All--
Many, many articles have been written on the way you should critique a work. I am not going to do that here. Instead, I am going to give you some general guidelines for what NOT to do in your reviews.
1. Clearly, many of you are not used to workshops. Otherwise you wouldn't post three pieces in rapid succession on our forums. Believe it or not, the YWS Literature forums are meant to be workshops in which writers can get serious help on their pieces. If this is not the kind of thing you are seeking, you're probably looking for a showcase where you can "share" your work instead of a workshop where the work will be subjected to criticism and where you are expected to participate in critiquing the work of others. You might consider www.postpoems.com for your futher postings.
2. A serious response to a poem does not include or consist solely of any of the following phrases:
"this was so awsum i could totaly relat to this! keep writting!"
"wow ure imagary is grate! xoxoxox grate job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"i luv it. ure so talented. the flow is off but it's okay because you did a GREAT job with this. wowwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Okay, so any serious review should not include multiple exclamations points, exhibit poor spelling and grammar, or just flat-out suck. This is a place where writers post to get feedback on ways to improve their writing. If you can't find anything to improve upon, just shut up and keep reading other poetry and reviews that actually amount to something worthwhile for the writer. Learn from those.
If you can't find anything to improve, you had better be absolutely sure that the piece in question is perfect, before saying how great it is. Otherwise, you might as well tell the writer what you had for lunch, since that is the total use-value of your response. Further, responding to other users on somebody's work's thread is disrespectful and unhelpful to the writer. Feel free to reference their critiques and what you agree/disagree with, but do NOT respond to them. In short: post to the topic, don't post at all, or get out of Dodge.
3. Do NOT spare an author's feelings. I don't care if their poem is about how awful their life is, how they messed up big time, how they're thinking about suicide, or whatever. The fact is: we aren't here for anybody's feelings. If they don't want to get negative reviews, they'll either buckle down and seriously try or realize workshops aren't right for them.
If you want to be somebody's friend, take it to PM, the Lounge, blogs, or wherever. There are many, many opportunities for you to get to personally know people here sans the Literary forums--take advantage of them.
4. Do NOT lie to author's to get positive reviews on your own work (OR for any other reason). I can't count the number of times I've seen less-than-mediocre poets praise less-than-mediocre poetry in hopes that other poets will be guilt-tripped into positively reviewing the dross they've posted. This is both pathetic and unhelpful. Sure, herd mentality feels good, but it's only worth something, say, when you're stampeding from a pack of lions.
Honestly, I don't care if it's your bestest buddy from grade school: don't do it. Inevitably, I will decide to critique your buddy's post and crush them because you have inflated them with a false sense of worth, and then everybody loses: your buddy is crushed, you have to put up with him/her, and I get reprimanded for being "mean" to other users. So, don't do it. Period.
These four guidelines should help those of you who have consistently reviewed pieces in unhelpful and patronizing ways.
Take care now,
Brad
Gender:
Points: 890
Reviews: 915