Don’t Monkey with Critiques
Have you ever been assigned to critique something that was written by a monkey dancing on a keyboard? Do you occasionally find yourself wondering if you have spent more time critiquing a piece than the author did writing it?
When I am assigned to critique something that makes my brain hurt I pick one area like character development, setting, structure, or voice to focus on. I know there is no way I am going to fix everything that is wrong with the dancing monkey in one critique, but I can help him swing to a higher branch by helping him understand how to improve one area.
How do you deal with a dancing monkey?
Jacob
Stumble it!
Tags: critique writing, peer reivews
November 14th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
On websites where I am not assigned a work to review or critique, I do a line by line critique of one paragraph and drop it. I’m not going to torture myself if not required. When a critique of the entire work is required, I slog through as much as I can, leaving detailed in-line comments while I try to avoid being sarcastic. I have considered doing only a couple of paragraphs in that manner, on the theory that if they don’t learn from a few good examples, they aren’t going to learn from a truckload of them.
October 7th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
I agree with you, S. But I also believe in the power of repettion, so I continue to persuade the writer with comments such as “to get the reader’s attention” and things of the like. I also repeat the same tip and I’m annoying. People who submit their work for others to review should a) get honest and helpful feedback and b) improve so they won’t kill the rest of us!