Readers: Essential to Good Writing
For a writer there isreally no such thing as a document that is not intended to be read. That’s the difference between someone that keeps a journal and someone who wants to write. Writing means readers, but to be sure that our writing will in truth tell the readers what we want them to hear we need an intermediatestep. That step, as frustrating as it oft is, is finding individuals to read the manuscript before it is discharged and give you feedback on potential problems.
The problem is that in today’s busy world people are busy and may not have the time to provide feedback. moreover, not everyone who does take the time to provide feedback is actually qualified to give feedback. In fact most who give feedback provide doubtful feedback at best. So, how can we use the feedback we get?
However unhelpful, readers tend to fall into three groups: Grandma , flakey, and the bombastic .
The first group of readers are among the least helpful . They are nice to have because they will tell you what you want to hear, but perhaps because they don’t want to hurt your feelings they tell you that you did good and give it back without any suggestions for how to make it better .
Why is this a problem? Simply because even the top writers and scientific minds find that they have to work and rework a article, paper, or manuscript to make certain that they have not overlooked orbefuddled anything. If that is true of the best writers , it is certainly true of the rest of us. Our written works will need to be reworked and if a reader simply says it’s good without finding something that puzzled them or flat out puzzled them then they have done us no service. Ultimately, these type of readers are nice for the positive reinforcement, but otherwise ignore them. No writer is that good.
The flaky reader is the worst because though they promise, they never come back with feedback. In some cases, it isprobably because they don’t want to hurt your feelings. In others, they just agreed to be nice, but got busy. Don’t wait for these readers. If eighty percent of your readers have reported back and it’s time to move on, move on.
The one you want to ignore is the one that you must not ignore. Usually this third group comes across in their feedback as pontifical, arrogant, picky, and just plain mean. They seem to take joy in tearing your work to shreds. When you finish reading their feedback you may feel that you must be incapable of actually writing. They make comments like, “Oh come on!” or “I don’t buy it!” rather than saying, “there seems to be a consistency problem here”.
It is infuriating and disheartening, but the reality is that though it is not as it should be this group of readers are the only ones who actually give you some feedback you can work with. It is difficult to look at your baby torn up so viciously, but the alternative is to risk missing some flaw that willpreclude you from being published, or potentially, being seriously considered in the future.
The answer is to get tough minded and deal with eachunfavorable appraisal one by one without letting yourself be distracted by the whole of the individual’s comments. In some cases it will indeed take a major rewrite because, though they might have been able to do it more tactfully, they found an actual problem. In most cases, however, the most we usually need is a change of wording or an extra sentence to make certain future readers don’t miss what that reader missed and to make certain that your manuscript is one step closer to being ready to publish.
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