments were writing prompts to assign participating students

to write the essays. These writing prompts were attached to the email sent to

the participants during the treatment stage. Students in each group produced

two narrative essays. Teacher feedback was provided in two segments for the

first essay and students made two revisions based on the feedback. The errors

on each stage of students’ writing were marked and counted to be compared

among each stage of the writing and between groups. The results of data

analysis showed that the mean number of errors in all three treatment groups

decreased in each writing stage. The result indicates that there is an effect of

teacher’s corrective feedback on the students’ writing quality.

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 The second related research is done by Abuseileek and Abualsha’r

(2014) at Al Bayt University, entitled Using Peer Computer-Mediated

Corrective Feedback to Support EFL Learners’ Writing. The study investigates

writing aspect (content, structural organization (text level), structural

organization (sentence level), grammatical accuracy, lexical appropriateness,

punctuation, and spelling) which is mainly developed by computer-mediated

corrective feedback (track changes, recast, or metalinguistic). The data are

taken from sixty-four undergraduate participants were enrolled in a writing

course in a university.

Sixty-four intermediate-level learners were randomly assigned to either a

no-feedback control condition or a corrective feedback, including three

treatment conditions. The first is the “track changes” feature of Microsoft

Word 2010 which double strikes through deletions and marks insertions in a

different color. The second is recast feedback while the third is metalinguistic

feedback. Over the course of eight weeks, each student was required to provide

corrective feedback on drafts written by another group member and to discuss

it with the group members. Further studies are needed using other word

processors, including their different modes of commenting and tracking

changes. Finally, both the experimental and control groups were taught by one

of the writer, which does not make it an ideal situation because the

involvement of the writer in the teaching could introduce bias. The study

concluded students in the recast treatment condition also obtained higher

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significant mean scores than those who received metalinguistic corrective

feedback.

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