Blessed be Everyone! Surprise, surprise!!! I had read so much discussions about criticism and I even came to fear it; I read stories and saw some errors in them, but didn't have the guts to say it. Personally, my strongest point is punctuations; I'm not that good at grammar and critical thinking, especially in english since it's my second language. Back to the point, I critiqued some things that I saw on a thread and it felt good helping others on their writing; it even felt useful xD For those who are scared like I was, don't be; it's really good, but always remember to be respectful and don't over do it. ;D Just thought to say this....who else feels this way??? Love....Alicia
As a further suggestion, also read other critiques on the same piece. You will begin to see those issues and point them out on later critiques and, eventually, even on your own. This is a good way to master sentence structure, dialogue, etc. I've been writing and mutual critiquing with friends for quite awhile. Then I came here to keep in the swing of things, and learned from other's critiques which I was able to apply to the latest editing of my own work. It is nice to keep learning and help others in the process //
I'm currently studying Professional Writing and Editing and in my Journalism class we've been workshopping out latest pieces. When we first started doing this I was extremely nervous about telling people what they could change because, well for the usual reasons. But now it's totally different, you learn to give criticism and take it but that doesn’t mean you always have to agree with it. As a writer it's something we all have to accept, people are going to like this bit but not that bit. The most important thing to remember is that we're all here to help improve each other's writing
In fact, evaluating the usefulness of a critique reccomendation is also a learning objective of the Review Room critiquing workshop. That pre-requires a familiarity with the critiquing mindset so you can follow the critiquer's logic and decide whether it fits with what you are aiming for as a writer. Critiquing is not an adversarial process. Giving and receiving harsh critique is most effective when each person respects the other, and the critiquer is assumed to be trying to help the writer. In truth, the critiquer often learns more from the exchange than the writer, because the critiquer must analyze the writing without forknowledge of what the writer's intent was.
