“I don’t consider even the critical feedback that I’ve gotten negative. It’s all been constructive in a way that’s been really helpful. It’s more about ‘what do you want to communicate to your audience at this point?’ The feedback that I really appreciate, whether it’s negative or positive it’s just someone who says, ‘hey, this is what it sounds like to me and whether that’s something that needs to be added in later, or whether that’s, you know, am I interpreting this correctly?’ Just having another set of eyes go, ‘ok, I think…this is how I’m interpreting your writing, and let’s talk about whether or not that’s what you intended or not.’ That really helps me, especially because I deal with perfectionism on sentence-level stuff and compulsive revising; I am a very detail-oriented person and it is sometimes difficult for me to see the bigger picture. And whenever somebody can kind of try to guide me through that or point that out, I find that really helpful.”
Courtney Massie is the Assistant Director of the Writing Center.