Critiquing for Workshop
Respond to each otherŐs work with respect, depth and
thoughtfulness, and in a manner that is civil and constructive. Submit
line-edit suggestions, margin comments, and an end comment (summary of your
thoughts on the piece). Read each piece twice and offer comments grounded
in your reactions to the text, comments that express what works for you and
ways to strengthen the work.
1. Offer an end comment that notes what you believe the work to be about, how you see the work achieving this, and what opportunities you can see for further exploration in this work.
2. Offer margin comments that note how you react as you progress through the work, and what strikes you as engaging or distancing or confusing or otherwise affects you.
3. Offer line-edits that can be in the form of the following: copy edits for consistency and clarity; and artful editorial suggestions for music and evocation (including level of diction).
4. Remember that your readers are trying their best to communicate their responses. Be patient and accepting of all responses.
5. Wait until all respondents have spoken before asking questions.
6. Discussing the work of others outside workshop will influence your comments. DonŐt do it.
7. Your written comments are your response as a reader. DonŐt try to rewrite the text. Respond to the text, not to the text as you would have written it.
8. The most helpful responses are descriptive rather than judgmental.
9. Saturday, keep your oral response brief and focused. You may read from your notes.
10. Sometimes an authorŐs experience will remind you of something in your own life. When responding, stay focused on the text and do not digress into your experience.
11. When reading nonfiction prose, it is often difficult to distinguish between the ŇIÓ on paper and the ŇIÓ in real life (the author in front of you, listening intently to your comments). The group must focus on the text itself.
12. Deliver the news as you would want it delivered to you.
Critiquing: Questions to ask of the work
-Does each scene advance plot?
-Flashback
-Flashforward
-Memory Tweak
-Frame
-Reader/Writer Relationship
-honesty
-literal truth
-Deeper truth
-Admitting Limits
-Bullshitting Reader
Single or Multiple Themes?
What does this essay want to be?
What is its nature?
What is thought and felt?
What is missed?
Who is the self on the page?
How real does it feel?
What are common denominators?
What is recreated?
What is art/What is not?
-Is there a beginning, middle and end or is this a non-linear essay?
7. Descriptive Phrases
Senses attracted and engaged: smell, sight, sound, taste, touch/feeling
Place
Lives
Ideas
Events
NOT ŇWhat HappenedÓ
8. Balance
Confusion
Collision
Narrative intersects Movement:
Complication
Dialogue
Description
Denouement
9. Proportion
Head-to-Gut Ratio
Who is important/who isnŐt?
10. Movement
Motion
Transitions
Tense
11. Perception
Private I vs. Public I
Stance
Consistency
Real vs. Artifice
Distance
Tone
Grace
Simplicity
12. Mindscape
13. Interiorscape
14. Exteriorscape
15. Authority
Cultural
Political
Economical
Governmental
Spiritual
Accuracy
Precision
Exposition:
Show donŐt tell.
Simple, but profound.
Mind exploding.
Strained?
Sentimentality?
Eyewitness credibility?
16. Diction:
Dead language.
Elevated language.
Clich
Repetitive
Plain to elaborate word use
Over the Top
17. Dialogue:
Does it show relationships?
Does it show power relations?
Vocal inflection appropriate?
Dialect appropriate?
18. Risk
WhatŐs at risk?
Human heart in conflict with itself.
Same light shined on self as on others.
19. Backstory
Story beyond ending
Weaving layers
Subtext
Motif
20. Clarity
21. Synthesis/Discovery/Turning Point
22. What is missing? What do I need to know more about?