Question

Michael is giving his friend feedback on her paper. Which two sections of his review contain constructive feedback? My favorite part of the essay was when you described your grandmother's reaction after finding the frog in her purse because it was so funny and so vivid. However, I thought that the section with the pie-eating contest wasn’t very interesting. It just made me want to stop reading the essay. I would suggest working on word choice, since you used the same words many times in the essay. Use a thesaurus to find synonyms if you need to. You should change is the ending. I didn't understand it at all. What was your grandmother doing with that blanket? I don't usually like essays with lame endings like this one.

Answer 1

Constructive feedback reinforces positive behavior and offers a critique in a direct but respectful way. If given in a negative or rude way, criticism might not only hurt the feelings of the receiver but also reinforce negative behavior. Blending praise and suggestions make the feedback polite and efficient.

In the excerpt, the two parts that contain constructive feedback are:

'My favorite part of the essay was when you described your grandmother's reaction after finding the frog in her purse because it was so funny and so vivid.'

'I would suggest working on word choice, since you used the same words many times in the essay. Use a thesaurus to find synonyms if you need to.'

The first section reinforces positive behavior by offering a compliment while the second one offers a suggestion for improvement.

The other sections criticize his friend's paper in a negative way, making harsh comments without offering any suggestions or solutions to the flaws found.