Writing at work: how to ask for feedback
Getting someone else’s opinion about your writing can feel a bit like being back at school but a fresh pair of eyes is invaluable. The trick to getting useful feedback is to be in control; ask the right person the right questions and allow enough time to act on what they say.
What do I want?
Do you want to know if the big idea makes sense? Or just whether there are any spelling mistakes and grammatical errors? Or the multitude of things in-between; structure, sense, tone, vocabulary, continuity…?
Try to ask for just the feedback that you need. Frame your request with some flattery and a timescale, and you should get back a fair assessment of your work with enough time to apply it to your next draft.
Who should I ask?
This depends upon how much time you have and what you want to find out. At 11pm on the night before your deadline, grab the nearest hard-done-by spouse, available flatmate, or insomniac to check for glaring errors. But with a bit more time you can enlist a colleague or friend to check for sense, logic and to give it a proof-read. You could even run an early outline past your intended audience to check you’re on the right lines before you dive into the detail.
What should I do with it?
How are you going to react when someone criticises your work? You don’t have to take all their comments on board, but do take the time to work your way through the comments and to sort the useful from the irrelevant. And try to keep some perspective; feedback is a learning tool. It can teach you how to improve your writing, how to be more specific about the feedback you require, or even who to ask for help next time! Everything that comes back is useful, one way or another.