Providing critical feedback: striking a balance

Being ruthless isn’t easy – especially when dealing with the work of your peers.

Being given the task of providing critical feedback for a colleague can put you in a sticky spot. You have to strike a balance between improving the work and just making edits for the sake of it, which isn’t helpful for the author or for your reputation as an editor! It’s a delicate job.

But remember that in the end, you must generally be cruel to be kind, no matter whose words you are critiquing – whether they belong to a member of your team, your manager or even the CEO.

These five guidelines can ensure your feedback is accurate, makes improvement to the work, and is- above all – tactful:

1. Understand the objective

Make sure you really know what the copy is going to be used for, and why you are providing critical feedback on it. That way, you and the author will be on the same page and you can focus on helping them produce text that meets the precise goal.

2. Don’t be precious

Look first to cut whole paragraphs and sections, and worry later about the fine detail of sentences and their continuity.

3. Give it the chop

If it’s not essential, it goes. If something doesn’t play an integral part in achieving the objective, then it gets the chop (no matter how finely worded it is).

4. Don’t be afraid to write

It isn’t all about cuts. When providing critical feedback, there are inevitably sections of the work that could do with elaboration, and others that will need tidying up or rewording. Don’t be afraid to help re-write any content that you feel isn’t working in its present form.

5. Ensure a consistent style

Inconsistencies of style can occur in even the most polished of writing by the most polished of authors. Feel free to alter any differences in tone to make sure that the whole document is consistent.