Post by camoens on Jun 5, 2008 20:42:15 GMT -5
Let me Christen this new Knowledge board with an important bit of knowledge thats served me well. I learned how to review from a few people, and while it can be hard to take criticism it is essencial for some to get better. When you know there are points that need work in your writing, a good review can be extremely useful.
when you are the reviewer you can make it easier on the person to accept this criticism in a 3 fold manner.
First:
Read their work thoroughly, if you stop part way through, you are in NO position to give a decent review. You can however take notes of things you notice through it, mental or physical.
Second:
First tell them What was good about it, What you liked, and saw they should attempt to recreate, this lets them know your not just picking on their work, and find merit in their effort. Then You give them the criticism, but this is no excuse to just tear down someones work. The reason for Criticism is in order to learn something. If you have trouble picking out things, here are some to look for, good or bad.
Structure of the work:
Does it appeal to the eye?
Is it easy to read?
Can you follow a pattern in it?
Does it fit the persons work?
Spelling and Grammar:
Did they spell check it?
is There too many of a type of punctuation?
Does it make grammatical sense?
When you read it aloud, how does it sound?
Content:
Does it keep a line of thought or emotion all the way through?
Does it evoke any kind of emotion?
Can you relate to it?
Does it paint a picture of words?
Can you get the meaning of it without explanation?
These are a few questions you can ask if your having trouble finding parts to point out in a review.
And Finally:
The factor of what you think.
All artists are unique, they may hear inspiration calling to them, or they may do it out of intellectual curiosity, This makes finding the real meaning of their work very much a point of perspective, Something you can do in a review is give them YOUR thought on what it was about.
It might not seem like an important thing but this may help the artist to gauge the response of his or her audience, And it may get you an explanation of what they actually meant. Having heard some of the things artist write for, it can be very enjoyable to hear their thoughts, as well as surprising finding that it wasn't what you thought at all.
Remember to keep an open mind of things, there are always new forms and new ways to do things. Try to give the kind of review that you'd like to receive.
And remember "IF YOU CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING NICE TO SAY..."
And Thats a rellativly brief overview of reviewing.
hope this helps some.
~Camoens
when you are the reviewer you can make it easier on the person to accept this criticism in a 3 fold manner.
First:
Read their work thoroughly, if you stop part way through, you are in NO position to give a decent review. You can however take notes of things you notice through it, mental or physical.
Second:
First tell them What was good about it, What you liked, and saw they should attempt to recreate, this lets them know your not just picking on their work, and find merit in their effort. Then You give them the criticism, but this is no excuse to just tear down someones work. The reason for Criticism is in order to learn something. If you have trouble picking out things, here are some to look for, good or bad.
Structure of the work:
Does it appeal to the eye?
Is it easy to read?
Can you follow a pattern in it?
Does it fit the persons work?
Spelling and Grammar:
Did they spell check it?
is There too many of a type of punctuation?
Does it make grammatical sense?
When you read it aloud, how does it sound?
Content:
Does it keep a line of thought or emotion all the way through?
Does it evoke any kind of emotion?
Can you relate to it?
Does it paint a picture of words?
Can you get the meaning of it without explanation?
These are a few questions you can ask if your having trouble finding parts to point out in a review.
And Finally:
The factor of what you think.
All artists are unique, they may hear inspiration calling to them, or they may do it out of intellectual curiosity, This makes finding the real meaning of their work very much a point of perspective, Something you can do in a review is give them YOUR thought on what it was about.
It might not seem like an important thing but this may help the artist to gauge the response of his or her audience, And it may get you an explanation of what they actually meant. Having heard some of the things artist write for, it can be very enjoyable to hear their thoughts, as well as surprising finding that it wasn't what you thought at all.
Remember to keep an open mind of things, there are always new forms and new ways to do things. Try to give the kind of review that you'd like to receive.
And remember "IF YOU CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING NICE TO SAY..."
And Thats a rellativly brief overview of reviewing.
hope this helps some.
~Camoens