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

“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.” - Jack Handey


Working online unfortunately provides an easy venue to criticize from miles away with virtually no repercussion. It is easy to tear someone down without providing encouragement or justification.

Fortunately, Review Fuse members tend to give detailed critiques that point out weaknesses in the writing while also providing encouragement. Thank you.

I hope everyone who critiques on Review Fuse can use the brief critique sessions to leave positive impressions. None of us will truly understand the extent of our influence as we interact. Every critique we write exerts influence that can either lift and inspire or depress and destroy an author.

We receive messages every week from authors thanking us for the positive and educational experiences they have using Review Fuse. These thank you notes really belong to the members who give critiques that both build up and show how to improve.

We also, unfortunately, receive occasional emails from members telling us we helped them discover that they have no business trying to write. Every one of these authors has been the unfortunate recipient of critiques that tear down without building up.

I am not saying you should shower someone with endless praise during a critique. That would be a useless critique. I am asking that you please start each critique by telling the author what they did well and then point out ways they can improve. Starting with something positive helps builds rapport and trust. Trust enables your peers to learn from your critiques. If this sounds like too much work take a moment to think about what you expect from the critiques receive. Do you really want someone to run away with your shoes?

Jacob

by Lu Ann Staheli

Here on Review Fuse, learning to review others’ work is just as important as learning how to write well yourself. Here are eight suggestions to help improve your skills as an editor and reviewer.

1. Be a voracious reader. The more you read, the more you will recognize what works and what doesn’t work in your genre. Read the best—and read a few of the worst. Learn to recognize the difference between the two.

2. Know that good writing is more than good grammar. As you read, consider how the author uses ideas, organization, sentence fluency, voice, and word choice to hook the reader. Read your writing aloud and mark spots where you notice word repetition or awkward construction.

3. Know your grammar basics. For many writers it may have been a long time since they studied the rules. I’m not suggesting you bring back bad memories of parsing sentences, but do locate a good handbook that covers punctuation and grammar rules. I use Writers Inc. (Great Source Publishers). This book not only has easy-to-follow instructions about the rules, but it also includes maps, conversion charts, and other supplementary materials that can be an asset to writers as they research.

4. Read books about writing. It seems as if everyone from Stephen King to Janet Evanovich has written about themselves as writers, and many of them have great tips to share with you. Keep a log of weaknesses you know you personally need to work on improving. Make a list of words you sometimes overuse. (See The Ten Percent Solution by Ken Rand. http://www.sfwa.org/members/Rand/Solution.html)

5. Read magazines such as Writer’s Digest. For a long time, this magazine included a feature where aspiring authors sent in their first page for an edit by a professional. Carefully reading articles such as these and others in each issue show you exactly what an editor wants.

6. Understand genres. Although it is important that your ideas be unique to you, it is also important that the writing you do will actually fit into a niche in the market. Novels can often include two genres if one of those genres is either romance or adventure. For instance, a historical romance works, as does a science fiction adventure. But historical science fiction is a little hard to fathom.

7. Talk about books. Be knowledgeable about what is being published. Follow the trades, local bookstores, or online marketplaces such as Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com. Use books as a place to gather new ideas, but also use them as a textbook for becoming a better writer. Study those opening paragraphs. Listen to the character’s voice. Know why you love—or hate—the main character.

8. Believe that your editing skills will grow, as will your writing skills. I’ve been a member of a critique group now for nearly ten years, and I can promise you that I catch many more spots that need edits now than I did back then, and it’s not because the members of my group are untalented writers. That would be far from the truth. Learning to edit has a rhythm of its own, and like any task we undertake, we tend to become more proficient as we practice that skill.

Know that the time it takes to improve your editing skills will be well worth it once you see those magazine articles and books being accepted for publication.

Lu Ann Staheli, the 2008 Best of State Educator K-12 in Utah, is a newspaper columnist, editor, and freelance writer. She blogs at Lu Ann’s Library.

When you are critiquing someone’s writing please remember the following guidelines.

1. Start the critique by telling the author what they did right, and then follow up by telling the author what they did wrong in their writing.
2. Critique the writing. When recommending ways to improve another’s work say “The story should…” or “This writing is…”
3. Do not critique the writer. Never say, “You are…” or “You should…”
4. Give a fair and useful critique even if you don’t like the topic.
5. Never say anything remotely close to “This is awful”, “That is stupid”, or “You’re an awful writer.”

Would you like a chance to sharpen your critiquing skills? If so, then join Review Fuse or enter our free Holiday writing contest.

Jacob