Learning to study or not

[Val McDonald]

Hi:   On an intuitive, experiential basis -- the advice makes sense to me.  When I mark papers, I make a point of finding something that is praiseworthy as well as going into detail about errors and areas for improvement.  I think that I really learned to give constructive and detailed criticism in a positive way when I was asked by a colleague to review his dissertation.  I wanted to give him the best advice that I possibly could and to detect every possible weakness before the paper went to his committee.  I also wanted to maintain a good relationship with a colleague.  To accomplish these goals, I learned to translate comments such as "'It" should not be used without an antecedent" into "I think that your writing would be more powerful if you omitted "it" at the beginning of a sentence and replaced it with ...."  I have been told by students that they really appreciate my identifying the good as well as the not so good ... they have told me that they feel "safe" because they know that I will find something positive in a paper -- even if it is only "that was a good word."   On a personal level, I've golfed with two different people -- both of whom offer advice.  Imagine that I've tried an easy shot and missed not only the pin but also the green!  Person A is likely to snarl "Well -- it went exactly in the direction you shot."  Person B is likely to say "Your stance was good and the weight was right but you needed to pay more attention to orientation."  My score is a lot better when I golf with Person B and I feel a lot better about my game and myself...which I why I now avoid golfing with Person A.  So, I think there's something to be said for administering "a spoonful of sugar" along with the medicine.   Val.   Dr. Valerye McDonald Professor Psychology Department University College of the Fraser Valley Abbotsford, B. C., Canada