To get top marks, you need a clear plan of how you will approach your current project. A crucial part of that plan is leaving yourself enough time to get some feedback on your writing before you hand it in. 

Even for a formative project, you should aim to finish in time to have someone else to look at your work. Additionally, you need to leave sufficient time to act upon their suggestions and comments.

What is a Critical Friend?

A "critical friend" can be really helpful for writing projects. A critical friend is someone who provides constructive feedback, suggestions, and an objective evaluation of your work. They don’t even need to be a friend! Just someone who will be honest with you. 

Having a critical friend look at your writing can give you fresh perspectives, identify areas for improvement, and help you enhance the overall quality of your work. They can provide valuable insights, point out errors or inconsistencies, and offer suggestions to make your explanations clearer and your arguments stronger. 

A critical friend is an invaluable asset when you are working on writing projects. They can give you valuable feedback, support, and encouragement throughout the process.

Remember, the relationship goes two ways, so when you are the critical friend and offer advice on someone else's work, you also get the benefit of seeing how someone else approached the task. You can learn from their mistakes as much as they do, it's a win—win situation!

How to give critical feedback without hurting someone's feelings

The best way to give critical feedback is to approach it with a constructive and positive mindset. The idea is to help people and build their confidence. Remember, you want to build a relationship that benefits both of you, and where you can work on more than one project together! 

Keep the following 5 suggestions in mind when providing critical feedback to build an effective and productive relationship with your Critical Friend:

1. Be specific: Clearly identify the areas that need improvement and politely draw attention to specific issues you notice in their writing. Avoid vague or general statements that may confuse them.

2. Focus on the work, not the person: Direct your feedback towards the writing, rather than criticising the writer personally. This technique helps to maintain a positive working relationship.

3. Offer explanations and suggestions: Instead of simply pointing out errors or areas to rewrite, provide explanations for why certain aspects may not be working well and offer suggestions on how to improve them. This helps the writer understand your points and helps them visualise the steps they need to take.

4. Balance strengths and weaknesses: Describe the strengths and positive points of their writing as well as the areas that need improvement. This helps maintain a balanced perspective and encourages them to build on their strengths.

5. Use a respectful and empathetic tone: Be mindful of your language and tone when delivering critical feedback. Avoid language that would  discourage or demotivate you. Use friendly and thoughtful language to support and encourage each other.

With these five points in mind, when you ask someone to be your critical friend, you should set clear expectations of what you both want out of the working relationship. You may just want a quick read-through to make sure that you have all the correct sections in your work; however, they may want a detailed examination and a tonne of feedback!

Be careful of agreeing to an arrangement where one of you feels they are doing more work than the other. 

Try asking someone in your class or year group who you don’t normally work with to be your Critical Friend. If you feel as though you can’t criticise a close friend, ask someone outside of your normal friendship group. Try to be open-minded and actively listen to their advice.

Never put off a critical-friend meeting because of lack of time. 

Five minutes off feedback is infinitely better than none! Try to organise your time to make the most of the deadlines your teacher sets. 

• Are all the correct sections present in the work?

• Is the tone of the writing correct for the subject/task?

• Are the keywords you expect to see correctly used throughout the writing?

• Is the work structured correctly? (i.e. with paragraphs for essays or subsections for lab reports).

• Is the work an appropriate length? (Is it way over the word limit or would they have nothing left to say for the final five minutes of a presentation?).

• Does the work answer the questions posed in the assignment? Importantly, check whether the writing is based on work you have been doing in class. If not, double check you have understood the assignment correctly.

The goal of critical feedback is to help the writer improve their skills and develop their writing further. You are also learning about writing in general, so think about how you would prefer to receive criticism of your own work. Even if you disagree about certain points, just talking about perceived errors is highly beneficial to both of you. 

Working with a critical friend on writing projects might take some practice, but the value of giving and receiving feedback is invaluable. Your “friend’s” role in offering constructive feedback, providing different perspectives, and motivating you to do your best will really improve your writing, and importantly your marks. 

Moreover, the impact of using critical friends in projects goes far beyond the writing projects you will be given in school. Learning how to work with people on projects, and how to give and take criticism are valuable life skills. 

However, if you need real in-depth feedback for a writing project, or you want to work with someone outside of your school, contact us here or email us on info@abel-consultants.com to find your ideal working partner at ABEL. You can also click the button below.

The best of luck with your projects and finding a great Critical Friend!!

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