--- title: Praise and criticism: giving and taking feedback — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Praise and criticism: giving and taking feedback», a lesson of the arts course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Feedback is what people tell you about your work so you can make it better, and the useful kind names one thing that works a --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Arts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/) / Praise and criticism: giving and takin… # Praise and criticism: giving and taking feedback Lesson 38 of the arts course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/0/) — Feedback is what people tell you about your work so you can make it better, and the useful kind names one thing that works and one clear thing to improve. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/1/) — "It's rubbish" only hurts, and "Amazing!" about everything soon means nothing; "the faces are funny, but I can't read the words" actually helps, like a map that shows you where to go next. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/2/) — Taking feedback is a skill too: listen to the end, say thanks, and decide later what to use, instead of answering every point with "yeah but". - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/3/) — Not every comment is feedback: a stranger online writing "cringe" is not trying to help, so you can block, report and tell an adult, and listen to people who want you to improve. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/5/) — Useful feedback is kind, specific and helpful: it names something that works and one clear thing to improve. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/6/) — In the "Austin's Butterfly" story told by the teacher Ron Berger, a young boy drew a butterfly six times, and kind, specific feedback from classmates made each draft better. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/7/) — A draft is a version of your work that you plan to improve. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/8/) — Praise that is the same for everything stops feeling real; praise that names something, like "the way you did the shadows", tells you what works. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/9/) — Parents often praise everything because they love you, even when the praise is not specific. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/10/) — "Two stars and a wish", used in many UK schools, means two good things and one thing to improve; it is not a score out of five. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/11/) — Many marks on your work usually mean the teacher took it seriously; asking which mark matters most turns a scary page into a plan. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/12/) — Mean comments online from strangers are not feedback; you can block, report and ignore them, and tell an adult if it gets bad. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/13/) — You can be kind and honest at once: "I love the colours, the horse's legs could be longer." - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/14/) — Singing "flat" means slightly lower than the right note, and singers often cannot hear it in their own voice, so a teacher's ear or a recording helps. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/15/) — Critics write reviews with reasons; you can read their reasons and still disagree, as taste is personal. - ← previous: [Being bad at something and keeping going](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/) - next →: [Art as a job: who makes art, money, fame and hard work](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/39-art-as-a-job-who-makes-art-money-fame-and-hard-work/) - ↑ back to [Arts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/)