Feedback Strategies: What There Is, Not What There Isn't

One problem with feedback is that it feels personal, especially negative feedback. One trend in feedback giving is to make "a feedback sandwich" with positive comments before and after the critique. However, people who receive feedback sandwiches may see the positive parts as a measly way to soften the blow. As a result, they will dread getting feedback more than they did before.

This dread is a problem because feedback, whether it is self-reflection or a progress report, is vital to improvement. The article, Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback, by Marshall Goldsmith, mentions one feedback technique is to focus on solutions for the future without nitpicking every specific problem.

If you notice one story has a lot of typos, you don't need to say "you spelled the has teh twice." Instead, we can give tools are each other to use in our future writing endeavors. One tool that I would recommend to anyone is Grammarly, which if you haven't used it, it helps me a lot with the word count, word usage, and spelling

Gravity Goldberg's article, Be a Mirror: Give Readers Feedback That Fosters a Growth Mindset, also gave useful tips on how to provide feedback. The most important advice was about acknowledging what is there not what is missing.

I feel this is especially important in a class with storytelling because what makes a good story is very subjective. We all have some retelling in our minds from the stories we've read. If we picture our retelling idea while reading a classmate's, we ignore their strengths.

If you enjoy the emotional part of a story a lot more than the action part, you can provide feedback that isn't a criticism of their action writing.

One example of a lousy critique is, "your story would have been better if you stuck to the character's emotion." Instead, you can focus on what they wrote and say, "the way you expressed the character's emotions with actions was incredibly vivid ." It is also essential to be specific. Perhaps you can bring up memorable parts of the story. An example of this could include, "your inclusion of 'she tilted her head' was a great way to convey that she was confused."

This type of comment tells the writer a highlight you saw in their writing without adding complaints about how other parts were bland compared to what you liked. Because storytelling, like any subjective, plot elements you disliked may be fantastic to another person.

Overall, I think the most crucial thing in feedback is to be heartfelt but not cruel. Don't nitpick a person in a creative space. Instead, we can all work together with giving each other tools to help us succeed without focusing on past mistakes.

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