How to Manage Negative Feedback for Your College Essay

How can you manage negative feedback on your college essay? Are you wondering how to handle adverse criticism on your essay writing project? This article will show six effective ways that are proven to work.

No matter how much time you spend planning for possible negative feedback on your report or essay assignment, it's never a comfortable experience. It becomes even more painful when you believe in yourself─fully confident that you've done incredibly well in your document.

But you get hit by criticism from your instructor or fellow students concerning your college essay writing. However, if you receive constructive criticism, it's right for you to improve your essay copy.

But first, let us understand feedback in writing.

What is Feedback in Writing?

As a rule, feedback is a strategy that encourages professional career growth and personal development. Nevertheless, feedback allows you to take time out to evaluate the situation or reason for the feedback and look for effective ways to make improvements.

Such comments offer positive criticism and negative response that lets you see how everyone else feels about your writing process.

In layman's terms, feedback is the primary component of writing, the intake, or the reader's contribution to your college essay writing. And in this case, the reader is your professor or fellow students.

What is Negative Feedback in Essay Writing?

Negative feedback is the process of making adverse comments about one's article. It usually takes place when parts of your thesis do not align with your essay theme or mistakes, such as:

• grammar errors;
• spelling mistakes;
• writing style;
• article structure;
• word of choice;
• the lack of essential elements in the content copy.

These factors warrant negative feedback from your lecturer. But in most cases, your instructor may offer constructive criticism, which is more like positive feedback that motivates you to improve your thesis writing.

However, note that negative feedback is not constructive criticism, but they work in similar ways. So you may be wondering, what is constructive criticism? Constructive criticism is the method of providing legitimate viewpoints in the form of positive feedback and a negative response.

The responder did not offer criticism as an opposition to your essay but respectfully to help you make the right adjustments. The reader provides helpful information that enables you to revise your document and make it better.

This type of criticism can come in the form of comments, suggestions, and or questions that triggers your ability to create reader-based prose. Reader-based prose refers to the content material you wrote or made better with your target reader in mind.

It is the opposite of writer-based prose. In this way, receiving negative feedback is right for you, although you may not feel comfortable receiving it.

Why is Negative Feedback Important to College Students?

Negative feedback is essential because it offers students the opportunity to establish a personal development plan that will help them achieve their self-development goals. It is the force that moves you to perform well in your essay writing projects and improve your writing skills.

It is also essential since it provides you the option to understand your instructor's and classmates' expectations better. Furthermore, negative feedback allows you to learn how to perfect your essay-writing skills.

Examples of Negative Feedback in Essay Writing

Here are feedback examples from the Georgetown blog. It is a response to a student's essay paper by his instructor. However, they contain both positive feedback and negative criticism.

Here are samples of feedback to a college student's essay paper in the screenshot below. You can expect similar comments or worse when you submit your article writing for reviews.

As noted in the responses, the student has an intelligent argument. However, some of your specific reasonings/arguments need development. These samples of feedback help the student to see areas where he should adjust to make his essay report and better document.

But, since we focused on the negative feedback on a written essay, we will not be discussing positive feedback examples. But you can also find positive feedback examples in that article.

6 Effective Ways to Manage Negative Feedback on Your Essay Report

There are several ways to handle negative responses to your thesis, but we have outlined the top-performing strategies proven to work. So, let us love forward.

1. Prepare Yourself and Listen Carefully

Since you submitted your college essay for review by your lecturer, you're not sure what to expect. For this, you have to prepare yourself for the worst-case scenario mentally. In this way, because criticism does not make anyone happy or comfortable, you'll be well-equipped and in the best position to accept it.

Moreover, you must listen carefully without interruption to understand every word said. So, no matter how severe the comments are, keep your calm and take it all with ease.

Such a mindset shows your maturity as a student who is willing and ready to make improvements. Also, it is a motivation to keep writing. As a result, attentiveness will help you gather vital information from the feedback that will enhance your writing.

2. Don't Take The Comments Personal

As a smart college student who wants to improve, don't take negative feedback as a personal confrontation. This approach will prevent you from being defensive. As humans, we tend to fight back to prove ourselves, but that shouldn't be the case.

You might not be wrong; however, you have to accept being in the wrong as it enables you to reach your personal development goals. So, don't let your emotions get in the way. That is why, as mentioned in section one, preparing for any possibility is essential.

With your emotion in place, the personal conflict will not arise. Instead, it helps you look at your work with keen eyes to see whether what your professor or classmates said about your work makes sense.

3. Evaluate The Feedback

As stated earlier, negative feedback can help you get better. So what's next after you receive criticism for your thesis? It is time to re-evaluate your essay with eagle eyes. Read your article a couple of times again and try to find a contrast with the responses.

Try to understand why they made those comments and figure out how you can use the responses to strengthen or improve your essay paper. Be realistic when examining your article copy and negative feedback.

Be reminded that may be a reason for the negative responses, meaning that your instructors might have a point. Therefore, if you detect that you didn't do well, search for useful information in the comments to help address the problems, improve your writing, and create an engaging essay paper.

4. Be Proactive and Ask The Right Questions

This step is particularly crucial if your college essay is the deciding factor in graduating or passing your exams. So, being proactive means taking the lead in accessing vital intelligence. This method involves step #3. So, while making eff to collect valuable data, ask the right questions.

Approach smart students in your class and lecturers and ask them about critical issues that will add value to your essay. The questions you ask will help you get a clearer picture of why they made such negative comments.

They will assist you in clearing things up. In that way, it will remove any doubt and emotions that may arise. Consider asking the following questions for inspiration:

• What areas or major points should I address?
• How can I improve my essay?
• Will you be so kind as to show me some samples of what you want in the article?

You want to do well and pass your test, so the answers you gather will significantly help your success. As a consequence, ensure to ask questions that will lead to more information.

5. Get Help from Others (Fellow students and instructors)

One of the best ways to make your essay better is to collaborate with others by getting help through peer response, also known as peer review or peer feedback. This action involves arranging with other classmates to offer assistance.

Peer feedback is a type of collaborative learning that brings together a group of writers to examine each other's work and give their opinions. They can meet in person or via the internet. It helps identify loopholes and the solutions to the problems.

As a result, you can quickly improve your essay writing. Moreover, your tutors are more equipped to offer help since they will review your final paper. So, you can arrange with them at a convenient time to assist in explaining things to you in detail. It helps you become a better student and accomplish your objectives.

6. Don't Dwell on The Negative Feedback

You have received negative feedback for your work, but should you dwell on it? Not at all. It's normal to feel wrong about negative comments; however, it's not a reason to stay on it. Remember, your goal is to create outstanding essay pieces that will score high marks.

Accommodating negative responses will only cause you more harm than good. It can be unproductive and also cause depression.

For this reason, give yourself time to deal with the situation and let go to free your mind from what's ahead. As you go through the process, keep in mind that your tutors' and students' assessment of your college essay does not connect to your values as a person.

So focus on the positives─your end goal of becoming a better writer. It will help you to continue improving your strengths and developing your writing skills. Also, a positive attitude will assist you in retaining a positive view of others. This mindset will help you to make rapid progress.

Wrapping Up

Receiving negative comments about your work is not a pleasant experience, but it can improve your career significantly. Given this, instead of reflecting on how the comments, focus on why and the result.

This procedure lets you see areas to make adjustments and improve your writing. Therefore, apply the tips in this article to develop a positive mindset when receiving negative feedback for your college essay.

What other tips would you like to offer our readers? Our readers will love to hear from you!