← Chapter 14
Professional Writing · Chapter 14

Brief the Reviewer

“Any thoughts?” is the most common review request in professional life and one of the least productive. Build a directed request instead — stage, specific question, deadline — and watch what each combination will actually get you back. Then switch tabs and rebuild six useless comments into ones a writer can act on.
Assemble the request
The fall-prevention policy is on your screen. Four choices decide what comes back.
Who are you sending it to?
What stage is the draft at?
What are you asking for?
When do you need it?
The note that goes out
Three lines. Written before you attach the file, deleted before the document goes anywhere else.
Usable feedback—
What you will get back
Not a grade — a prediction, and the reason for it.
Rebuild the comment
A comment a writer can act on has three parts: location, problem, and where you can manage it, a possible fix.
Is this blocking or a preference?
Why the label matters: unlabelled comments make writers either treat everything as mandatory — and produce a Frankenstein document — or treat everything as optional and miss the one that mattered.
The comment as the writer sees it
Read it as someone with forty minutes and eleven comments to work through.
Actionable0/4
Why each piece works or fails
Every choice you make gets a reason.