Seeking and using feedback

Before you revise and edit, it may help to seek feedback from classmates, your instructor, a tutor, or a friend. Tell each reviewer whether you want feedback about larger, more global issues (organization, main point, use of audio/visual/textual evidence, overall message) or surface-level issues (clear sentences, precise words, sentence logic). In other words, tell reviewers whether you are approaching a revising stage or an editing stage. Before you share a draft with a reviewer, think about three key questions you might want your reviewer to answer, and share those questions with him or her.

After student composer Alyson D’Amato had made initial decisions based on her purpose, audience, and content and after she had outlined and drafted her project, an informative website about tea, she met with a tutor at her college’s writing center to get feedback on a draft of her site. She asked the tutor the following questions:

  1. The assignment says that we have to have a good navigation, or a clear introduction and way for the reader/viewer to move through the composition. Is the navigation clear? How can I improve it?

  2. I’m not sure about the pictures I’ve included, but I don’t know what I would replace them with. Can you comment on the visuals?

  3. Do you think that the text is well written and flows well? Can you point out areas that could be stronger?

D’Amato and her tutor spent some time looking at her site, and the tutor had D’Amato read parts of it out loud. They also looked at a few other informative websites for ideas and inspiration. D’Amato left with a set of priorities for revising her work. The following are her revision goals.

REVISION GOALS

Creating a list of goals is a good way to make the transition between feedback and revising. Keep in mind that you don’t have to make every change a reviewer suggests. Look at the reviewer’s suggestions through the lens of your own purpose, audience, and assignment. Not every suggestion is going to be right for your project. If you seek feedback from three reviewers, however, and all three say that your project seems a little hard to follow, you know that organization is going to be one area in which you’ll want to focus your revision efforts.

Draft of student project: an informative website

Related topics:

Revising and remixing a multimodal composition

Editing a multimodal composition

Revising your own work

Revising with comments