How to Ask for Feedback on Your Writing Without Getting Vague Advice

And if you’re a journalist, it can be even scarier. There are so many things that can go wrong in a draft. Was there not enough reporting? Is it badly structured? Does the lede overpromise what the rest of the story delivers? Are the quotes bland? Even the best first drafts are usually in need of some serious revision. But how do you go about getting helpful feedback on your work?

Take a good, hard look at your draft before you share it with anyone. Is there one particular problem that you’re worried about? One section you think might need to be reworked? One transition you know you haven’t managed to get quite right? Point this out to the person you’re asking for feedback from. Tell them that you’re concerned about your transition from the lede to the nut graf. Ask them if they think you’ve done enough to clarify what your story is actually about. Or, if you’re having trouble deciding which of your quotes to use, point out a few places where you’re torn between two different quotes. Maybe one is more obviously newsworthy, but another is a really great quote that will illuminate your subject. Ask if they think the second quote works in the story.

If you do this, you’re likely to get much more targeted, actionable advice. And you can incorporate this feedback into your revisions and end up with a much better draft. Here are a few more things to keep in mind when asking for feedback.

Don’t ask for reassurance. It’s okay to want your editor or a colleague to reassure you that you’ve done a good job, that the story is great, that you should go with it as is. But that’s not what you’re asking for when you ask for feedback. So don’t ask for it. You’ll get a vague answer, like, “This is a great start!” But you won’t get anything to help you improve your draft.

Don’t ask for too much. If you’re worried about structure, clarity, and whether you’ve done enough reporting on the story, point out that you’d like feedback on all of these issues. Don’t do this, though, if you’re also asking for feedback on whether the language is clear, whether you’ve chosen the right quotes, whether you need to shorten the story, and whether the headline is strong. You’ll overwhelm the person giving you feedback, and you’ll get vague answers. If the draft is still in the fairly early stages, focus on structure and clarity. Once you have those things nailed down, you can think about language and quotes.

You can try out this strategy even without having a new draft to work on. Take a recent story you reported and imagine that you’re turning it in today. Spend five minutes reading through the piece without editing. Then spend five minutes writing a note that points out two areas where you’d like to see feedback, like, “Does this scene-setting work?” or “Where do you start to lose interest?” Spend your final five minutes responding to your own questions as though the story had been written by someone else. This exercise is simple, but it helps you develop a crucial reporting skill: identifying the problem before you try to solve it. Once you’re able to identify exactly where the problems are, revision isn’t so scary. It’s a series of fixes.

What if you’re on the other end of this conversation? How do you incorporate feedback into your revisions? Start by looking for patterns. If lots of people are telling you that a section is confusing, it probably is confusing. You should revise that section to make it clearer. If only one person is pointing out a problem, it may still be a problem worth fixing. But it also may not be. Someone may tell you that the ending is weak, when the real problem is that the tension at the center of the story starts to dissipate halfway through. Try to find the underlying problem, rather than just addressing the specific fix the person is pointing out. This is especially true in journalism. If you change one graf, you may be throwing off the balance of the rest of the piece. Revision is not about blindly making changes. It’s about making smart revisions.

And how do you handle it if you get a suggestion that feels discouraging? Say someone tells you that a section is unclear. You could simply revise the section, but you could also take the feedback a step further. In your notes, write down the feedback you got, “this section is unclear,” and translate it into an action: “state the timeline earlier.” Do this with three of the suggestions you got. This is a great strategy for a few reasons. The first is that it helps you clarify what you need to do to address the problem. Instead of “this section is unclear,” you now know that you need to “state the timeline earlier.” The second is that it helps you actually do something with the feedback, rather than getting discouraged.

Finally, it helps you start to hear criticism of your work without taking it personally or feeling like you’re a failure. Here’s how it might look for three pieces of feedback on the same story: “This section is unclear” becomes “state the timeline earlier.” “I wanted more detail here” becomes “add one observation about the interview location or event.” “This quote is kind of flat” becomes “replace this quote with a better one that reveals character or tension.” Translation helps you turn feedback into action. And action isn’t discouraging. It’s just something you try out and see how it works.

The best feedback might not make your draft sound better right away. But it should make your draft more honest about what you’re trying to accomplish and where you still need some work. In journalism, that kind of clarity is more valuable than a pat on the back. It will help you develop your reporting instincts. It will make you a stronger reviser. And it will teach you to hear criticism without crumbling. So the next time you ask for feedback, don’t ask for general impressions. Ask for specifics. Your draft will be better for it.