This paper takes an in-depth look at the technology and content that powers Revision Assistant, a new stand-alone product from Turnitin that delivers formative feedback to students as they write. Creators Elijah Mayfield and David Adamson explore how they partnered with educators to build Revision Assistant’s content from the ground up, and how the tool leverages cutting edge machine learning to give students feedback when and where they need it most.

In 2015, Turnitin conducted a pilot study of Revision Assistant with eighteen middle and high schools, comprising 164 educators and 3,439 students. This analysis of student writing composed with the help of Revision Assistant revealed three key areas of writing growth: revision of student work, length of student compositions, and performance on standards-aligned rubrics.