The commenting process this semester has been particularly useful for me when compared to previous semesters. In the past, I have provided only comments about the good parts of a blog post or pitch, whereas this time, when approaching the contribution of feedback for my peers, I have attempted to be more critical of areas that might need improvement. Each comment is written in semi-formal language, to give myself some credibility while also relating to my classmates and making the observations more readable.
Admittedly, outside of the compulsory nature of this assignment task, commenting on people’s blogs is a practice I would not necessarily undertake out of my own personal motivation. However, the process of providing critical feedback has encouraged me to reconsider my own pitch, and areas that may not have come across as clearly as I had imagined. One example is my methodology, which I think could have been better explained. This was made evident to me when I was writing about the third blog post, where I felt the concept was highly interesting however the actuality of the project was somewhat unspecified. Here (without being condescending), I attempted to provide some suggestions or ideas of the ways this individual might go about capitulating their ideas, and strategies to receive feedback on their iterations.
Another tactic I used when approaching the commenting was the provision of further research and information to help the classmate generate some further ideas. This was done in my second comment, where I linked to a media article from news.com. In addition to providing my classmate with some further reading, I also did this to try and broaden my own knowledge of what they were discussing, as their topic was something that I am very unfamiliar with. Considering I only did this for one post, this is a practice that I think could be very greatly improved in the future, as it helps not only my classmate but also myself to learn more about a new topic.
In each of my comments, I have attempted to break down what I interpret the methodology to be and how this relates to the topic that the individual has decided to research. Again, in doing so, I believe this has helped me reconsider my own methodology and how the medium relates to the content portrayed. In addition, I asked my peers what timeframe they were considering for this project, as well as the number of iterations they were hoping to achieve in the allocated time. I realised through this that I too must get a move on and generate some content so that I can start receiving and building upon feedback.
Hence, this assignment has made me consider how the ideas and wording we may have in our heads is often challenging to convey in a spoken or written method to an audience who is completely unfamiliar with the project. Looking ahead to my Beta Presentation, I will endeavour to be clearer and much more concise in my presentation and explanations.
Lazy Susan. 
Reblogged this on Future Cultures.
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