Critiques are a valuable part of the learning process. They can help you understand your own work, and they can also help you understand how others view your work. But critiques can also be difficult! If we don’t know what to expect from a critique or how to interpret it appropriately, then critiquing someone else’s writing can feel like an exercise in futility.
In this post, I’ll share five skills that I learned about myself after being on both sides of the table: as a writer receiving feedback from my peers and as an editor giving feedback to other writers. These skills have helped me become not only more efficient with my own projects but also more effective at helping others improve theirs too!
The value of a critique.
Critiques are a valuable opportunity to learn from others. They can be used to help you identify areas where you are doing well and where you can improve, as well as get feedback on your work, performance or attitude.
A critique is an evaluation of a piece of writing done by at least two people who have read it carefully enough to provide useful comments. Typically these will be peers (people with similar skills), but they may also be instructors or editors. The first step in getting ready for a critique is making sure that your writing has been proofread by someone else before submitting it for review; this ensures that typos don’t distract readers from seeing what’s important about what they’re reading!
Noticing your response to a critique.
When you get a critique, it’s important to notice your response. Why do you feel the way you do?
It could be that the critique was not helpful at all and only served to make your work look worse than before. If this is true, ask yourself: How can I use this critique to improve my writing skills? If there are some good points in what someone says about something (even if they criticize other areas), then use those points as inspiration for future work or even incorporate them into current work by rewriting sections of text or revising images if necessary.
Cultivating a positive mindset about yourself and others.
- Cultivating a positive mindset about yourself and others.
- In a positive mindset, you are more likely to see the good in others and yourself. This can lead to more productive feedback sessions as well as fewer defensive reactions from either party. It also makes it easier for people who receive critique (whether they’re new or experienced) to take on board what others say without feeling attacked or judged. It’s easier to learn when you feel safe enough not only to ask questions but also admit when your work needs improvement!
Taking responsibility for your own learning, growth, and development.
- Take responsibility for your own learning, growth and development.
- Do not blame others for your failures or expect them to solve your problems for you.
- Be willing to ask for help when needed and be willing to admit when you don’t know something.
Critiques are valuable opportunities to learn from others, and even from our own reactions to them
Critiques are valuable opportunities to learn from others, and even from our own reactions to them.
- Critiques are an opportunity to learn from others. A critique can be a chance for you to get feedback on the work you’ve done or are working on, hear new ideas about what works and doesn’t work in your writing, and gain insight into how other writers approach their craft.
- Critiques can also help you grow as a person by helping you understand where some of the challenges in your life come from–and then addressing those issues with new strategies or attitudes (like being more open-minded). This process is known as meta-cognition: thinking about thinking itself (or metacognition). It’s helpful because it gives us insight into our own thinking patterns so that we can change them if necessary!
In the end, critiques are valuable opportunities to learn from others, and even from our own reactions to them. If you find yourself getting defensive or upset in response to a critique, try pausing for a moment and asking yourself: “What am I feeling right now? What thoughts are going through my head right now?” Then take some time to calm down before starting over again with this person or group–and don’t forget that they might need some calming down too! Remembering these five skills will help us all approach critiques with openness and curiosity rather than defensiveness or hostility:
