Posts Tagged ‘Giving feedback’

Next time you’re asked to review something, remember that people are super sensitive to criticism about their writing. Also, remember they probably invested a lot of time in it already and any changes you suggest will mean even more work for them.

Here are four tips that will help ensure your comments lead to positive change without hurting any feelings:

1. Clarify what your colleague wants you to read for. Do they want a substantive edit, where you suggest changing the structure, or do they want a quick proofread? Also, find out what their deadline is. If the deadline is one hour away, there’s no point suggesting substantive changes.
2. Always try to point out something positive, and give your positive comments the same weight you give your criticism. It’s difficult to see the positive on your first read–much easier to see the flaws, so read it through twice. This ensures they will repeat the positive next time they write and makes them more receptive to your other comments.
3. Express your comments from a reader’s point of view. Instead of saying “This sentence is unclear” say something like, “When I was reading this section, I found this sentence unclear.”
4. Resist the urge to impose your personal writing style on the writer. Allow others to have their own voice. (Hard to do!)

Have you ever had a colleague eagerly ask for feedback on a document only to have her face fall as you eagerly point out all the ways she could improve it? Why, you wonder, did she ask for help in the first place if she doesn’t really want it?

Most people–we’d even say all people–are sensitive about their writing. Our writing reveals so much about who we are that we don’t respond well when we’re hit by a barrage of criticism, however well intended.

Giving feedback effectively has obvious benefits for the writer. It also has tremendous benefits for the reader. When you review someone else’s document it’s easy to achieve the objective distance you need to see how it can be improved. It’s far more difficult to achieve this objectivity with your own writing. And the better you get at looking critically at the writing of others, the easier it becomes to look critically at your own writing.

In our courses, we include an opportunity to peer edit, once participants share a common language and criteria. Here’s what we recommend:

1. Read the document twice–once for content and strategy, and once for structure, style and grammar. The first time you read it, you’ll notice local things, and the second time you’ll be more aware of the overall structure and strategy. Make note of the things that are successful, as well as the things you think could be handled differently.
2. Give the writer the good news first. There is always something positive to say and we learn a lot by seeing what we’re doing successfully. Also, people are more willing to hear your criticism if you first acknowledge their value.
3. Organize your critical feedback into two categories: global and local. The global feedback will include comments about structure, content and strategy. The local feedback will include comments about style and grammar. You may decide to withhold the local level feedback if the document needs to be restructured or rethought strategically, since it may need rewriting.