Date: Thu, 31 Aug 1995 15:55:26 -0700 From: Cinnamon Toast Subject: TECH: Feedback Method Here's part two of my class handout, detailing the feedback method. ________________________________________________________________________ Okay, here's the second installment in my series of huge tech posts. Hope somebody's getting something out of this. :) How Can You Tell If Your Reader Gets What You Give? Feedback No one can tell you whether your work is good or bad. A good or bad what? People can tell you whether your work is a good example of a formula of some kind. They can tell you whether it's something they can sell to a particular market. They can tell you whether you've produced a product that they like or dislike. But no one else has the authority to judge your work on its own merits. Lots of people will try, and once you're dead they can get away with it. Only you know what you gave, so only you can tell if you gave it well. But you can't tell all by yourself. By definition you can't tell all by yourself. Just as no one can tell you whether you've succeeded or failed at what you intended, you can't tell others whether you've communicated to them. You need them to tell you. But you don't need them in your face with their judgments and their opinions of what you should have been doing instead of what you did. Feedback is something you seek out in order to complete the expressing/communicating loop. It is essential to close that loop if you want your work to have meaning to anyone else but you. (Or, for that matter, if you want your work to have meaning to you in one year's time). The purpose of feedback in writing is like biofeedback. It tells you what you've done so you can do more of it, and it tells you when you're wide of your mark, so you can adjust what you do. It's a way of reinforcing the work that moves you and moves the reader, and of disillusioning yourself about work that doesn't. A Feedback Format "What I hear" "What I imagine" "How it makes me feel" What I hear refers to the words you've actually written. It's how you know my feedback is grounded in your work, and where in your work it applies. It's one way of avoiding vague generic comments that are not helpful to you in improving your work. If I don't understand what you're saying, I should be able to tell you where in the piece you began to lose me. What I imagine is my dialogue with your words. It's what I make of what I hear. I'm responsible for what I imagine. It may be that I imagine exactly what you were imagining while you were writing. It may be I imagine something totally unforeseen by you. It may be I imagine something that has nothing to do with your work because I'm preoccupied or what you've written has triggered something in me. I may not be paying attention and I'm daydreaming something on my own. In any case, "what I imagine" is feedback that I, the reader, am responsible for, but it's also something that you, the writer, can sue, if you chose, to evaluate whether you're happy with my response to your work. Ideally I can tell you what I've heard that makes me imagine what I do. In this way I pay off on where the inspiration for my imaginings come from, and you can tell whether you're satisfied with what that phrase or passage accomplishes. How it makes me feel is just that. It's how, or if, your work moves me. And if your work doesn't move me, that's legitimate feedback, too. Remember, I the reader am responsible for what I feel, and for what I imagine. You the writer are responsible for what you write. I have no business telling you what to write, or how well you're writing, but I have every right to tell you what your work made me think of, and how it made me feel. How To Use Feedback. It is important to remember that you are in control. It's up to you to decide if feedback is useful to you. This takes an open mind and a lot of honesty. There are two pitfalls. One is being blown away by whatever anyone tells you - assuming that what others say must be true. The other pitfall is discounting any feedback you don't what to hear. It's the only "nobody understood James Joyce, either" syndrome. You have to find your path between these two pits. It requires listening with an open mind to what people hear, imagine and how it makes them feel, and running this through your own heart as you reread your work. If you can sense that the feedback makes sense within you, within the work, then you should reopen the work and see if you can use this feedback to get closer to communicating what you are trying to express. If the feedback honestly doesn't click, then don't take it on. This is a nonjudgemental feedback format. You will never hear that your work is good or that your work is bad, within this format. But that doesn't mean that this format is somehow intrinsically nice or supportive. It is nonjudgemental, but is completely honest. The difference is that the "ownership" of the responses is with the reader. We can't load them on you, unless you choose to take them on. But it is our right and responsibility to be as honest as we can about what we imagine (or can't imagine) and how we feel (or don't). Once again, credit goes to Paul Belserine for this feedback format. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lisa MacDougall lmacdoug@unixg.ubc.ca UBC Main Library (604) 822-5034 (work) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~