English 421: Technical Writing

When responding online to another writers work the person giving the review has a bit of anonymity. By having this anonymity the reviewer can feel free to criticize most anything he feels that is wrong in the paper. Responding to the writer online allows the reviewer to point out all that he feels is wrong and doesn’t have to worry about the writer being indignant about what he criticized. However, the responder must make sure that he does not be too harsh or the writer might lose respect for his opinion and ignore his advice. This type of writing response is usually easier to do than a face-to-face meeting with the writer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best choice for responding to another’s paper.

 

When responding to a writer face-to-face the responder has to worry about what the writer’s response to his criticism will be. The responder has to pick his words carefully when looking over the paper so that the writer doesn’t get indignant. If the responder does hit on something that writer does not feel is in error the responder should find out if there is a way to compromise on a solution to the problem in the paper. This actually gets more done than responding online because it gives the responder a chance to work things out with the writer on what needs to be fixed to a point where both writer and responder are pleased.

 

I do believe that responding in person is the better way to review someone’s writing. Because, by meeting with the writer you can get a better idea of where they were trying to go with there writing. By getting a better idea of what they were going for the responder could give more informed ideas and criticisms about the paper.

 

Thomas