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Ask HN: How do you give feedback on your friend's writing/blog posts?

4 points by calderwoodra ↗ HN
A good friend of mine has started writing recently and he sends me his drafts to proof read. Unfortunately for us both, I'm neither a writer nor experienced in giving feedback on writing. I mostly leave feedback on grammar/typos, rambling, structure, splitting up/staying on topic, give my 2 cents/perspective on the topic and maybe some insight into what people might want to read.

What kind of feedback do you all focus on? Any good resources I could check out to give better feedback?

6 comments

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EddieDante
If I had a surfeit of friends, giving feedback on their writing or blog posts would be an excellent way to fix that in a hurry.
ivmoreau
Why?

> he sends me his drafts to proof read

I don't get why someone will be mad about getting corrections when they asked about it.

EddieDante
How many writers do you know? I ask because the writers I know tend to ask for corrections without actually wanting them. What they want is for people to read what they've written, but simply telling people to "make yourself useful and read my shit" (as one of my writer acquaintances put it while drunk) simply isn't done.

They don't actually want corrections. Corrections would imply (to them) that they haven't in fact written heartbreaking works of staggering genius, but have instead failed to sufficiently polish their turds.

sys_64738
Depends if you still want them to be a friend afterwards.
ivmoreau
"The Chicago Manual of Style" is a great resource, but it's not free I'm afraid.

> What kind of feedback do you all focus on?

It depends. I usually help a friend with this, but I do mostly style correction and typos. When I'm pointing a thing I usually explain why that correction is necessary (unless is something trivial).

hackitup7
* Put the post into Google Docs if it isn't there already

* Turn on Suggest Changes so they can reject or ask questions more easily

* ASK THEM what sort of feedback they want: "Do you want feedback on grammar/wording, overall content and structure, or both?"

* If they want grammar/wording feedback only, I'll do a quick skim and correct some phrases

* If they want content/structure feedback, I'll provide that in a few comments throughout the doc

* If they want both, I'll do both

If you want to keep your friends, don't make more than 3-4 grammar corrections per page or so of content unless they ask for that feedback.

I also write a blog and the above is the type of feedback that I like to get. I find that experienced writers will often ask for feedback in the form of "tear it apart" (any and all feedback) or "just let me know if this makes sense" (content and structure).