To Critique

To critique another person's work can be very intimidating as well as flattering. Before you begin to critique a person's work one must keep in mind the differences between critiquing and reviewing. These are two very different avenues when it comes to evaluating someone's writing. To me a review is the impression of the work, what I experienced, what I felt as a reader. My responses to those questions would be my review. "When I review another writer's work, I am a reader." (M.B. Fields 2006) To me a critique is an overall evaluation of the structure of the work as a writer.

In order to give a thorough critique of someone's work there are key areas that must be addressed. These areas are punctuating, spelling, verbiage, structure, and clarity to just name a few. Depending on the knowledge and skill of the person critiquing there may be quite a few more areas of writing to consider. In order to give a quality critique all responses should be subjective. It is okay not to be able to understand someone's topic in order to give a critique on it. But you must understand the topic in order to give a review about it.

There is no such thing as a negative or positive critique. As I understand it a critique is simply a list of positive and negative responses to how a persons writing was put together. A critique will always have negatives and positives responses. However, there are positive and negative reviews. When you start using the words "I felt" when you critique someone's work then you are not critiquing, you are reviewing. Punctuating and spelling can not make anyone feel a certain way.

During a critique you are the one asking the questions. Why this or where is that? Why is this here and not here? When critiquing, you are the one asking the questions to the writer. When giving a review, the writer is asking the questions and your answers are the reviews. How