Pure
Fiel a Verdad
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2001
- Posts
- 15,135
Malachiteink has kindly volunteered this guide for critiques, which she wrote and has used elsewhere. I have cross posted it at the Authors Hangout.
How do people, esp. new people find it? How is it helpful? Have you looked at this forum's official guidelines? Do you think it should be kept easily available to persons visiting the SDC.?
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How do I critique someone else’s work?
by Malachiteink
Critiquing someone else’s writing can be daunting. What do you say? How do you avoid hurting feelings? How do you make your comments worthwhile?
1) Remember that the goal of every writer is to communicate to a reader. You can already look at a work from that perspective – how successful was the writer in communicating his or her ideas to you? What parts of the writing stick in your memory after reading? What puzzled you? What pleased you?
2) Educate yourself in a greater understanding of the written word. There are many thousands of books written for writers that discuss the seemingly complicated aspects of characterization, structure, theme, and plot. It isn’t as hard to understand as it might seem, and you might find you only lack the vocabulary, not the knowledge.
3) Be specific. Read the piece more than once and mark the things that puzzled or bothered you. Mark things you like, too. If you have a general comment, be able to give specific examples from the writing. When you are reading, check problems in reference material and bring the references. A writer can give more attention and thought to a specific, focused problem than to some nebulous “feeling” reported by a reader. A negative comment, phrased in specific terms and focused on a particular problem, is much more helpful and more likely to be accepted well than something vague or amorphously positive.
4) Don’t over praise or praise vaguely. Keep your comments specific and clear. This makes your comments useful. Constant praise often sounds false to a writer. You will also lose credibility as a reader if you issue only praise. Writers tend to be very aware of problems in their work and will doubt your word if you have nothing but praise. However, praising particular lines, characters, word choices, etc., will help a writer see his or her strengths.
5) Balance your comments. For every negative you have, find a positive. If you simply didn’t like a piece at all, pick one problem you found to mention, and leave the rest. And, as with anything, phrase your comments in an impersonal manner. Never use insulting or vulgar phrases. Avoid “being clever” or displaying sarcasm. When all else fails you, saying “I couldn’t appreciate the piece” can be enough.
Last, keep yourself emotionally separate from your comments. It is the writer’s work, in the end. He or she must sort through all the comments made and pick those that can be used. Don’t argue your point of view on a piece and accept that others – including the author – may disagree. Being right isn’t important. Offering a useful, honest opinion is!
How to I handle other people’s critiques of my work?
If giving a critique is hard, accepting critique can be terrifying. How can you balance what you see in your work with what other people say? How do you deal with hearing negative comments? And how do you make use of what you hear?
1) The goal of every writer is to communicate to a reader. When you were writing, you were trying to talk to someone else. You may have had a specific person in mind. That specific person probably won’t be reading and commenting on your piece. If you did your job as a writer, your writing should be accessible to almost anyone. If it isn’t, that itself may be useful information.
2) Divorce yourself from your written piece. You are not your writing, even though it can feel just like that. You may never fully break the emotional tie to what you write, but you can distance yourself. Once you offer a piece, you are sending it into the world to stand on its own or fall flat. If you feel shaky, cultivate a single person as Your Reader, someone who is aware of your feelings for your more fragile and personal pieces. Don’t expect a group to know how personal a piece is, or how strongly you feel about it. And never, never, never reveal or discuss a piece that isn’t finished!
3) Never ask for comments you don’t want. [Assess] your motives in asking for critique. Writing can fill you with self-doubt and make you hungry for praise. Solitude can blind you to your writing’s problems. Negative critiques can make you unreasonably angry or hurt. Be honest with yourself – how will negative comments affect you?
4) Keep creative control. Asking for comments does not commit you to responding to or using every single one. All the comments were offered in good faith, but they may not all be equally useful. Be willing to experiment, but remember that, in the end, you are the writer and you must make the decisions about what and how you do and do not want to write.
5) Compare comments. Everyone who reads your work will have an opinion. Before you try to act on all of them, look them over. Is some particular comment showing up more than once? Are comments tending toward a specific aspect of your work, like characterization or word choice? These are the comments to study first. When multiple people see the same problem, it is probably more than a matter of opinion.
6) Ask questions. You know your problem areas. Help the people who are commenting to help you. Ask specific, focused questions to which they can make specific answers. Direct attention to trouble areas in your work.
