Bane of Your Resistance

Judy Reeves, author of Writing Alone, Writing Together, offered this comment to my first post about feedback:

“Thanks for this post, Rosanne. I know from personal experience how criticism can do harm, but I also know critique is valuable to me as a writer and to those writers I work with. I wanted to pass along a list of what I found the differences to be between critique and criticism.”

The distinctions Judy offers come from Writing Alone, Writing Together in a section aptly titled “The Difference between Critique and Criticism Is Like the Difference between a Crystal Ball and a Wrecking Ball.”

“Criticism finds fault
Critique looks at structure

Criticism looks for what’s lacking
Critique finds what’s working

Criticism condemns what it doesn’t understand
Critique asks for clarification

Criticism is spoken with a cruel wit and sarcastic tongue
Critique is positive (even about what isn’t working)

Criticism is vague and general
Critique is concrete and specific

Criticism has no sense of humor
Critique insists on laughter, too

Criticism looks for flaws in the writer as well as the writing
Critique addresses only what is on the page”

Thanks Judy for your insight and observations! Your distinctions echo some I’ve made between judgment and discernment in previous posts (here and here).

I’ve seen far too many students and clients who were expecting a crystal ball and got hit by a wrecking ball. It definitely helps writers to know what to expect BEFORE the feedback starts (because we’ve asked for what the writing needs).

And just in case, we need to know how to get out of the way of the wrecking balls. More about those topics in upcoming posts.