Week 8 Comments and Feedback

The comments that were the most helpful to me were the ones that suggested ways that I can deepen my audience's understanding of the characters in my story. These comments give me an idea of what gaps exist in my readers' understanding of my story and the context in which it happens. Sometimes, when I write a story, I forget to take into account that my readers don't know the same backstory that I have created in my head for characters unless I explain it to them so I really appreciate when somebody asks me questions about what is missing.

I am also enjoying the fact that giving feedback is one of our assignments for the week, as reading other's writing, giving me ideas of what stories I should write. My favorite professor Dr.Kong always says "Never take an author's ideas, but never feel bad copying a great author's writing structure". By seeing other people's writing structures, I can copy them and fit my story and my writing style into them. I also enjoy the fact that we're also required to comment on the introduction posts of others, as learning about them tells you a lot about their interests, strengths and weaknesses, and motivations, and it is interesting to see how that shows through their writing. I think that my introduction is a pretty good description of who I am and what my interests are so I hope that is giving my readers some insight about why I chose an environmental theme for my storybook.

To make the feedback assignments more useful, I think it is more important for me to see feedback on my stories and not my overall website or its structure at this point in the storybook creation process, and it is also important for all of us to clarify which story we are talking about when commenting on a comment wall.

Image source: Talk desk

I like this graphic that tells you how to give effective feedback because I find myself often getting feedback that could apply to anything that I do and it is not specific to what I'm asking for feedback on. Nobody wants feedback that seems as if it was just given in the interest of the person giving it, so I try to make sure that the feedback is tailored to the person and their assignment, as suggested in the graphic. The feedback needs to be focused and proactive, and that means not just complimenting what people do right and pointing out what they did wrong in your eyes, but telling them what they did to capture your interest and what they can improve to capture the interest of others. Give specific examples of what you would change or what you enjoyed, so that the author can continue to shape their own writing style for the long-term, rather than just for the blog post.