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Think about TV ads. Analyze. Ask questions. |
Consider these ideas for your own compositions. |
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| WHAT'S
THE FEEDBACK?
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WHAT'S
YOUR FEEDBACK?
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Feedback is information received back from the target audience, or others, which helps the writer adjust the means to accomplish the end. Feedback implies a very dynamic process of writing, a process in which the writer recognizes the need for revision. If we pay attention to the feedback, we find out what works and what doesn't. All of us do this informally, but the advertising industry has devoted a large portion of its budget and energy in determining the effectiveness of its persuasion. In one sense, the amount of products sold is the bottom line in any ad campaign. But, for most corporations, so many complex factors are involved in their overall marketing plan that a variety of ways are used to get earlier feedback. Test marketing, for example, is a method by which proposed national ad campaigns can be tried out, much more cheaply, by tests in a few small cities. Surveys, questionnaires, interviews at shopping malls, opinion polls, coupons redeemed, and phone calls received are also important and common techniques for overall feedback on effectiveness. To get more specific comments, useful for ongoing revisions, several methods are used. Most TV commercials are tested out by "consumer behavior" and "market research" companies using in-depth interviews with small sample audiences. However, the oldest way of measuring the effectiveness of specific ad copy has always been in direct mail in which the ads and response devices are number coded. The amount of time and money spent by advertisers on gathering feedback is a good indication of its importance in the process of persuasion.
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Most writers would like to get preliminary feedback from the ideal editor: a wise, kind, patient, and understanding expert who gives much praise and tactful constructive criticism. Alas, most writers make do without such a saint. Usually writers have to learn to be self-reliant, using their own imagination for feedback, playing both parts, as writer and reader. Reading your draft aloud helps, both for sound and sense, for strengths and weaknesses, to see if it's appropriate to the audience and situation. Students often get helpful feedback from teachers: in general, grades; more specifically, in the marginal comments and circled errors. Some composition courses stress group writing or peer editing in order to increase feedback. Textbooks also offer good advice and principles for you to check your work against. "You know? You know?" (that speech habit, often condemned) is a common spontaneous, informal request for audience feedback, assent, or understanding. "Yeh, yeh" or "uh huh" (or a head nod) is the informal reply. Not all feedback comments we get from family and friends are equally useful: your mother might praise everything you write ("that's nice"); your friends may have a varying degree of skill, wit, tact, or interest; your teacher may be overworked. As a writer, you have to balance the usefulness of feedback against the dangers of dependency. Seek feedback from others, but don't be overly dependent on their opinions or approval. Paying attention to feedback, from the audience, from others, or even from your own imagined "inner speech" is an important part of the writing process. The ultimate feedback comes not from people helping to prepare the writer to accomplish a task, but from the target audiences.
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| | Welcome | Purpose | Audience | Limits | Structure | Attention | Confidence | Explicit | Implicit | Response| Omission | |
