useful praise

third essay for Mở's Writing On The Net 30-Day Challenge!

When reviewing other people’s work, we tend to focus on what is NOT working. 

Possibly because errors are more noticeable and easier to identify than areas where writing is effective. 

Also because we tend to want to be helpful and provide feedback that leads to improvement. To us, focusing on where people can improve helps them grow. 

We also try to avoid being overly positive. People are understandably skeptical of their own work, so seeing someone else seemingly giving praises too easily, their feedback might not be taken seriously.

It also just comes down to personal preference. All reviewers have bias when it comes to writing style, tone or subject matter. By providing feedback on areas of improvement, we hope to nudge writers more to the direction of what we are looking for in a writing piece of high quality.

But why not try to focus on pointing out what IS working instead? In other words, practice useful praise?

Why is useful praise a good idea?

Think of a garden. When you plant seeds in a garden, you have to water and nourish them to help them grow. If you only focus on the weeds and the areas where the plants are struggling, you might forget to water and care for the parts where the plants are thriving. By shifting your attention to supporting the healthy parts of the garden and giving them the nourishment they need, the entire garden will flourish.

One of my favorite writers, A. E. Osworth, has written about the concept, “Revising towards praise gives a writer a direction to go, something to build to instead of something to run from.” 

One of the best ways to ask for useful praise is to ask your trusted readers - people who understand praise is only ever useful if specific, thoughtful and earnest.

For example, I have written a piece on unconditional love and acceptance, and my friend Monica was reviewing my work. I asked her to be honest and specific in her useful praise.

So she would not just say, “This part is great!”, although it would also be fine if so. 

To do it better, she would comment on a specific analogy I made about my feelings in the essay,

“I like this analogy. I think there’s a lot to this — how the paper can be straightened out to the best of one’s capability but not entirely uncrumpled, your strength to smoothen it back out and pick yourself up after that statement. A self-affirming moment.”

What I appreciate so much about this simple useful praise is how intellectually rigorous, honest and specific it was. 

It pointed out the literary device I used, how it was working well in the context of my essay and gave me a sense of the potential impact my writing could bring on my reader. Specificity is the key.

To go from here, what I would do is to keep using this analogy in this same place and to apply a similar technique whenever applicable in my work.

You can also learn how to make use of useful praise by using it in your daily life. Practice useful praise on your favorite movie, essay or book; practice useful praise on any media that might not be your cup of tea; practice useful praise on things you’re consuming casually every day. To go even beyond, how about useful praise for your friend’s new outfit? Your mother’s new recipe?

Let’s all learn how to see strengths in others and how to know when we are being earnest in our compliments. 

And let’s not forget to learn how to trust others with their useful praise on us and our work as well!

#wotn3 #day3

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special thanks to A. E. Osworth for introducing me to the concept of “useful praise”. you can read more about their work here!

and much thanks to Monica for your kind and super useful praise on my work— i adore the incredible person you are and what you stand for :”)

and thanks to Mở’s community for providing me strength every day to continue this challenge— i hope i can keep this momentum :”)

and finally, thanks to Nhi for being my most reliable pillar <3 ily.