Incentivizing Multiple Revisions Improves Student Writing Without Increasing Instructor Workload

Previous research has shown that when students are required to submit a draft and a revision of their writing, large proportions of students do not improve across drafts. We implemented a writing assignment in which students were permitted to submit up to four optional drafts. To encourage substantive revisions, students were awarded additional points if they received all points on the grading rubric. Based on the grades of the instructors, 31% of students eventually earned perfect scores in this assignment, compared to 13% in a typical single revision assignment. Permitting students to submit up to four optional drafts resulted in nearly the same amount of grading for the instructor as requiring students to submit two drafts.