Responding and Getting Response
Fears
1. What is your biggest fear about giving feedback to other students about their writing?
The responses of the students to this question fell into five categories (plus the usual 'other' category). The first category contains over 40% of the total comments, and the top two categories contain almost two-thirds of the total comments.
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Fear of offending (26 comments)
Clearly the most common fear that the students commented on was the fear that they would offend the writer. -
Lack of confidence about one's own abilities (13 comments)
Another common fear was that it requires some expertise and understanding in order to give proper feedback. -
Worry about possible misinterpretations (10 comments)
Several students commented specifically about the possibility of their comments being misinterpreted. This sometimes appeared to be a translation of the fear of offending the writer; but in other comments, it was a clearly separate issue. -
Desire to avoid conflict (3 comments)
Again, comments in this category are very closely related to the fear of offending the writer, but these expressly mentioned conflict as a possible negative effect. -
Fear of causing discouragement (3 comments)
Some students were clearly concerned about the impact of their comments on writers who already lacked confidence in their abilities.
Collection of Actual Comments
Below are the actual comments of the students. The context surrounding some comments has been removed to leave just the actual 'fear' expressed, but the words of the students have not been changed.
Other comments:
- being corrected at that stage makes it harder to go back and fix
- how much feedback is too much
- I sometimes forget that not everyone enjoys the process as much as I do.
- no fear, only hope....I hope I can contribute, and be helpfully critical
- no matter how much I thought I don't know about writing, I could always give feedback on the concepts and ideas presented
- they may not overcome their fear of their work being criticized
- I don’t have much fear of giving other students feedback on their writing because I have a lot of experience doing so.
I fear that I might offend...
- I do not want to offend anyone, or come across the wrong way
- I don't want to appear rude.
- offending the writer by being too critical
- perceiving what I view as constructive criticism as an attack on their work or their thoughts
- sometimes criticism can come across as thoughtless and just mean
- that any corrctions or comments will be taken as insult
- that any corrective criticism that I offer will be taken incorrectly
- that I might in some way offend them with a critical remark
- that I will hurt their feelings
- that I will not be as honest as I might have been otherwise with someone about their paper due to wanting to be "nice" or "not hurt their feelings"
- that I will offend them
- that I wouldn't offend the writer with my feedback/suggestions
- that I'm going to hurt their feelings
- That it could be misinterpreted as a personal attack
- that my comment will be hurtful instead of helpful
- that other students will take offense to the constructive criticism I offerthat the other student will take the feedback as a personal insult or attack
- that some things I say can sound abrasive although my intensions are anything but
- that the other student may take offense to my opinion
- that the person I am giving feedback to will be offended by what I am trying to say
- that the person might take my feedback offensively
- that the person will take my comments as a personal attack as opposed to constructive criticism
- that they make take offense or that their feelings may get hurt
- that they will not take what I have to say with a grain of salt
- that they will take it personal
- that they'll take me too seriously
- they'll take it very personally and will start defending their piece
I don't know enough myself...
- exposing my lack of understanding
- lack of confidence in my ability to give constructive advice on how someone can improve their writing
- relating to the person's thought processes that brought about the ideas being expressed
- that [my comments] might be totally off base
- that I am not a strong writer myself
- that I do not have strong enough skills to be evaluating some else’s abilities
- that I may have trouble giving good constructive feedback where it may be needed
- that I won't understand their writing, either because I don't understand the words/language that they are using, or because it is very poorly written
- that it won't be helpful
- that my comments will be shirked because there’s no authority behind them
- that my response may not correspond with what the student was trying to express
- that the writer will disregard all that I say
- that they have written something good and I pick it apart because I don't get it
I fear that my comments might be misinterpreted...
- accidentally changing the meaning or intent of a piece of writing while editing it
- Comments written on the computer might be taken in a way which you didn't intend.
- how my comments, commentary, critique and conflict will be construed by both the parties on the receiving end of the commentary or observing bystanders
- if my writing isn’t clear, that may cause productive discussion to stop
- that I might be misunderstood.
- that I will not communicate effectively and empathetically
- that people may take what I say the wrong way
- that someone will not see my honest critique as a desire to help
- that the advice I have to give will be taken wrong and end up not being helpful due to the misinterpretation
- that when writing in the online classroom, the clarity of my feedback might not be that great
I fear conflict...
- Putting either myself as critic and/or the writer in an uncomfortable or untenable position through either comments or reaction to the work being proffered
- that a person could turn combative and the tension created causes others from wanting to offer their feedback
- the desire to speak up honestly is often overruled by the desire to not cause contention
I don't want to discourage others...
- Although the purpose of feedback isn't to hurt or discourage people, sometimes it happens.
- that a person who is already lacking confidence in their ideas takes another blow via the criticism and feels even more fear in presenting their views
- that I will ... dampen your enthusiasm for the subject by criticism