Remind students that all programmers make mistakes—constructive criticism isn’t personal.

  • Students may find it funny or helpful to think about the "Five Stages of Code Review" (based on Dr. Elisabith Kubler-Ross’ book "Five Stages of Grief" from her book On Death and Dying):
    • Disbelief: "How could someone find so much to complain about in my code?!"
    • Anger: "How dare someone suggest that a hash-map of hash-maps isn't an efficient way of storing data?"
    • Bargaining: "Maybe if I add the comments the reviewer requested in one file, I won't have to fix the tricky Unicode issues in another."
    • Depression: "There was so much wrong with my code. How can I show my face to the person who reviewed my code?"
    • Acceptance: "Wow, my code is a lot better due to the feedback. This is a useful process, although I bet it's occasionally painful for everyone."

More about this tip

External Source

"So you want a code review... " by Ellen Spertus, under "What's at stake"