Recently, I asked one of our writing consultants what they thought would be a cool idea from the Writing Center to “show off” in a blog post. What was something they thought worth sharing from the work that we do? What would they like to yell about from the rooftops?
Their answer was, “avoiding evaluative language.”
In the Writing Center, we make a point to avoid evaluative language when we offer writers feedback about their work. This stems in part from a desire to decenter grade-related language from our approach as peer consultants, but it also opens the door to all kinds of communication benefits and pedagogical advantages.
What does it look like to avoid evaluative language?
Here is an example of evaluative language we use in our training: “The organization works well.”
Here is the same example, revised to avoid evaluative language: “The organization of the essay makes it easy for me, as a reader, to see the connection between each paragraph topic and the thesis. I know, for instance, how the point about how parents know their children best supports the thesis that argues the federal or state government should take a hands-off approach to laws around parenting.”
In the revised version, the evaluative statement is reframed as an observation of what’s happening on the page and the impact it has on the reader. It includes information that goes beyond simple praise and moves into a detailed analysis of why the organization works well.
Avoiding evaluative language can be a high-impact mental exercise that benefits both the giver and the receiver of information.
Here are some helpful side effects that I notice when I deprogram evaluative thinking:
My feedback improves
It’s much easier to say, “That’s great! I love it!” than to explain and identify exactly why something is great and why it’s working. Non-evaluative praise requires more critical thought and more detailed feedback, which ultimately results in a higher-quality piece of information for the praise-receiver to learn from. Telling a writer, “Great work on this essay!” offers positive, effort-based reinforcement for their work, but “Your hard work paid off for me as a reader of this essay. The introduction drew me in, which made me want to keep reading, and each paragraph introduced new, intriguing information that seemed tailored to the audience,” tells them exactly what is working and why it’s working. More detailed feedback offers more information to consider next time the writer is working on an essay.
Constraints open doors
Although at first, it might seem harder to put in the critical thought required to determine why something is awesome instead of just that it is awesome, working within a constraint can be fertilizer for the brain. When given a constraint, instead of asking, “What should I do?”, I end up asking: “What can I do?” Sometimes, adding rules opens the door to creativity. No evaluative language? I can’t just say, “That’s awesome!” and leave it there? Well, what can I say? What do I notice about why something is “great” or “awesome”? When given a constraint, I might surprise myself by generating a more creative response.
Opinions can be the enemy of connection
Using non-evaluative language nudges me to decenter my opinion. When I evaluate something, I am bringing in criteria I have developed throughout my life that informs whether I think of something as “good” or “bad.” These criteria could be built on previous experience and existing knowledge that causes me to be an effective judge of something, and they can also be built on pre-existing biases and criteria unrelated to the task at hand. When I slow down to extract evaluative language from my response, I practice seeing the situation through clearer lenses. Instead of jumping in to evaluate, I often find myself practicing curiosity, asking more questions, and holding more space. It gives me time to listen and understand and to really connect with the person I’m in conversation with.
Accuracy goes beyond “good” or “bad”
Noticing and questioning an evaluative statement can help us dig in to what we’re really experiencing and prompt us to offer more accurate information. For example, if I ask you, “Hey, how’s your day going?” I bet you’ll tell me it’s going either well or poorly. But what if your day was kind of “meh,” and some nice things happened? Maybe in sharing that your day could have been better, it gets categorized into the “bad” column instead of the nuanced, complex, and more accurate category it really deserves. Avoiding evaluative answers can help us understand how we really feel about something.
Try it out
It might be impossible to avoid evaluative language entirely, but I would argue that the mental experiment of trying to avoid evaluative language as much as possible might make our lives–and our work, especially our critical feedback—much more complex and interesting.
Here’s the challenge I’ll end on: The next time you notice yourself describing something as “bad,” “good,” “nice,” “terrible,” and so on, try to replace the evaluation with an observation. What is it? What is it doing? How is it impacting you?
Be specific. See how this changes your thinking and the way you communicate with others.
