Employability Skills III: Writing skills and feedback

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. Let us eat, Grandma. Let us eat Grandma. One comma changes everything! Today we learn writing skills, from parts of speech to sentences and paragraphs, and then how to give and receive feedback.

Good writing starts with parts of speech, which are the jobs words do in a sentence. A noun names a person, place or thing, like Riya or school. A pronoun takes the place of a noun, like she or it. A verb shows an action or a state, like writes or is. An adjective describes a noun, like tall or red.

Four more parts complete the list. An adverb describes a verb, like quickly in she runs quickly. A preposition shows position or direction, like on, under or to. A conjunction joins words or sentences, like and, but or because. An interjection shows a sudden feeling, like Wow or Oh.

Punctuation marks are the signs that guide the reader. Use a capital letter at the start of a sentence, for names, and for the word I. A full stop ends a statement. A comma separates items in a list or marks a short pause, and remember our Grandma example. A question mark ends a question.

A sentence is a group of words with a complete meaning, and it has a subject and a verb. A statement gives a fact, like class starts at nine. A question asks something, like is it ready? A command gives an order or a request, like close the door. An exclamation shows strong feeling, like what a goal!

Voice shows who is in focus. In active voice, the doer comes first, as in Aman wrote the report. In passive voice, the action or the object comes first, as in the report was written by Aman. At work, prefer active voice, because it is shorter and clearer.

A paragraph is a group of sentences about one idea. It begins with a topic sentence that states the main idea. Supporting sentences follow, with facts and examples. A concluding sentence sums up the idea. Keep one main idea in each paragraph, then start a new one.

Now the second part of our topic, feedback. Feedback is the receiver's response to a message or to someone's work. It tells the sender whether the message was understood. It also helps people improve, like a teacher's comments on your essay. Without feedback, the communication cycle is not complete.

Feedback comes in different kinds. Positive feedback praises what was done well. Negative feedback only points out what is wrong, and it can hurt. Constructive feedback names the problem and also suggests how to fix it, so it is the most useful kind. No feedback, meaning silence, leaves the sender guessing.

Here is how to give good feedback. Be specific, and say exactly what worked and why. Be timely, and give it soon, while the work is still fresh. Talk about the work, not the person, so say the report has errors, not you are careless. Be polite, and suggest a clear way to improve.

Receiving feedback is a skill too. Listen fully, and do not interrupt. Do not argue, and do not take it as a personal attack. Ask questions if a point is not clear. Finally, thank the person and act on the advice.

Pause and predict. Your friend says, your poster is bad. Is that constructive feedback? No, it is only negative, because it gives no reason and no fix. A constructive version is, the text is too small to read, so use a bigger font.

Let us revise what we learned today. The eight parts of speech are the jobs that words do. Capitals and punctuation guide the reader. The four kinds of sentences are statement, question, command and exclamation. Constructive feedback names the problem and gives a fix. Give feedback that is specific and polite, and receive it calmly.