Praise the strategy, not the person

Kluger and DeNisi (1996) reviewed over 600 feedback effects and found that in more than a third of cases feedback made performance worse, with comments aimed at the self rather than the task among the least effective of all. 'You're a natural writer' gives a student a reputation to protect; 'starting from the counterargument made this persuasive' gives them a move to repeat. The fix costs nothing: keep the warmth, redirect the object. Praise the decision, the strategy, the revision, and leave the person out of it (see "Audit one week of your own comments").

In practice

Here are praise comments I have written recently,
names removed: [paste comments]

Sort them into: person-praise (labels the student),
task-praise (labels the answer), strategy-praise
(names the move that produced the result).
Rewrite all person-praise as strategy-praise,
keeping my voice and warmth. Flag any comment where
you cannot tell what the student actually did.

• Rewrite person-praise as strategy-praise: 'you're brilliant at maths' becomes 'checking the units caught that error'. Same warmth, usable content.
• Name the specific move that worked so the student can deploy it again on a task where they are not yet succeeding.
• Watch for the disguised versions: 'so talented', 'a natural', 'gifted writer'. They all park the cause of success somewhere the student cannot reach.
• Apply the same rule to criticism. 'Careless' describes a person; 'three sign errors in the expansion step' describes something fixable.