Pre-reading Service

• You will receive individual written feedback on your assignment's structure, focus, paragraph structure, flow, style, presentation, referencing, and use of sources.
• This free service for distance and first-year students offers you an opportunity to send your draft assignment to CTL Consultants for review and advice.
• You can submit 2 assignments to the service per semester.
• We will dedicate 1 hour (undergraduate students) or 1½ hours (postgraduate students) to your review.
• Allow 3 working days for assignment turnaround. (The service is closed on public holidays, university holidays and over the Christmas break.)
• View our Introduction to the Pre-reading Service Presentation.
• For more information about the Pre-reading service click here 

Receiving feedback is often one of the most difficult aspects of being a student because it involves elements of vulnerability and judgement. If you haven't used the Pre-reading Service before, you may not know what to expect from Pre-reading feedback.

When reading assignment feedback, try to keep the following in mind:

• Mistakes are not mistakes, in the conventional sense, but opportunities to learn.
• Constructive criticism leads to opportunities for improvement (without feedback, how can anyone progress and improve?).
• Try not to take the feedback personally.
• Email: onlinelearningdevelopment@massey.ac.nz if you have any questions about the feedback you have received.

You should receive two separate files from the Pre-reading Service: a summary file which provides a general overview of your feedback, and a review file which is your assignment with tracked changes and comments.

Sometimes you might need to turn on your comments so the feedback is visible (see here for instructions on how to turn track changes on).  Please be aware that the feedback will only be available on Stream during the semester of your study so you might wish to save the summary and review files for future reference. 

It is suggested that you read the summary file first to get a general overview of the feedback. Your summary file should tell you which areas you should prioritise before final submission. Your summary file should address these key areas: structure and focus, style and presentation, and sources and referencing.

• Structure and focus comments refer to whether there is a cohesive and logical flow of thought throughout your assignment. You are also given feedback on your thesis statement (if applicable), paragraph structure , and overall structure of your particular assignment type.
• Style and presentation comments refer to your tone, spelling and grammar, and format and layout.
• Sources and referencing comments focus on source quality and referencing style.

It is suggested that you go through each change and comment and decide whether to accept or reject it and, if appropriate, apply the change or suggestion to the rest of the document. In order to accept or reject a change, you need to right click over the comment; to delete a comment select delete comment, to accept a change click accept insertion, and to reject a change click reject insertion. For instructions on how to accept or reject changes see here.

Note: the Pre-reading Service is not a proofreading service so all of your errors will not be corrected. Instead, an error is modelled once or twice, and then you must find similar issues and correct where necessary.

• Academic writing
• Referencing and plagiarism
• Structure (e.g. in essays, reports, or literature reviews)
• Tone
• Flow

Page authorised by Director, CTL
Last updated o13 August, 2019