On
my first day of my internship back in September 2013, I wrote an article for
the monthly magazine, and when my supervisor handed it back to me at the end of
the day it was covered in scrawly notes in red pen. While I didn’t know what
most of the symbols meant, the scratchy red crosses were blindingly noticeable.
I’ll
admit my ego was a little hurt as I have been complimented on my writing
before, so I endeavoured to ask my boss for her feedback. She said that the actual content of the
article was great and most of the proofing (i.e. devil markings) was just
highlighting changes that needed to be made so the writing fit in with Clubs
WA’s style guide.
Each
company will have its own style guide for writing and while they are similar
they are not identical. If your company’s style guide is not collated into a
pretty little booklet for you, I’m sure your supervisor will happily share with
you the way they write things.
When
everyone in the Clubs WA team uses a consistent approach to punctuation, grammar, attribution and word use our publications look professional and
credible.
Throughout
the next year writing stories for Clubs WA, I noticed that each time I got a
story back it had less and less red pen on it, until I was at the stage where
my supervisor would let me send out copy without her needing to proof it.
I’ve
learnt not to get defensive if someone proofs my work and makes changes to it –
contrary to how it feels it is not a personal attack on my writing!
It’s
really important to pay attention to the corrections made so you can learn from
them. If your supervisor makes a
suggestion for you to change spelling, grammar or sentence structure, don’t
ignore it - change it. Those horrible scratchy red pen marks that I used to
dread have now helped me to become a stronger writer.
Disclaimer:
In any story that’s written about the importance of spelling and grammar, it is
almost a given that there will be a few spelling and grammatical mistakes, so
please forgive me.
On
another note, myself and the other marketing, public relations and event
interns run all of Clubs WA’s social media. We have just launched new pages for
each of our accounts to align with rebranding so to follow our journey please
like or follow us on the below links. You may even be able to score yourself a
discount on RSA training if you follow our HAT pages. ;)
3 comments:
Hi Holly,
I found your post to be very insightful about the importance of viewing corrections as constructive feedback rather than criticism.
Like yourself, there have been many times where I have received my work back after being proofed and it appears everything needs to be changed or re-worded based on the amount of red pen there is. However, it’s true what you said – even though the red markings can seem overwhelming at first, overtime these corrections actually help us to become stronger writers.
In particular, I like how you noted that this feedback also helps us to better understand the organisations writing style. Understanding the organisations writing style is crucial and often means having numerous corrections made to our work before we can perfect that style. So at the end of the day it’s all about learning the requirements and style of the organisation which takes time, patience and a willingness to learn from our mistakes.
It’s great to hear how your work has improved overtime and as a result, Clubs WA now allows you to send out copy without being proofed.
Please see below a few links that outlines the importance of feedback and how to obtain feedback. You may find these to be an interesting read:
http://www.fullcirclefeedback.com.au/resources/360-degree-feedback/360-power-of/
http://jobacle.com/blog/3-ways-to-get-constructive-employer-feedback.html
I hope you enjoy the rest of your internship!
Sophie
Hi Holly!
Everything you were saying in your blog resonated within myself personally, my placement and during my studies as university! I could not agree more that constructive criticism can often be one of the most marvellous learning tools.
When I undertook my placement in May of this year at HBF, I noticed the writing style differed slightly from the rigid structure that university had taught me, for internal pieces my writing could use more colloquial language however external releases were to be of integrity with sharp paragraphs that got to the point immediately.
I remember a year or so ago, sitting in Public Relations Techniques waiting to get my report back thinking 'Yes I aced this media release, I just know it' only to get my mark and received 62% on something I had invested so much time and effort. I was slightly devastated and much the same as you my ego slightly deflated. However that one media release has been the most pivotal learning tool of my entire degree. I remember asking for feedback, and I meant like Sherlock Holmes investigation into what went wrong haha, but I learnt so much and my next media release I conducted resulted in a mark of 92%!
That is so brilliant that you eventually gained her trust as to not need show her your work before submitting it anymore! You must be super proud of that! P.s love your disclaimer haha!
Cheers for sharing! Hope your report is going swell :) Kiara Natasha.
Hi Holly,
Firstly I just wanted to say that this blog post was a very enjoyable read! It was not only insightful but though it was quite wordy and long I seemed to have finished it in no time :)
I found what you were saying about style guides to be particularly enlightening, I've never even really thought about the consistency that a larger scale company would need over multiple employees! I guess a style guide is a great way for employers to be able to avoid the whole "If you want something done right, do it yourself" situation.
I think it's great that your employer was willing to help you out so much and provide you with feedback on your work again and again until you were at the stage where you could do it all by yourself, very lucky!
Glad to hear you have been enjoying your internship, all the best.
Naomi
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