College Essay Feedback Strategies: Don't Just Say 'Great''
When it comes to college essay writing, feedback is a balancing act.
We’ve been on the receiving end of unhelpful feedback. I’ve surely dished out a fair share of my own. It can be passive-aggressive, vague, toxic, or misguided.
Yet we all need feedback. We can’t let bad experiences with feedback keep us from seeking it out. We need to be able to ask for it, process it, and address it.
It will make your college essay better. It will make you a better learner and human.
The key is to be able to block out the crappy and focus on the good stuff. Because good feedback will encourage you to keep going, give you ideas for how to improve, and expand your thinking.
Ultimately, you – the college essay writer – should be empowered and in control of the feedback process. You decide when you want feedback and what kind you’re looking for.
Whether you are asking for feedback or giving feedback, here are some tips and types to help you through the process.
Why not to (just) say “It’s good!”
Vaguely positive comments, like “it’s good!” or “I love it!” ring hollow without backing it up with specifics. Whenever you are the one who is giving feedback, be prepared to explain your platitudes. Why do you love the essay? What about the essay do you think is good?
The idea of praising for effort is another one of those misguided feedback strategies. It is a buzzy phrase that has accompanied the rise of research and implementation of growth mindset practices, but it’s insufficient. Carol Dweck, a leading researcher of student motivation and growth mindset (and who coined the phrase growth mindset), believe that we’re giving out way too much vague praise for effort/
Teenagers, in particular, have grown especially skeptical of receiving an abundance of praise for good effort.
Four Types of Effective Feedback
It is the writer’s responsibility to set parameters around the kinds of feedback they’re looking for. And keep your feedback circle tight. There is such a thing as getting feedback from too many people. To help you navigate the feedback loop process, read about when and how to use four types of feedback:
Feedback that acknowledges and encourages.
Feedback that prompts deeper thinking.
Feedback that expands the conversation
Feedback that provides experience or expertise.
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Feedback that acknowledges and encourages.
This type of feedback is especially useful early in the essay writing process. If you’re the student seeking feedback, the first and most important question that should be guiding your reviewers is this: Does this essay authentically capture me?
If you’re the reviewer, a short acknowledgment or note of encouragement communicates that you're engaged and interested in the essay. Bonus points for specificity. Using an emoji or thumbs up alongside a sentence you like is a simple but effective way to say the equivalent of “uh-huh" or "keep going.”
Feedback that prompts deeper thinking.
This type of feedback is useful for digging deeper into a topic or discussion.
If you’re the student seeking this kind of feedback, you want the reviewer to ask you clarifying questions. What questions do you have about the essay? Are there parts that you’re interested in learning more about? What’s missing?
Feedback prompts for the reviewer:
I’m interested in learning more about…
What I seeing/reading/hearing from this paragraph is… Is that correct?
So are you saying….
Tell me more about what you mean here…
What’s an example….
When have you done something like ….. before?
How was …. different (or similar) to…. ?
Feedback that expands the conversation
This type of feedback is useful for bringing other perspectives into the discussion. It could mean sharing related resources, links or ideas that the essay writer could use to strengthen their knowledge on a topic.
It is also a crucial fact-checking stage. Parents and close family members should provide context, clarifying information, or corrections if they are pertinent to memories and family insights shared in a student’s essay. It is ultimately up to the student to decide what to accept or change.
This type of feedback may not always useful for narrative writing such as college essays. This writing style is focused on communicating the student’s perspective (although it should always be informed, accurate and authentic).
If anything, this type of feedback might be most helpful on the supplemental essays, which are shorter written pieces that many colleges require. Many types of these supplementals, like the classic ‘Why Us?’, are a chance for you to show what you know about the university (values, mission, academics, professors, research disciplines) and why it matters to you. In this context, a fact-checking reviewer might have some insight into how and where to do this kind of research.
Feedback that provides experience or expertise.
If you’re the student seeking feedback, there might be some parts of the essay that require a bit of fact-checking from a parent or sibling. Not sure about some of the details about when or where certain events happened? These fuzzy memories are often where parents can provide the most reliable feedback.
As the college essay reviewer, your role is never to be the expert – even if you think you know your child better than he knows himself. It’s not your job to tell him what insights or lessons they should take away from their lives. Doing so can be toxic and undermine the process.
Feedback Quiz: Test your understanding of the four different types of feedback by taking my Fishing for Feedback quiz
