Tearing someone’s work apart is easy. Telling someone they are a genius is easy. Providing a critique that helps an author improve is hard. I recommend following these guidelines when giving a critique.

1. Critique the writing not the person. Never say “you need to improve.”
2. Be useful. Your goal is to help the author improve.
3. Find something positive to say. If you start by saying something positive the reviewee will be open to accepting your help. Stupid? Perhaps. But this is a technique remarkably effective. If you can’t find anything positive to say then let the assigned review expire.
4. Be respectful. You don’t know how much time and effort someone has put into the work. Don’t assume what they have and have not done.
5. Be balanced. Don’t focus exclusively on the good or bad. Mix it up, it makes the critique easier to digest and more educational. I try to point out one positive thing for every five weakness I identify.
6. Pick your battles. If you think everything is terrible, then just pick one of two areas to focus the critique on. Your goal is to help the writer improve not teach him everything they need to know about writing.
7. Use it as an opportunity to learn and improve your own writing.
8. Don’t say “I love it” or “I hate it”. Both statements are too subjective to be useful.
9. Try to be objective. If you love vampire westerns and you have been asked to critique a sci-fi romance piece tell the author this is not your favorite gene to read. Then try to enjoy it.
10. Help the author being critiqued improve.

Do you want to have your writing critiqued? Join our online writing group and participate in the peer critique process with us.

Jacob