Keep a comment bank for the recurring 80%

Most feedback on any given task falls into a handful of recurring categories. Writing those from scratch every time isn't rigour; it's rework. The EEF's review of written marking found a stark mismatch between the hours teachers invest in marking and the evidence that much of it helps (Elliott et al., 2016). Bank your best version of each recurring comment, and spend the freed time on the 20% of feedback that's genuinely specific to one student.

In practice

• Build it as you mark: each time you write a comment for the third time, it goes in the bank, numbered, so a margin can just say "③ plus see me about your conclusion."
• Write bank entries as next steps, not descriptions (see "Return one thing to fix").
• AI can draft a bank quickly ("ten common feedback comments for [task], each with a concrete next step"), but edit them into your own voice, and never paste named student work in to get them (see "Never paste student names into a chatbot").
• Review the bank each term. If a comment stops recurring, you've taught it. Retire it and enjoy that.