Criticism

« Article Deletions | Criticism | Site Rules »

An organized space where you can learn the procedure of critique and how to critique properly among other things such as rules and guidelines

---

Rules

Critique the work, not the author. Do not make personal attacks on the author. Stick to criticizing their writing.

• As an example, you can tell the author, "This needs work. The main idea's fine except for the X, but addenda are complete crap." Don't say, "You're a terrible writer. Why did you post this?"

• Feel free to suggest that the author consult resources like our guides and essays, workshop their work (in the sandbox, or spend more time reading the site. But don't be a jerk about it.

Your posts must contain some kind of content.

• Don't tell an author "The problems with this article should be obvious". If they were obvious to the author, they wouldn't have made them, and a post like that contains no content except obliquely insulting the author.

In short: Be helpful, civil, and open-minded.

Guidelines

Criticism should be helpful in some way.

• Try to give the author an idea of where to take their next draft, or what might make their current article better.

Be as harsh as you need to be.

• "Harsh" is not the same as "mean", and "mean" is not the same as "helpful". We want to encourage each other to keep writing and to improve our writing skills. Being mean or rude in your critique only discourages the author from working to be better.

• Try to make sure you give enough criticism that an author can tell the quality of their entire draft.

Critique on posted articles can be short.

• Examples: You can say "I agree" (in response to another writer), or post a short but meaningful joke (so long as it's not spam or content-free). If you're not sure if you're being too brief, then post something more in-depth.

• You aren't required to comment at all. You also don't have to explain your vote on an article.

Keep an open mind.

• Remember, writing is subjective and critique is always a reflection of subjective thoughts and opinions.

Timeless Places' Critcism Policy is based on "Criticism Policy" by "The SCP Foundation": https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/criticism-policy