Literature Review Writing as a Learner-Centric Process by Beginner-Level Research Students: How Effective are Rubrics for Assessing Students’ Writing?

Abstract

Developing academic writing skills is an essential part of most advanced-level degrees. Writing can help a student identify structure within a complex domain, organise thoughts, and communicate ideas. This study explores literature review writing by beginner-level research students as their beginning steps to approach research writing. A controlled study involving a class of master students writing literature surveys was designed. Six rubrics (content, structure, text quality, novelty, timeliness, and references) were proposed to help guide students’ writing process accompanied by peer feedback sessions and to assist assessors’ assessing the writing.  The results revealed that the use of the six rubrics was beneficial for students’ writing process and valid for assessors’ assessment. Peer feedback showed a positive impact on writing performance. The references rubric was observed as the most effective predictor of grade that may serve as a motivator to engage students in revising for improvement.