Building Your Template from Your Voice Profile

5 min read

Watch: ~4 min · Reflect: ~5 min translating your Voice Profile into the Custom Instructions field

Companion video: Building Your Template from Your Voice Profile (3B.1) — embedded above

Video coming soon.

What this video covers

This is the product video for Module B: Voice & Structure. It assumes you've completed all three Module B readings and produced three artifacts: a Voice Profile, a chosen feedback structure, and a list of template principles. The video walks through translating those three inputs into TA39's Template Builder, with an in-product prep panel that tracks each input as you use it.

What you'll see in the walkthrough

The Template Builder isn't where the work happens — the readings did that. The builder is where the work shows up.

The video shows three things:

The prep panel. A side panel inside the builder shows the three inputs (Voice Profile, Feedback Structure, Template Principles). Items get checked off as they land in the template. If your Voice Profile is empty, the panel offers a small fallback: "Use one recent piece of your own feedback as a quick starting point."
The translation pattern. Each line of your Voice Profile becomes a short instruction in the Custom Instructions field. Tone goes in once. Phrase banks become "use one of these" prompts. The closing line becomes the closing line. The mechanical part is easy; the work was the reflection that produced the profile.
Check the instructions, then listen for your voice in actual feedback. The builder's rendered preview is an illustrative sample, not feedback generated from a student's work. It does not demonstrate how every phrase in your Voice Profile will be used. Check that the template includes the voice instructions you intended; after using it on an assignment, read the generated feedback aloud. Does the opening sound right? Does the growth section feel like your guidance? Does the closing sound natural?

If you did the exercises in the guides, this step takes about five minutes.

Find your voice instructions in the saved template

After saving, open the template in My templates. Its Preview displays the saved structure and instructions. When the template starts with bracketed overall guidance, that guidance appears in the Writing guidance · not printed area, beside or below the structure. Instructions within individual sections stay alongside those sections as grey placeholders.

Look for the tone, phrase choices, and closing instructions you added. Choose Edit to change the original text, Preview to inspect your changes, and Save changes to keep them. Build Your Feedback Template explains the display and bracket warnings with a screenshot.

Use this view to check what you are asking TA39 to do. Use the actual assignment feedback to judge whether it carries your voice and serves the student.

Where this fits in your practice

Pair this video with the three Module B readings: Presenting Your Voice in Feedback, Why Good Feedback Still Doesn't Improve Student Work, and Why Feedback Templates Matter.

You can also re-watch this video whenever your voice or your feedback structure changes. Templates are not finished products; they evolve with practice.