Responding to criticism

Source: Wikimedia Commons public domain photo
(with text added by the author).

Writers don’t value all of their writing the same. Sometimes, we are just “grinding out a paper” or completing a “writing-on-demand” essay in response to some standardized test question that doesn't appeal to us. It can be grueling to write compositions like these, and, believe me, it’s even more grueling to read, respond to, and grade them. When we don’t care about our writing topic, it shows.

It also shows when we DO care about our writing topic. Our writing is more engaging and appealing to readers. As writers, we make an emotional investment in writing we care about. In this case, the composition we’ve created is like our baby. And then along comes the teacher, who’s going to criticize our baby. Ask any mom what happens when someone criticizes her baby; it’s beat-down time!

But with our writing, as opposed to our babies, it’s vital to divorce ourselves from this emotional attachment to the written work so that we can accept criticism about our work in a constructive way. Imagine you own a house with a leaky roof. The roofing contractor comes over and tells you that you have a major leak and your roof needs to be re-shingled. Do you then throw up your hands and say, “How dare you criticize my roof?!?” No, you’re probably more concerned with how to make it stop raining inside your bedroom. So it’s important to view your written work the same way a homeowner views a leaky roof -- as something that can be fixed or improved.

Here’s another critical factor in responding to criticism at the college level. You must take ownership of your paper. YOU own it. Your name is at the top of the paper, not your professor's, not the tutor's at the writing center -- nobody but you. You must move beyond high-school level thinking like “I didn’t fix it because you didn’t circle it.” Everything in your paper is your responsibility and no one else’s. The good part about this is that you, as the owner of the paper, are also free to reject advice about writing style and “stick to your authorial guns” when you think you’ve made the correct stylistic decision. Just make sure you have a good reason for rejecting the advice.

One final word about college-level thinking. The grade (A, B, C, etc.) is not the important part. Learning is the important part. Don’t get hung up on what grade you receive. I’ve known students who obsess about getting a B+ instead of an A-. What do those letters mean, anyway? If your sole motivation is achievement, you’ll probably be disappointed when you go from competing against students in your high school to competing against students in college, who may well be the best students from dozens of different high schools. But if you find your motivation in learning, in a passion for knowledge, that will carry you through your four years of college and for the rest of your life too. So accept criticism in the manner in which it’s intended, as a way for your written product to improve.

© 2014 Bob Dial.  All rights reserved.