Feedback is essential for improving your writing skills, but how do you use it to refine your writing goals? In this article, you'll learn a simple process to set and adjust your writing goals based on the feedback you receive from different sources.
Identifying who can give you feedback on your writing and what kind of feedback they can provide is the first step. Your readers can tell you how engaging, clear, and relevant your writing is for them, while peers can offer constructive criticism, suggestions, and tips based on their own experience and expertise. Mentors can guide you on how to improve your writing style, structure, and tone, as well as help you with specific challenges and goals. Finally, it’s important to review your own writing and assess your strengths and weaknesses to track progress and achievements.
1. Develop a plan to improve When you have been given feedback such as my student in the opening scenario, the first step would be to assess what behaviours or actions would lead to improvement. 2. Seek coaching to help hold you accountable A coach can watch you in action and often give suggestions about small adjustments in behaviour that can make a big difference. 3. Practice the actions Once you decide on new skills that you want to develop in response to feedback, it is important to get off “autopilot” and intentionally practice the new behaviours. 4. Reflect on the outcomes It is important to reflect on their impact. Your interventions may be highly successful but sometimes you may find that your new behaviors are not effective.
The next step is to define your writing goals based on what you want to achieve and the feedback you need to get there. For instance, you may wish to increase audience engagement and retention, improve clarity and coherence, expand your vocabulary and grammar, develop your voice and tone, or write faster and more efficiently.
The third step is to collect and organize feedback from various sources, then analyze how it relates to your writing goals. Surveys and polls can allow readers to rate and comment on your writing. Peer reviews and critiques can help you exchange writing with other peers and give each other feedback. Mentoring sessions and workshops can provide feedback on samples, as well as teach new skills. Lastly, self-evaluation and reflection can be done with checklists, rubrics, and journals to evaluate your own writing.
The fourth step is to adjust your writing goals based on the feedback you receive and the results you observe. For instance, you may modify your goals if they are too vague, unrealistic, or irrelevant, and add new goals if you discover new areas of improvement or interest. You might also remove or postpone goals if they become less important or urgent. Finally, don't forget to celebrate your goals when you reach them or make significant progress - reward yourself for all your hard work!
The fifth step is to implement your feedback in your writing practice and see how it affects your performance and outcomes. For example, you could apply the feedback by revising existing writing or creating new writing that incorporates the suggestions and improvements. Additionally, you could monitor the impact of the feedback on your writing metrics, such as engagement, quality, and productivity. Furthermore, you can evaluate the usefulness and validity of the feedback to determine what works and what doesn't for your writing goals.
The final step is to seek more feedback on your writing and repeat the process to keep refining your writing goals. You could ask for more feedback from existing or new sources, give feedback to peers and mentors, and explore more feedback opportunities such as online platforms, courses, or books. Doing this can provide different perspectives and insights that can help you improve your writing.
One thing I have found helpful is finding your niche in the writing field. To be able to clarify your goals in writing, make sure you have found your nook. This helps you to identify your writing style and helps you write better. The question is, how can this help? It can help you identify people who are in the same specialization as you and can comment and share feedback on your writing skills. Expect in your field can easily pinpoint the mistakes in your writing and their feedback will be beneficial to you.