Feedback

Describe your goals for eliciting and utilizing feedback on creative projects. What did the reading teach you about the necessity of receiving productive feedback? What did your own experience in class teach you about the necessity of receiving productive feedback? 300-500 words

Receiving and giving out feedback has been a big part of everyone's life this semester, especially in our 185 class. I have had a lot of mixed feelings about it. Brad always wants everyone to participate, but I often feel like I don't want to. It's always the same few people who raise their hands every time, and I always feel like you have to be extra assertive to be able to get a comment in. I also feel like I don't give any good feedback, so I might as well not say anything. I may have criticisms for other people's work, but I usually don't feel like it is my place to tell someone they should change something just because I want them to.

As far as receiving feedback, I often dread it. Sometimes, I really want to hear what other people think, but only if it is something I am proud of. If I am just turning in a project as an assignment I don't really care about, I feel like I don't want to hear anyone's feedback. I also often feel like I already know what they are going to say, because I am already aware of the faults in my work.

HOWEVER, I have recently decided that I am going to try and revamp my approach to feedback. I like the way we did feedback in 112 with our most recent project because I felt it was actually helpful. Everyone seemed to take it more seriously than they do in 185, and the direct we took was more productive. For me, i think the most important part about giving feedback is that you are giving suggestions for things that can actually be fixed or avoidable, in the form of questions or comments. For example, when pitching an idea for a story, good feedback could include sincere What if? questions, like, What if this happened instead of that? How would that change your ending? etc... This lets the person pitching think about more options than they had maybe thought of already. A helpful comment could be something like Make sure you make it clear that...blah blah blah. This helps the author understand that everything they had planned may not be as clear and cohesive as they had thought.

When I receive this kind of useful feedback, I am genuinely thankful for it, and it really helps me. What doesn't help are comments and suggestions that have obvious solutions, of which I was already aware. For example, You need to color correct that clip so it matches the others! I also don't find feedback super helpful when everything is already done. What's the point of getting feedback for something you can't change?

All things considered, I am going to start having a more positive approach to feedback. I am also going to try and give it more, but I still don't think I could give very good feedback, but I guess you have to start somewhere!