Eval Writing and Comments

[TrunkMonkey]

Except that most officers and chiefs don't have the first clue on what to write on the back of the eval, whether for their own or for their sailors.

Quoted from another thread...

This brought up a lot of questions for me, as I am someone who has spent years and years in the Navy training pipelines, and am now looking at hitting "the fleet" sooner rather than later. There are still some things I have no idea on.
People always say that after sitting in as an observer on a promotion board, they will never write a fitrep the same way again. That's all well and good, but they never say specifically what it is that they are changing based on the way the boards operate. I understand the basics of the fitrep system. But I'm sure there are a lot of nuances that I don't know about.
With that in mind, I was wondering if anyone had any input into how specifically to write more effective fitreps, both for officers, and more importantly, for my future sailors.

 

[Brett327]

Your CO will (should) have the appropriate tools to make or break you as appropriate. My best advice is to obtain the FITREP verbiage from the #1 EPs that have gone before you and study them for content. They're probably laying around somewhere on the network drive, unprotected for all to see.

Brett

 

[snake020]

On the AF side, it's good practice as a JO to find a solid Chief Master Sergeant (E-9) and pick their brain. If they've gotten there, chances are their FITREPs have been good and they know a thing or two about putting them together. It's also not a bad idea to keep copies of good reports or bullets from them that come across your way, redacting name/SSN/personal info of course.

I would recommend finding that solid SNCO that has a good deal of experience in writing/molding reports. Like Brett said, find those #1 EPs too. If you know of any $hi+ hot officers, ask if you can see copies of their stuff. I've asked Os on several occasions for their old stuff and have yet to hear a no.