The two articles I read were Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!" and The Trouble with "Amazing": Giving Praise that Matters. The biggest message I received from these pieces were that when it comes to feedback we all need to be better. I can definitely relate to this idea and am a big believer in verbal affirmation/encouragement. I had a teacher last semester who was great, but one of his few flaws was his word choice when giving feedback. Whether the work I was doing was potentially worthy of an A, B, or C the only comments on my work would be is that it was "good". This was incredibly frustrating. It is not only important to give feedback in order for others to improve, but also it needs to be helpful feedback. Be specific when giving constructive criticism. "I liked the word choice you used in the paper and your transitions were extremely smooth." That is so much better and more informative than just, "yeah, that's good". If teachers, coaches, bosses and others in authoritative and leading roles are willing to buy in to this philosophy and give helpful feedback it will pay dividends in future improvement.
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