Below are some descriptions of the possibilities for writing feedback that I can give to you on any particular assignment in this class. While my feedback doesn’t affect your grade, I hope that pairing it with other parts of the class (i.e. peer review, discussions, conferences, and optional visits to the Writing Center) will help you to develop your understanding of your writing, and that this moves you toward the goals that you set for yourself. My goal is to help you to develop your writing in ways that feel useful to you rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach and overwhelming you with comments that you might not need or want or have the interest in applying. 

With each writing assignment that you turn in (Rhetorical Situation Reflection, Self-Assessment, Essay Portfolio 1 draft, Essay Portfolio 1 final draft, Essay Portfolio 2 draft, Essay Portfolio 2 final draft), I will ask you to submit a paragraph asking for feedback. If you do not include this paragraph, I will assume that you do not want any feedback and just want to know whether or not an assignment has met requirements. Please do not just say “all feedback is fine.” Part of the point of this exercise is for YOU to reflect on what YOU want to know about your own work. So be specific.

Here are some things you might ask me (or your classmates) about your work.

Ideas / Big Picture / Global Concerns Feedback:

• Can you tell me what you think my “why” or major purpose is?
• Are there any places where I could develop my point in more detail?
• I’m having trouble expanding my idea about ______. Do you have any ideas?
• (If it’s a Rhetorical Situation Reflection) Am I missing anything that you saw?
• Do my paragraphs seem to connect to one another in a way that seems logical to you? Is there a way I could reorder them?
• Am I you burying the most important information or my own ideas too far into a paragraph or a draft? (sidenote: your teacher is very guilty of this as writer…)
• Am I being repetitive?
• Are there any places where you lose focus as a reader?
• Are there any places that are hard for you to understand?
• Are there any places where you need more (or less!) context?

Genre Feedback

• What do you understand to be the major features of this genre of writing?
• How do you see my piece conforming to this genre or productively diverging from it?
• Is there anything in this piece that you noticed that is different from what you expect this genre to do? What did you notice, and did it work for you as a reader?

Rhetorically-Focused Feedback

• Who did you understand to be the audience for this piece?
• Based on your assessment of the audience, do my choices (language choices, modality choices, subject matter choices, level of explanation, etc.) make sense to you?
• What do you understand to be my major idea in this piece?
• What do you think I’m trying to get my audience to do? (i.e. is there a call to action? am I trying to entertain? am I selling something? what do I want from my audience?)
• In what ways does this piece feel exigent / timely?
• Is this the right modality for this piece, do you think? What other modalities could I consider?

Grammatical / Punctuation / Local Concerns Feedback

If you request this kind of feedback, I will primarily concentrate on: 

• Can you point to to any patterns of grammatical or usage choices that are unfamiliar to you as a reader? Do you think that you’re the audience for this piece?
• Are there any punctuation choices that are unfamiliar to you as a reader? Were there any moments when my punctuation confused my meaning?
• Are there any moments where it was difficult to understand what I meant?
• Are there any sentence-level choices that I’m making that could benefit from some more precision (i.e. I use a general term when I might be looking for something more specific; I use a cliche when I could use a more surprising detail)
• Are there any sentence-level changes I could make so that my writing could be more concise? (i.e. I could use fewer words to say the same thing). Would this help me to better achieve my purpose?

Resources / Additional Info Feedback 

If you request this kind of feedback, we will primarily concentrate on pointing you in the direction of additional resources that might help you to further develop this piece. For example, if you’re writing a Rhetorical Situation Reflection, and you’re having trouble grasping the concept of “exigence,” I could send you some curated resources on thinking about exigence.

Tell Me Something Good About Myself! 

A lot of writing instruction is premised on the idea that we are deficient writers with deficient writing that needs serious rehabilitation. This means that many of us don’t develop a sense about what is GOOD about our writing. We only learn to see the problems. If you request this kind of feedback, I will concentrate on where I see the biggest strengths in your writing.

Just the Facts

This is a required class. I know that this means that not everyone in this class cares about developing their writing. That’s OK! You can choose this option if you just want to know whether or not this assignment has passed the minimum requirements for the grading agreement. I promise that it will not hurt my feelings if you choose this (and only this) option. Giving feedback takes time, and I would rather not give you feedback if you don’t want or need it. 

Sample request paragraphs: 

For each assignment, I will ask you to write a paragraph (you can just put it on Slack when you turn something in to your personal channel or to the #feedback channel) directing me, or your reviewer, toward the kind of feedback that you want us to give to you. You can ask for all of these types of feedback, or select from the menu. But, again, please be as specific as possible. Do not just write “I would like all types of feedback.”

A request for feedback paragraph could look like this: 

“Hi Lindsey. For this draft, I would like for you to primarily concentrate on giving me feedback on ideas / big picture / higher order concerns. Specifically, I’m wondering if you could tell me what you think my major purpose or “why” is in this piece, because I’m not sure if it’s coming through. I’d also like to know if there are places where you lose focus as a reader. I’m especially interested in whether or not you think that my organization is working, because I’ve gotten feedback from teachers in the past that said that my organization needed help. And if you could tell me something good about this piece, that would be great! Thanks!” 

Or it could look like this:

“Hi Lindsey. For this draft, I really just want to know whether or not I’ve met the minimum requirements. I don’t think I want to pursue this topic any further, and I don’t plan to make revisions to this draft beyond the ones that I have to make for the grade. Thanks.” 

Or it could look like this (posted on the #feedback channel):

“Hi everyone. I’m really curious about my grammar, punctuation, and usage for this draft, but I also want to make sure that my “big picture” ideas are clear. So, it would be helpful to know if there are any patterns that anyone is noticing that seem unfamiliar to you. But I’m also curious if you see any places where I can develop my writing in more detail. It can be hard for me to meet the word count for things, and I know there are some places I could probably say more. Also, honestly, I have very little confidence in my ability to write in English, so it would be helpful to hear something good about my writing. Thanks to whoever gives me feedback!”