Giving and Receiving Useful Feedback
Dear Real Academics,
Learning how to ask for and provide useful feedback revolutionized my writing and my teaching of writing. But, first, let me explain what useful feedback is not.
What Useful Feedback is Not: An Illustration
I was an English major for half of my college student life. In fact, my first Ph.D. program was in English Literature though I promptly realized it was not practical enough for me so I left with an M.A. I tell you this biographical information because I was steeped in the world of writing for a very long time; and, yet, I knew little about useful feedback or how to provide it to others.
My college writing process looked something like the following: I would be given a writing prompt with a deadline. After I turned in my work at the end of the term, I would receive a letter grade at the top of my paper with a ton of comments on the sides in red ink.
Consequently, when it was my turn to provide grades to large sections of undergraduate introduction to literature courses, all I did was (unfortunately) mimic my college professors' ways of providing red ink edits with a letter grade on top.
What I described above is not useful feedback.
What Useful Feedback Is: A Definition and Process Description
Useful feedback, as I learned through attending the P.O.W.E.R. writing workshops in graduate school, is about giving or receiving the appropriate feedback for the appropriate stage in the writing process.
There are many layers to the idea I presented above, so let me try to break it down for you as briefly and simply as possible.
How to Ask for Useful Feedback:
- Provide a professor or colleague with 2 - 3 pages of a piece of writing you are working on. I would recommend setting up an actual 30 min. - 1 hr. appointment to meet "face-to-face" (could be virtually) and use up just that time.
- Depending on the stage of your writing (i.e., beginning, middle, or end), ask your reader to focus on ONE thing such as originality of your idea, clarity of your writing, the flow of your writing, the organization of your writing, APA formatting, or your grammar.
Why just one thing? One thing allows you to improve your writing more quickly with more focus. You can do another round to focus on something different later. And, yes, I recognize some "issues" are related (like organization, clarity, and flow), but still focusing on one can provide tangental ideas for the others that you can get back to later.
Who should I ask? Here, I'd also recommend you build a group of "feedback-givers" who may have strengths in different areas of writing and/or at providing feedback at different stages of the writing. Some people are just more "big picture" people. These people are great for beginning stages of your writing and for overall clarity of your idea. Some people are more detailed oriented. These people are great for middle or later stages of your writing such as organization or editing. Some people are good at both, but some may just enjoy APA editing more than others.
How To Provide Useful Feedback:
- I suggest setting up a reading appointment for 30 min. to 1 hr. max with whoever needs feedback.
- If you are "face-to-face" it is helpful to read your colleagues work out loud. Hearing writing read by someone else provides clarity of where the writing flows and where it does not in terms of both ideas and structure.
- Whether you are face-to-face or not, ask your colleague to tell you what aspect of your writing they would like you to focus on. Provide them with ideas like I did above (i.e., originality, clarity, organization, flow, grammar, APA).
- As you read, provide feedback and brainstorm ideas for making the writing stronger. Share your ideas and model how to make the changes and why. In this way, you are providing invaluably useful feedback because you are teaching your colleague new ideas. Then you are allowing them to put new ideas into practice in their own writing.
Note: You can follow the steps above when grading student papers, even asynchronously. I like to do this with drafts of my students' papers. I can promise you that when they turn in the final paper, it is MUCH more pleasant to read and they feel much better about their final product.
What if I Don't Have Anyone to Provide Me with Feedback?
- You can still do your own editing by doing editing rounds. Most softwares now have ways to read-aloud your own writing. You can read, in detail, much more about how to do this in this invaluable resource (Every academic writer should own a copy!):
- Patricia Goodson's, Becoming An Academic Writer: 50 Exercises for Paced, Productive, and Powerful Writing.
(paid link)
- You can also set up an appointment with us easily at www.therealacademics.com, and we'd be happy to provide feedback and coaching on your academic writing process and needs.
Closing
I hope this was helpful, Real Academics! If it was and/or if you have stories or ideas to share about ways you have found to give or receive useful feedback, please let us know by emailing us through our website.
Until next time, happy writing!
Maggie
www.therealacademics.com
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