Feedback Tips
 

Feedback is one of the most powerful ways to build and improve writing skills. For those giving feedback, it's a golden opportunity to let people know what they should keep doing, point out unintended consequences, and suggest ways to better their performance. Through well-delivered and well-timed feedback, writers can become more confident in their ability to write and more motivated to keep writing.
 
Giving Feedback
1. Be tentative, provisional.
You are one observer offering your perceptions. You are not the bearer of the TRUTH.

2. Begin with inquiry. ¬
Begin with the writer.
• How do you like your feedback?
• What were you trying to do; what were your intentions?
• How well did you accomplish your goals?
Most people are harder on themselves than you would ever be.

3. Share observations and interpretations rather than conclusions.
• Describe! Use the Writing Competency to help you to be specific. Support statements with examples.

Conclusions don't yield useful data. When we observe something, we interpret it according to our own experiences and values, and then we reach a conclusion about it. Others can see things that we don't see or interpret them differently to conclude differently.

To accommodate differences in perceptions and values, give the writer as much data as possible ─ what you observed, your interpretation, reasoning, feelings. This specificity allows the receiver to understand where you're coming from and perhaps challenge your conclusions.

4. Interact.
Feedback is a conversation, not a lecture. Probe. Explain. Discuss.

5. Be honest.

6. Review no more than 2-3 points per session.

7. Take into account the needs of the receiver and giver.
Feedback can be destructive when it fails to consider the needs of the person on the receiving end.

8. Check feedback for accuracy.
Was the intended message received? Can the receiver repeat what was said to see if it corresponds to what the sender had in mind?

Is this one person's impression or an impression shared by others? Sometimes it may help to check it out with someone else.

9. Practice what you preach.
Model the behavior that you would like others to exhibit. Asking others for feedback on your writing models the way.

10. Give the good news.
Let writers know what they've done right, or well and why.
 
Begin and end the feedback session with encouragement. Find something to appreciate. Be sincere.
 
P.S. Give appreciation to everyone in your organization no matter what their position ─ up, down and sideways.
 
Getting & Receiving Feedback
Getting feedback involves asking people ─ interested in your effectiveness and able to observe your behavior ─ to speak specifically and honestly about it.
 
Receiving feedback involves active listening, paraphrasing, asking clarifying questions, and evaluating the feedback.
1. Embrace constructive feedback.
Recognize the value of what is being said and the speaker's right to say it.
 
2. State your preferences and intentions.
What kinds of feedback do you prefer?
What areas do you want feedback on?
What were you trying to accomplish?

3. Actively listen.
Try to understand and hear what the person giving feedback is saying. Use open-ended questions to allow and encourage the person to give more detail and elaborate. What? How? Who?

Paraphrase what the other person has said and reflect it back.
4. Accept feedback of any sort for what it is ─ information
Try to avoid immediate defensiveness ─ arguing, denying and justifying. This just gets in the way of appreciating information that the person is giving to you.
 
5. Make your own choice about what you intend to do with the information.
Take what you find useful, store other points for consideration, and ignore the rest.

6. Get different points of view from people who are interested in your effectiveness.
Select a variety of people to give you feedback. Peers, friends, content experts offer different perspectives.

7. Don't waste people's time if you don't want anything less than a rave.