Every candidate I work with eventually hands me a draft with a margin note that says something like “needs more depth” or “unclear contribution.” They read it, nod, and have no idea what to actually do next. That's not a them problem — it's a translation problem.
The problem with vague notes
Advisors are experts in your field, not necessarily in giving actionable feedback. A comment like “needs more depth” is shorthand for something specific in their head — but on the page, it reads like an instruction with no verb.
Vague feedback isn't useless, it's compressed. Your job is to decompress it into something you can actually act on.
A short glossary
A few phrases come up constantly enough that they're worth translating in advance:
- “Needs more depth” — usually means: you described what happened but didn't explain why it matters
- “Unclear contribution” — usually means: I can't tell what's new here versus what's already been said
- “Tighten this section” — usually means: you're making one point three times
- “Consider the literature more carefully” — usually means: you're missing a source your advisor expected to see
Vague feedback is compressed feedback — your job is decompression, not decoding.
Turning a note into a task
Take the vague note and ask one question: what would this page need to contain for my advisor to stop writing that comment? Write the answer as a to-do, not a feeling.
If you genuinely can't answer that question, that's useful information too — it usually means the note isn't really about the sentence it's attached to, but about a structural gap earlier in the chapter.
When to just ask
Translating feedback yourself is a skill worth building, but it isn't a substitute for asking. A single follow-up email — “When you say X, do you mean Y or Z?” — saves you from spending two weeks addressing the wrong problem.
Advisors respect a specific question far more than they respect silence followed by a guess.