by Robert Lambert

Created on: March 29, 2010

There are two main concerns in giving effective criticism. First, you must try to tell the writer things that are useful and true. Second, you must try to do so in a way which will help the writer and which will be heeded. The first requires careful reading of the material in question, and the second careful writing or telling of your critique, depending on your method of delivery.

In determining what types of criticisms are useful, we must take a look at the purpose of criticism. What do we and the writer hope to accomplish by pointing out both the flawed and effective aspects of a piece of writing? Clearly the ultimate end is to advise the writer to alter their writing in some ways and not in others. Thus we must ask one question of any critique we offer: how can the writer use this to improve the work?

Imagine I tell a writer "I liked page three" or "I disliked this paragraph." That's nice to know, but precisely what is the writer to do with that information? They might smile at the former or fret over the latter, and they may well have already known that page three was strong or that this paragraph was weak, but there's little they can do about it. So perhaps instead I might say "The dialogue on page three made me laugh" or "The exposition in this paragraph was boring." This is a large improvement as the writer has more information about your reaction and about where it occurred, and it may give them a vague direction towards which to direct their revision, but it's still not very helpful. So it should be clear that what's needed is specificity. Be as specific as possible about the nature of your reaction, about the piece of text that gave you this reaction, and about why you had this reaction.

If possible, it's also helpful to suggest a way to improve it, but the simpler this is to implement the better. If a problem can be fixed by merely a change in phrasing, the writer is likely to appreciate your help. However, if your suggestions involve massive alterations to the plot they're less likely to follow them. Even if your suggestions would solve the issue you're bringing to their attention, the writer already has their own vision for their story and would likely prefer to write it themselves.

It's also important to keep in mind that some things you see as flaws might not be so to the writer. For example, you might disagree with the theme of their story, or with the thesis of their essay or article. In the former case it's likely to be

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>