6 Best Practices for Writing Feedback
Today, I want to give you some tips on providing feedback on an author’s writing, garnered from my expertise as PhD in Rhetoric and Writing and my years of experience working with writers. Whether you are an author, editor, teacher, or parent, this advice will help you provide more constructive and encouraging feedback for your authors (or yourself).
PRACTICE 1: CAREFULLY CONSTRUCT YOUR DIRECTIONS
The most immediate thing you can do to improve an author’s writing is to carefully construct your directions so that you are clear, direct, and simple. Good directions tell writers exactly what you want them to do, how to do it, when it is due, and how you will review it. Here is an example of a vague writing assignment prompt that leaves writers in the dark.
“Revise this paragraph because it sounds strange and is confusing, especially Ernie’s character.”
In this case, writers don’t know what you want them to do with the writing, what kind of change you expect or where to start. Even terms like “evaluate,” “explore,” and “define” are only a little better. Be as specific as possible in how you expect writers to get from point A to point Z. For example, you might instead say something like the following:
“As I read this paragraph, I was confused by Ernie’s actions as a character. Earlier, you portrayed him as timid, but in this paragraph, he acts in ways display confidence and bravado. At the moment, you have not led readers to believe Ernie is capable of such actions. How might you revise his actions here to better suit his current character traits and meet the audience’s expectations of him? Alternatively, you could revise your earlier portrayal of him in such a way that readers can imagine him to be capable of such confidence at this point. You could do this by placing him in an earlier situation where he begins to demonstrate growth in his own confidence.”
PRACTICE 2: Read the work more than once, and completely before making developmental/content edits.
Put the pen down; don’t use the comment function. Read the work all the way through once before you start offering large-level (macro) comments. Once you have read the essay, story, technical manual, you know where the author and work is (or isn’t) going and can have a clear idea of the piece as a whole (holistically). On a second read you can make marginal and summative (see below) comments as necessary. You will actually save time this way since you won’t be making comments that you later notice the author has already addressed.
PRACTICE 3: MAKE YOUR COMMENTS SPECIFIC.
The most effective thing editors can do to get authors to revise their writing is to provide specific comments on problems that you encounter. Don’t write vague notation symbols (see myth #5 in 5 Myths about Editing Writing) for writers to decode. Instead, point to a specific instance of something the author is doing well and mix your comments with areas of confusion in the writing, asking writers to tell you what they meant and tell them where you were confused and why. Remember, you are still primarily a reader and if you are confused, then the writer didn’t communicate clearly in some way. Clearing up confusion goes a long way to revising ineffective writing. Your comments should focus on macro-level issues such as development of ideas, logical connections, use of sources and evidence, organization and transitions, central claim and support, character and setting, plot and detail, etc. Leave the sentence-level (micro) stuff for last, if at all. If you give writers a chance to revise their writing and you comment on these deeper issues, the texts will change dramatically so you save time by not pointing out the sentence-level stuff that’s going to change anyway.
PRACTICE 4: INCLUDE SUMMATIVE COMMENTS WITH DIRECTIONS FOR REVISION.
Once you have read the piece through the second time and have placed some marginal comments along the way, be sure to think about your writer as learner and summarize your own main ideas. What did the author do well in the piece? What is it you want the author to work on in future writing or in revising a specific piece? What deep-level concerns/confusions can be cleared up and how might the writer begin this process? Where can he/she go for additional help if necessary? In what ways were you confused?
PRACTICE 5: ON FINAL VERSIONS, DIRECT COMMENTS TOWARD THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WRITER.
As noted above, providing a balanced diet of positive and constructive comments helps writers know what they did well and need to work on later. For comments on final drafts, remember that if you plan on continuing to work with this writer, some of your comments should address concerns that might reappear in later work, thus providing a bridge for authors to cross when drafting later writing. Note typical patterns you see in a writer’s construction of ideas, development, or anything related to future drafting.
PRACTICE 6: WHEN YOU REACH COPYEDITING, FOCUS ON “PATTERNS OF ERROR” FIRST.
“Errors often appear in patterns as a result of misapplying perceived rules.”
As you might expect, the idea here is that after holistically assessing a text, you may want to offer a few comments related to sentence-level concerns. If so, read the writing through looking for patterns of error first. What errors is a writer making more than once? Are any of the errors related to other errors or larger categories (such as several different errors related to pronoun use, for example). Provide comments that note the errors exist without correcting them for the writer unless they ask you to at this point. Help the author figure out (with assistance) what the exact error is and where he/she can go to learn about it (website URLs or books are helpful here). Errors often appear in patterns as a result of misapplying perceived rules, so we need to help writers understand the function of the particular rules (guidelines really) they are misapplying. Tell writer why a specific rule works in a specific instance, not just that they need to follow it. After all, we want our authors to be critical thinkers and not just blindly accept everything they hear and read.