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TRANSCRIPT: If you treat each piece of feedback you receive purely as a standalone comment, then you might be missing out on important information.
Tracking your feedback over time helps you spot themes and changes in your work. When feedback on the same issue continues to come up in different ways, this might signal that more focused work is needed for tackling this issue. On the other hand, if certain issues stop being commented on, it might simply mean you’re making progress! But keeping a record of the feedback you receive, and referring back to it often, is essential for being able to spot these trends.
Tracking feedback requires a good system for organising it. Creating a “feedback portfolio”, where you collate all of your feedback in one place, could make this process easier. This portfolio might be as simple as a single document in which you collect together all the comments you receive. You might then think about ways of categorising your collected feedback into themes. Doing this can make it easier for you to spot areas of your performance that are frequently mentioned, and to what extent comments from different people are in agreement.
Your portfolio should be an active workspace. In other words, don’t just store your feedback: engage with it too. Ask yourself: What keeps coming up again and again? Is there a trend? This analysis should then lead to action planning. Identify some top priorities. Which of the themes that are coming up frequently might make the biggest difference?
When you look back at older feedback and see how much you’ve improved, it reminds you of the progress you’ve made: something that’s easy to underestimate or to forget. It can be demotivating to feel that you keep receiving the same comments, no matter what you do. But through your tracking you might even realise that what felt like the same feedback, is actually highlighting improvements in your work over time. For example, you might once have been told that your work lacked critical analysis, but now your feedback—even though it still emphasises critical analysis—is mainly about how to refine this analysis. That’s a positive shift, even if it isn’t obvious to notice at first.
In summary, organising your feedback in a portfolio can make it easier to analyse it, to use your insights for planning your next steps, and to notice how much progress you’ve already made.
Practice Activity
Practice Activity
