A teacher’s approach to giving editing feedback

The more editing I do, the more I value my time in the college classroom, working with student writers. From 2008 to 2016, at three different schools, I taught courses in rhetoric, composition, research writing, business writing, and even yoga-related writing, but on a more basic level, I did something I loved: I helped people use words to express themselves.

I am grateful and indebted to those students who constantly challenged me to become a better teacher and also gave me grace as I made mistakes along the way. From them, and from my professors who trained me in graduate school, I learned how to teach, especially how to respond effectively to writing.

To get there, over my years of helping writers, I became obsessed with hitting a sweet spot in terms of commenting. This was when I rooted my deep interest in providing nuanced feedback: precise yet flexible, rigorous yet kind, bold yet gentle. I am excited to now have the opportunity to carry some of my hard-won practices over to my editing clients.

Context matters

I learned that before I could even respond to a piece of writing, I needed to get background: did the writer have any doubts or questions about the draft? What did they need help with? How would they like me, as a reader, to approach the writing?

Ideally, I could ask these questions in a face-to-face conference, but most of the time, I asked students to write a short reflection letter that I would read before I began commenting. These letters would help me to calibrate my approach to their specific needs.

With editing clients, I enjoy diving into the specifics of your context in our initial meeting: perhaps you only need proofreading before a book is published, or maybe you have a rough draft that needs developmental comments to help identify gaps in logic. As an editor, I use the preliminary information to align my focus and to provide you with the feedback you are looking for.

People first

While studying writing instruction specifically in grad school, I read all kinds of studies on the effects certain kinds of feedback can have on writers. Using red pens was out of the question, because of their negative connotation, as was the tendency for a teacher to make a draft ‘bleed’ with tons of edits and comments.

I won’t cite the exact studies now, but it had been established in the field that writers could only absorb a certain amount of comments before becoming overwhelmed. Therefore, I was trained to identify patterns in writing that I could then help the writer understand and ideally address on their own. So armed with my green pen, I practiced restraint as best I could. It got easier with time.

Editing work is certainly different in that some may aim to have every flaw corrected, while others might seek more global comments or a softer touch. My background in writing pedagogy helps me to plan a good path for us to collaborate together.

image credit: Print from Drawing Book c. 1610/1620 Luca Ciamberlano