I’ve got my feedback – what next?
All writers, no matter how successful, need feedback. Although it might seem scary to send your work off to someone else to read, our team of volunteer readers are all on your side. Their role is to help you to make your writing as good as it can be.
Our readers will take the time to read and think about your writing really carefully, and give you some suggestions which they think will help make your piece even better. There’s always something you might not spot by yourself, and a second pair of eyes can make all the difference!
We worked with the poet and fiction writer Anthony Anaxagorou, who created this resource to help you think about the importance of feedback and how to make best use of the feedback you receive.
All entrants who enter by our feedback deadline of Wednesday 5th March are offered the opportunity to receive feedback from our team of readers.
What will my feedback include?
All feedback is personalised to the individual entry, so every piece is different. But here are some things our readers will try to help with
:
- suggestions to develop the content further
- tips to help improve structure and/or clarity
- improving word choice/phrasing
- corrections to grammar
- ideas for wider reading
What do I do once I’ve got my feedback?
So you’ve read your feedback – what next? Feedback can only ever be suggestions from another person, and there might be things you disagree with. That’s fine! There might be other things where you think, they’re right, I need to explain my research more in that paragraph – or I hadn’t noticed that sentence doesn’t quite make sense. That’s fine too. Our readers aren’t trying to catch you out, they’re here to help you to make your writing as polished and exciting as it can be for your final submission.
You can also always copy and paste your piece into a new document, so that you still have your original copy and then can try out the feedback suggestions on a new draft. Then you can compare the two and see what works best for you.
Take your time, try out the suggestions, and when you’re ready, make sure to submit your final draft by Wednesday 30th April 2025!