Health Literacy Consulting "How-To"
www.healthliteracy.com
March 2010
3 Reasons Not to Get Feedback -- And Ways to Overcome Them
“Get feedback from your intended audience.” This is the most consistent health literacy recommendation I make whether working on projects or leading plain language workshops. To me, the best way to confirm understanding about written materials is by asking likely readers for feedback at key points during the writing process.
Yet too often I hear that writers skip this essential step. Here are my musings as to “reasons” why along with how-to tips about ways to overcome them.
- Reason #1. Fear that getting feedback takes too much time. Yes, getting feedback does take some time. If you are already at deadline, it may well be too late to get started. But truly, your project is likely to be much more successful when you schedule ahead times to ask for feedback. At a minimum, this should be after a “decent” first draft and then again after you have made revisions based on that first round of feedback.
- Reason #2. Assumption that you communicated just fine. Most of us are experts on the content we write about. That fact alone makes it nearly impossible to fully appreciate what it is like for an outsider to read our information for the first, and perhaps only, time. While you might assume that you communicated well, only your audience can assess whether you wrote in ways that are readable, useful, and understandable.
- Reason #3. Uncertainty about who to ask for feedback. Who are you writing for? Determine that in advance and then ask for feedback from those who represent your intended audience. For instance, if you are writing for older adults then you might want to get feedback from older friends and relatives or maybe participants at the local senior center. If you are writing for people with limited literacy skills, then maybe you could get help from teachers and students at a nearby literacy program. I consulted on a statewide project and was delighted when the client asked for feedback from shoppers at his local mall.
Once you get in the habit of confirming understanding, you are unlikely to ever return to your old ways. Indeed, the most consistent comment I hear about getting feedback is, “I should have done this before.”
Ways to learn more:
- Health Literacy Out Loud Podcast #31: "A Participatory Approach for Communicating with Diverse Audiences.” Podcast and transcript available at http://www.healthliteracyoutloud.com/2010/01/26/hlol-31-a-participatory-approach-for-communicating-with-diverse-audiences/
- Osborne, H (2005). "In other words...Listening to Your Audience...How to Get Reader Feedback," On Call magazine, available at http://www.healthliteracy.com/article.asp?PageID=3766
For permission to include Health Literacy Consulting Tips in your organization's newsletter, please contact Helen Osborne by e-mail at: helen@healthliteracy.com, or by phone at: 508-653-1199.
