About Critiquing
How to Critique
Receiving Critiques
Critique Resources
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Critiquing can be a intimidating task for the beginner. You may feel that you don't have the skills, the knowledge, the experience or the understanding required to write a critique, but this just isn't so. Critiques are at their most basic level only opinion, and even beginners have opinions that count. Critiquing will benefit your own writing as well. You'll become more aware of common mistakes in mechanics, style and technique and be able to apply these new found skills to your own work. When you are in doubt about a mistake in someone else's writing, you'll find yourself looking up the matter and gaining more knowledge in the process. It's a win-win situation. You'll help others find mistakes and rough spots in their manuscripts, you'll expand your own skills, and you'll get honest opinions and helpful hints about your own writing. Some guidelines about posting critiques to the list: New members should write at least 2 critiques that meet the groups criteria before submitting their own work. After this, you may submit your work freely as long as you keep up an average of two critiques per submission and a minimum of three critiques/commentaries per week. For example: If you submit only one submission, you should still critique three others. If you submit two, you should critique at least four. These guidelines are of course bounded by the number of submissions posted in a week. |
| I find the best way to critique a piece of writing is
to read it once to get a feel for the story and flow, then read it again with a critical
eye, commenting as you go, to better spot the mistakes. Some thoughts to consider when critiquing: 1. Feedback should be given to a writer freely and objectively. Don't be afraid to voice your opinion, if something doesn't work for you, point it out to the writer. 2. Critiques should be written in order to help the writer become a better writer. Don't give uninformative critiques that say, "you have some spelling errors" without pointing out where, or "I didn't like it" or "the end didn't work for me" without offering an explanation as to why. It is important to offer suggestions for making the piece better, being as specific as you can. 3. Your critique or commentary should be "substantial" to be considered as part of the critiquing requirement. That is to say, your critique must be useful, offer suggestions, and it probably needs to be at least 150 words long in order to do these things. 4. Always remember that there is a real live person behind the writing. Be tactful and polite, critique the story not the author, and don't forget that pointing out the good is just as helpful as pointing out the bad. It does a writer good to know that even if you don't like a piece, there are still some good things to be said about it. |
Critique Format
| Start out your critique by giving a general comment on
the piece. State what you liked or didn't like about, give praise where praise is due, but
also point out any major problems as well. Don't be overly gracious, members deserve the
truth about how their writing comes across. Also, sum up what you thought the story was
about in one or two lines. This can be invaluable to an author in finding out if the
direction they've taken is going the way they plan. If you will be giving a more in depth critique you should include your comments within the text of the manuscript. This insures that the author understands exactly where problems in the manuscripts exist. Be sure to separate your comments from the authors text by using one of the following methods: Mark the author's text with ">" in front of their lines, and add your own comments below in the standard Internet form for quoting and replying to e-mail. Example:
Or, alternatively set off you're own comments by surrounding them with some sort of marker that will stand out against the rest of the text. Example:
Just be sure that your comments are easy to pick out when the author scans down through the text. |
| The critiques you will be receiving are written by your
fellow members. Their opinion may differ from your own, but that does not necessarily make
them right or wrong .What you do with the critiques you receive is your business, but the
giving of critiques is everyone's. I would recommend that you do pay particular heed to any points brought up by more than one critiquer, generally speaking, if there's smoke, there's bound to be fire. We encourage writers to respond to critiques received. It often helps the critiquer and others understand a story point from the writer's perspective. Plus, it's nice to acknowledge and thank the person for taking the time to critique your work. Should you ever be bothered by any comment from another member, please give yourself some time to reflect on it and also to see if anyone else makes a similar comment before responding. If, on the other hand, anyone should make a comment that you truly find offensive in some way. Do not hesitate to contact the group moderators. DO NOT respond out of anger, even if you feel it's justified. It's the moderator's responsibility to deal with such issues. Explain your position and let the moderators deal with the matter off the list. |
Further resources to help you learn more on critiquing Basic
Path for Critiques How to Critique Fiction Hardcore Critique
Advice How to Succeed in an Online
Writing Workshop How to Deal with
Critiquing The
Other Worlds Writers' Workshop Basics of Critiquing The
Turkey City Lexicon, Annotated A
Central Index of Writers' Technical Terms SFWW Critiquing
Guidelines |
