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Re: giving feedback to non writers

Subject: Re: giving feedback to non writers
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 16:49:02 -0800


Gene Kim-Eng wrote:

I am frequently called upon to review and edit material written by
a variety of people, many of them at the executive level. I have
found that I can be as thorough as needed and not have any problem
with anyone so long as I preface my edits with a message that *all*
of them are merely "suggestions."

This sounds like good advice.

When I was marking papers regularly at university, I soon found that if I marked with the thoroughness that I preferred, I would devastate first year students. After a little experiment, I found that a more tentative tone made detailed editing more acceptable. For example, "Maybe another word here, such as _____" went down far better than "Wrong word!"

After I stumbled into the corporate world, I found that the same approach worked there, too. I long ago concluded that most people react better to corrections framed as suggestions than to ones framed as orders or the denouncements of an ink-stained Torquemada.

In retrospection, that's just common sense. A suggestion isn't a threat.
An order or a denouncement can seem like a personal attack.

--
Bruce Byfield 604-421-7177
http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield

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Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: giving feedback to non writers: From: Giordano, Connie
Re: giving feedback to non writers: From: Gene Kim-Eng

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