Constructive criticism is it helpful?
I might have the cat by the tale with this one. Before I start I would like everyone to have an open mind and remember that I have respect for each and every one of you at WA.
In school many years ago I read a book, can’t remember the title, about this king that was deceived by scamsters. They were making him this special garment made out of gold to wear for the kings upcoming parade. Gold was given and fitments were done but he was naked all the time. No one close to him told him that he was naked because they were afraid that their criticism would land them into trouble.
During the public ordeal a boy shouted out loud that the king was naked and only than the king realized that he was actually naked.
I find it to be the same with our website comment task. The few websites I read was badly written, language, grammar, spelling and I could not comprehend the purpose of this exercise. I could not comment other than to criticize in order to help this person. I looked at what the other people were saying and I could not believe the comments.
English is not my first language and I struggle writing in this language. I have someone check my work all the time and find silly mistakes. I never feel embarrassed about it, I feel rather empowered because I got it spot on. (I did not write check this by the way, lol)
I know we have the checker, but it’s not 100%. Maybe this is not used by individuals.
Referring back to my king analogy, should there not be a final process before we ask for comments to have our websites checked?
Some of the things to check for
- Language
- Grammar
- Spelling
- Understanding of the massage being conveyed
- Is this the best theme for what is being offered
- Website functionality
Vernon
Recent Comments
3
Hi Vernon, a very brave, well witten post! My view on this area is... that I welcome constructive criticism meant for the right reasons. Particularly within site comments at WA. This gives me the opportunity to refect and review, whether I feel the comment is justified or not. It also gives me the options to either accept or decline the comment.
Also, I feel that this gives me a gentle flavour of what is come in the 'outside' world! Finally, we have been told in the training to give a balance, not all reviews we write need to to be 100% positive. Could this not apply to ourselves also? Thanks for this thought-provoking post! Sue :)
It's indeed a pity that so many people are wrestling with the English grammar. I do too. And as we are a worldwide community, this will keep coming back. Despite my poor knowledge of the English language, I once corrected several blog posts for someone. I thought, better bad than terrifying bad.
Constructive criticism is any day very helpful