Last, listen carefully! If you find yourself defending or explaining your writing, then perhaps you aren’t ready for a critique or you are taking the comments on the work as comments about yourself. In review and workshops, it is the readers who should talk – the writer should listen. The writing should speak for itself. If you have trouble making yourself listen, take notes. Make the most of the comments you get
How do people, esp. new people find it? How is it helpful? Have you looked at this forum's official guidelines? Do you think it should be kept easily available to persons visiting the SDC.?
=======
How do I critique someone else’s work?
by Malachiteink
Critiquing someone else’s writing can be daunting. What do you say? How do you avoid hurting feelings? How do you make your comments worthwhile?
1) Remember that the goal of every writer is to communicate to a reader. You can already look at a work from that perspective – how successful was the writer in communicating his or her ideas to you? What parts of the writing stick in your memory after reading? What puzzled you? What pleased you?
2) Educate yourself in a greater understanding of the written word. There are many thousands of books written for writers that discuss the seemingly complicated aspects of characterization, structure, theme, and plot. It isn’t as hard to understand as it might seem, and you might find you only lack the vocabulary, not the knowledge.
3) Be specific. Read the piece more than once and mark the things that puzzled or bothered you. Mark things you like, too. If you have a general comment, be able to give specific examples from the writing. When you are reading, check problems in reference material and bring the references. A writer can give more attention and thought to a specific, focused problem than to some nebulous “feeling” reported by a reader. A negative comment, phrased in specific terms and focused on a particular problem, is much more helpful and more likely to be accepted well than something vague or amorphously positive.
4) Don’t over praise or praise vaguely. Keep your comments specific and clear. This makes your comments useful. Constant praise often sounds false to a writer. You will also lose credibility as a reader if you issue only praise. Writers tend to be very aware of problems in their work and will doubt your word if you have nothing but praise. However, praising particular lines, characters, word choices, etc., will help a writer see his or her strengths.
5) Balance your comments. For every negative you have, find a positive. If you simply didn’t like a piece at all, pick one problem you found to mention, and leave the rest. And, as with anything, phrase your comments in an impersonal manner. Never use insulting or vulgar phrases. Avoid “being clever” or displaying sarcasm. When all else fails you, saying “I couldn’t appreciate the piece” can be enough.
Last, keep yourself emotionally separate from your comments. It is the writer’s work, in the end. He or she must sort through all the comments made and pick those that can be used. Don’t argue your point of view on a piece and accept that others – including the author – may disagree. Being right isn’t important. Offering a useful, honest opinion is!
How to I handle other people’s critiques of my work?
If giving a critique is hard, accepting critique can be terrifying. How can you balance what you see in your work with what other people say? How do you deal with hearing negative comments? And how do you make use of what you hear?
1) The goal of every writer is to communicate to a reader. When you were writing, you were trying to talk to someone else. You may have had a specific person in mind. That specific person probably won’t be reading and commenting on your piece. If you did your job as a writer, your writing should be accessible to almost anyone. If it isn’t, that itself may be useful information.
2) Divorce yourself from your written piece. You are not your writing, even though it can feel just like that. You may never fully break the emotional tie to what you write, but you can distance yourself. Once you offer a piece, you are sending it into the world to stand on its own or fall flat. If you feel shaky, cultivate a single person as Your Reader, someone who is aware of your feelings for your more fragile and personal pieces. Don’t expect a group to know how personal a piece is, or how strongly you feel about it. And never, never, never reveal or discuss a piece that isn’t finished!
3) Never ask for comments you don’t want. [Assess] your motives in asking for critique. Writing can fill you with self-doubt and make you hungry for praise. Solitude can blind you to your writing’s problems. Negative critiques can make you unreasonably angry or hurt. Be honest with yourself – how will negative comments affect you?
4) Keep creative control. Asking for comments does not commit you to responding to or using every single one. All the comments were offered in good faith, but they may not all be equally useful. Be willing to experiment, but remember that, in the end, you are the writer and you must make the decisions about what and how you do and do not want to write.
5) Compare comments. Everyone who reads your work will have an opinion. Before you try to act on all of them, look them over. Is some particular comment showing up more than once? Are comments tending toward a specific aspect of your work, like characterization or word choice? These are the comments to study first. When multiple people see the same problem, it is probably more than a matter of opinion.
6) Ask questions. You know your problem areas. Help the people who are commenting to help you. Ask specific, focused questions to which they can make specific answers. Direct attention to trouble areas in your work.
Last, listen carefully! If you find yourself defending or explaining your writing, then perhaps you aren’t ready for a critique or you are taking the comments on the work as comments about yourself. In review and workshops, it is the readers who should talk – the writer should listen. The writing should speak for itself. If you have trouble making yourself listen, take notes. Make the most of the comments you get
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