Be Timely, Specific, Positive in Your Written Feedback by Bev Santo

The handwritten words “GOOD WORK!” loitered on the cover page of my 22-page research paper. The paper had made a leisurely trip in an 8- by 10-inch manila envelope from me to my mentor and back again. Eager to find out more about how the paper had been received I quickly flipped through the pages looking for my mentor's comments. But not a single drop of ink decorated, highlighted, or conversed with the black type of my carefully considered paragraphs. I had spent hours, days, and weeks researching and constructing this paper. The near silence I received in return was deafening.

Fortunately, I wasn’t completely unprepared for this lack of usable feedback. When I met my graduate mentor for the first time she had asked, “Are you self-directed?” As a graduate of Prescott College, a single mom, and a full-time educator, I assured her I was. 

“Good,” she said. “This job supports my real profession which is writing. If you’re not self-directed I can’t work with you.”

Three months later when I received her two-word response to my first paper, my mentor's definition of 'self-directed' became as clear as bottled water. When I had assured her I was self-directed, I meant that I was motivated and personally engaged in my learning, ready to take responsibility for the writing, reading, and research that lay ahead. I thought that the mentor's role was to walk beside the self-directed student, coaching, facilitating, being a part of the support crew, and providing resources, feedback, and encouragement. Sure, as a student I would do the heavy lifting of being fully engaging in my own intellectual growth and goal-setting. That the mentor would respond to my writing helpfully I took for granted.

Twenty-five years of teaching, learning, and mentoring have passed since that experience in graduate school. In that time I have developed a rule of thumb regarding providing written feedback to undergraduate and graduate students when they do the hard work of writing a formal paper. The rule has three parts:

• Be timely.
• Be specific.
• Be positive. 

What it means to be timely has changed since the advent of the internet but it is a good idea for all mentors to think about what timely means from the student's perspective. Today's mentor might worry that 'timely' means 'immediate' to some students. That means it is best to let students know what kind of turn around time to expect on a paper or draft so that there are no misunderstandings later. For a standard assignment in MAP, mentors should ask students to allow one to two weeks for a mentor to respond with questions, comments, and encouragement written directly on the paper. One to two weeks is plenty of time to give substantive feedback rather than just a thumbs up or thumbs down, either of which minimizes the student's efforts.

If you struggle to give students feedback in a timely manner, reflect on on the barriers to your doing so, i.e. what's causing you to postpone feedback to a student who is eagerly awaiting your comments? Do you feel that you must rewrite or heavily edit each draft you receive? Are you avoiding the task of responding to a student because you dread hurting the student's feelings by pointing out the paper's flaws? Do you feel unqualified to give the student specific, constructive advice on writing? 

In the next post on my feedback rule of thumb, we'll discuss ways to be specific in your feedback that will help your students without drowning you in thankless work. Once you get the hang of giving your students effective writing feedback that empowers them to revise thoughtfully, you may find it easier to be more timely with your much appreciated responses. 

Photo credit: FotoRita [Allstar maniac] / Foter.com / CC BY-SA