This was done for The Lit Crit Contest, which is now closed. You can read all the entries in this news article: Crit Haul. We received 40 entries in all. The results are here.

What makes critique good

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I asked people to send me some of the best crits they've received on deviantART and that resulted in the following list. I'm quite pleased with the number and very impressed with the quality. All this while I thought I was the only one getting awesome crits.

The purpose of this: a) to show you how wonderful both the critics and receivers of crit (crittees?) are, and b) to show you that there are different styles of critiquing.

POETRY CRITS

`AbCat's critique of ^GeneratingHype's poem, Gerry
~Aladdin-Sane's critique of `SparrowSong's poem, Heading Westward
~Aladdin-Sane's critique of `SparrowSong's poem, School of Poetry
*fllnthblnk's critique of ^lovetodeviate's poem, To Open
^GeneratingHype's critique of ^lovetodeviate's poem, The room must be pristine
*jonzoiplu's critique of ^lovetodeviate's poem, In Bangalore City
*jonzoiplu's critique of =Negated's poem, why can't I hear you anymore?
*Mnesimache's critique of =Negated's poem, why can't I hear you anymore?
*salshep's critque of ^lovetodeviate's poem, As a rock
`SparrowSong's critique of ^GeneratingHype's poem, Out-dated
~Sporenza's critique of `Beccalicious's poem, Harmony
~TheHungerArtist's critique of *itzjusdrama's poem, Paint Our World
*tightwhitepants's critique of *salshep's poem, The Suitor
~warytransgressor's critique of =Negated's poem, arctic tern

PROSE CRITS

*Amberlouie's critique of *wordworks's prose piece, Dreams
~ancient-seeker's critique of =Negated's prose piece, The Statue and The Poet
^GeneratingHype's critique of *wordworks's prose piece, Dreams
^GeneratingHype's critique of ^lovetodeviate's prose piece, Polished Forks
`GunShyMartyr's critique of ~CrystalSeeker's prose piece, City life
`GunShyMartyr's critique of =trippedinahole's prose piece, Mrs. Sarah Beecher
*jimboistic's critique of *wordworks's prose piece, Monsters
`Jon-Law's critique of *wordworks's prose piece, Dreams
*simeberg's critique of *wordworks's prose piece, Monsters
`SparrowSong's critique of ^lovetodeviate's prose piece, How Can I Be a Prophet?
=SunOwl's critique of `Beccalicious's prose piece, Buying a lilac room
*TTBranwen's critique of *wordworks's prose piece, Monsters

In December 2007, ^GeneratingHype asked us senior types to critique one person for Christmas. It was a good challenge for us all. Check out the news article: Secret Senior: Edition One

In December 2006, ~FatherLitmas was the forerunner-of-sorts of the above project; it was open to everyone: Merry Litmas--Results!

I'm still looking for examples of good critique and I will keep updating this. So do let me know if you find one.



`SparrowSong's journal: The Top Seven Reasons to Crit Lit



*apocathary's forum thread: Receiving Critique

`Beccalicious's journal: Why do you critique on other peoples' deviations?

*Amberlouie's journal: When does Constructive Criticism become a shark attack? Either list what makes a good crit, or what's the cardinal rule of critiquing, and when do you think the line trips people up between good and bad, rude and lovely?

=Squarix's poll: When giving critique, which do you think is the better tone to have? (80% have said "harsh" so far)

Am I missing any good discussions?



No, these aren't rules or step-by-step instructions. They're just guidelines. I think they're useful -- the first two have been very useful to me, definitely; as for the third, I wrote it. So in some ways this is shameless publicity. But if you'd like to go ahead and read it, I would much appreciate it. Most of my opinions in that editorial come from having interacted with many wonderful critics. I owe them a lot. In the comments section, you'll find that I have received excellent critique on the deviation and I've tried to revise accordingly. Okay, enough talk.

CRITIQUE by `tangledweb

A Verbose Guide to Critiquing by ~MavRyk

A Guide to Good Critique (Literature) by ^lovetodeviate

~rowenabrennavart has compiled a much longer list of useful links in her journal: Critique: How To.