Feedback and Critique

Good criticism of someone else’s writing involves helping them adjust all aspects of their paper in order to perfect it. Feedback on a paper is very important in writing papers because your paper is your words and will always make sense to you but you need to see what it sounds like too another person. The sentences we create may seem clear and obvious to us while they are awkward and confusing to others. We can read through our own papers hundreds of times and still not realize mistakes we made but when someone else reads them, they can notice the first time.

            I think I am helpful when I criticize others’ work because I like suggesting another view they can look at their idea from. I also think its helpful to make their sentences flow better from a reader’s point of view. When critiquing someone’s paper it is important to make sure their ideas make sense to you and correct them if they are organized wrong or in a manner that isn’t clear to others. It can be hard to critique other people’s work because your suggestions could sound rude or aloof. Also, it is difficult to try not to change their ideas and what they are trying to say when you move their words around or adjust their sentences.

            Criticizing other people’s work can be especially hard when you don’t know the person and are not comfortable telling them what to do. It is hard to criticize someone you don’t know because you don’t want to come off as rude or mean to them. You also don’t want to sound bossy or like a know-it-all when giving feedback because it’s their paper and changing too much of their paper can change the ideas they were originally trying to convey.

            The best advice someone can give me when critiquing my paper is to expand on my ideas and show me a different view point because sometimes when we are thinking about something for a long time we get stuck on certain ideas of it and have trouble thinking outside of the box. It is also helpful for someone to tell me when my wording is awkward or if I should use a synonym or substitute for certain words to make my message clearer.

            Getting feedback from many different people is a very good idea because each person’s eyes can realize a mistake that all the others couldn’t since when we read we often skip over little irrelevant words. Also, three different opinions or views on the topic you are writing about are more beneficial than 1 view. If you take the ideas of all 3 people and reconstruct your paper with their suggestions it will be a lot more perfect than the paper with one person’s suggestions.

            Constructive criticism helps people with the grammar, syntax, and context issues in their paper. It helps expand the writer’s ideas while not replacing them or changing their views. It focuses on the fine tweaking so that the author can produce a more perfected final copy.