eRevise+RF: A Writing Evaluation System for Assessing Student Essay Revisions and Providing Formative Feedback

TL;DR

eRevise+RF is an automated system designed to evaluate student essay revisions, provide formative feedback, and support the improvement of argumentative writing skills through effective assessment and feedback mechanisms.

Contribution

The paper introduces eRevise+RF, an enhanced automated writing evaluation system that assesses revisions and offers feedback, validated through deployment with teachers and students across multiple schools.

Findings

Effective assessment of evidence usage and reasoning revisions

Successful deployment with 406 students and 6 teachers

Improved argumentative writing skills through feedback

Abstract

The ability to revise essays in response to feedback is important for students' writing success. An automated writing evaluation (AWE) system that supports students in revising their essays is thus essential. We present eRevise+RF, an enhanced AWE system for assessing student essay revisions (e.g., changes made to an essay to improve its quality in response to essay feedback) and providing revision feedback. We deployed the system with 6 teachers and 406 students across 3 schools in Pennsylvania and Louisiana. The results confirmed its effectiveness in (1) assessing student essays in terms of evidence usage, (2) extracting evidence and reasoning revisions across essays, and (3) determining revision success in responding to feedback. The evaluation also suggested eRevise+RF is a helpful system for young students to improve their argumentative writing skills through revision and formative feedback.