Giving feedback on a text

Your feedback should be written from a first-person perspective. That means that you should say what YOU think, you shouldn’t make general statements.

For example:

✅ first-person perspective	❌ general statement
I like that you had a good introduction.	Your text is good because it has a good introduction

The first-person perspective makes it clear that this is your point of view and that someone else might see things differently. A general statement on the other hand might feel like an unchangeable fact – which usually doesn’t make sense when giving feedback.

What you can say to start with …

👍 positive things	👎 negative things
• I like … • I think it’s good that … • I think • You did a really good job with … • You wrote a great … • The … really convinced me …	• I didn’t understand your … • I don’t agree with … • I think you could have written … differently • I can’t see why you …

REMEMBER

Be polite and use friendly words so that your partner doesn’t feel hurt by your criticism.

Write any criticism in such a way that you could accept it when others criticize YOU in that way.

If you don’t agree or don’t understand …

In this case you can say that you’re surprised by something or you could ask questions:

Expressing surprise

I’m surprised that …
I missed a sentence/section about …
I don’t understand why you …

Questions

I don’t understand that part – what do you mean by it?
Could you explain that in more detail?
I would like to know how …

Example structure

Your feedback could be structured like this

Describe what impression the text left on you.
Highlight one section that you think is especially good and explain why.
Comment on one section that you think could be improved and explain why and how.
Name one section that you think should be longer and explain why.
Give one example that you would write differently and show how you would do it.

Based on the worksheet “Rückmeldungen sind Ich-Botschaften” by Monica Hettrich, Peter Gallin and Urs Ruf (CC BY-NC 4.0)