Critiques

Here's your link for details about writing a critique for a classmate's first draft, from the activity we did in class today, Monday, 3/23:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B59oU02C12STS1J2dWREdDZsbjQ/view?usp=sharing.

Let me give you some additional notes about critiques, though:

First and foremost, the main objective of a critique is to tell your partner what seems to be going on in his or her essay, just descriptively. The most helpful criticism you can give someone is, "This is what I'm getting from your essay... You're basically saying this..." Then he or she can know if an important idea in the essay came across as originally intended. And you should start from the main message, describing that, then in each progressive paragraph of your critique, go into some of the major supporting points and examples and all of that good, specific stuff.

Of course, there's the other part of a critique, too: Talking about what works and what doesn't work. Sometimes, this means that you talk about what works for you specifically, what you think is right or wrong, even what you agree with and what you disagree with. But mostly, you want to give as much credit as possible to the writer and say what seems to work on that writer's own terms. In other words, take the time to describe what you see in front of you, then move into what seems to work for this particular thing that you see and what doesn't.

Now, if you end up in the situation where you can't find enough to say, either descriptively or prescriptively, then you definitely shouldn't just stop. Avoid giving up on an insufficient critique. Go on in other ways. For instance, try asking questions. Is there anything you, personally, could ask the writer? Could you try to move the writer to consider something he or she has written in a new way? And if you can go even further than asking questions, try making suggestions. In other words, think in terms of what's not there. Talk about what the essay is missing. Talk about what it could really use that it doesn't have already.

Finally, please note that, when making comments about a first draft, there's no real point to talk about grammar. I mean, the essay could change dramatically from first draft to second draft. So please don't mention grammar. Besides, it's kind of a waste of time to talk about grammar anyway, because the more important part of the essay, the part that gets more points, is the content and how well the content is presented. So try to think more in terms of content. Use the assignment sheet to help you think about content. And if there are grammar issues, even if they bother you, just don't worry about them; and don't waste time and space in your critique pointing them out.

In all, try to keep your critique longer than 500 words, but not too much longer than 750 words. If your handwriting isn't great, or if you want to make sure that your critique is legible, then type it up and print it out. Otherwise, you're welcome to write your critique by hand, on notebook paper. Only please, yes, you must write your critique out as its own little essay. Don't simply write comments on your classmate's essay itself. Write these comments out as a kind of letter to your partner.

(Remember: You can always access this blog post, which contains your assignment sheet for essay critiques, by following the labels for "Critiques" on the internet browser version of this site.)