Language, Individual & Society, Volume 16, 2022

Abstract: Research across all spectrums of multi-disciplinary learning, in higher education, has concluded that teacher written feedback after the completion of a written assignment, in a product approach writing course, is rarely read and implemented by students. The fundamental reason for this is that students perceive it to be of little relevance to future assignments (Crisp 2007; Tom et al. 2013). Therefore, for students to learn and grow as academic writers, intervention is required during the writing process (Hattie and Clarke 2019; Hattie and Timperley 2007). This intervention can be, for example, in the form of teacher-student feedback and peer feedback, in verbal and written communication. As a contribution to this process, this paper explores the possible use of key strategies from the work of Berne (1961, 1964, 1974, 2018, 2010) and his theory of Transactional Analysis (TA), (DGTA e.V.) in the context of teachers communicating both formative and summative feedback on student academic writing. Key tools from TA will be presented and shown to support in the delivery of feedback. Furthermore, the significance of understanding individual beliefs, whether it be your own or that of your students, will be addressed. A step-by-step guide is then presented with representative examples to exemplify how these strategies were implemented in two academic writing courses in higher education. Benefits of this strategy included reduced marking and grading time and gratifying learning outcomes, including an average grade score of 84% in the final term written assignment.