Critiquing in a writing class serves several purposes:

• Practicing your reading skills

• Challenging a piece for readability;

• Offering the writer of the submission insight into what within an individual piece works well and what may need further attention (editing); and

• Developing the habit (for both reader and writer) of how to view writing in a fresh and positive way while the writer advances a piece through drafts to the finished piece.

Critiquing is about readability-not the reader or the writer. Therefore, remarks about the reader's choice of topic or the reader's or the writer's beliefs are inappropriate, as are suggestions based on a reader's experience with a similar topic. It doesn't matter if you too have been to England, owned a dog, or lost a parent. You cannot say, "If this was my piece . . ." Or, "In my experience people don't do that." You can say, "I became confused here, or this piece became slow there." We must respect the writer's right to take on different subjects and content, to take risks and try new creative tactics. We, as readers, are there to comment on what elements make us as a reader more or less inclined to continue reading, to stay within the world the writer is developing.

Also we are not grading a piece of writing or enforcing so-called rules of good writing. Instead, think about ways in which you can comment on the piece and suggest to the writer how their piece can become irresistible to read. And, don't feel that you have to solve the writer's problems. Ultimately, the writer must determine what the piece is about and how it should read. Finally, a writer can break any rule with which he or she can get away.

Here's how to proceed:

Step One: Read the Submission

1. Read the submission as a reader. We don't write for writers, we write to be read.

2. Use the various guidelines and marks suggested in class to annotate the copy, noting what works and what needs work.

3. Make sure you note both, preferably by noting what works first. If you cannot find what works, you have no reference by which to note that which doesn't.

4. Read each submission assigned.

Step Two: Answer These Questions

1. What's the story,

2. Whose story is it, and

3. Who should tell the story.

Step Three: Prepare for Class Discussion

1. Summarize your main comments on the first or last page.

2. Sign your name to your comments.

Step Four: In-Class Discussion Format

1. Read lines from the piece that you thought were particularly well written and/or striking to you as a reader.

2. Identify the purpose or main theme or plot of the piece.

3. List those points that make the piece work.

4. Comment on those parts of the piece that don't work, identifying in class only those that have a major impact on the readability of the piece. (In other words, no copy editing during class discussion.)

5. Finally, return it to the writer.

If, during class discussion, you find yourself arguing, stop. There are no right and wrong ways to see a piece. Discussion is not about you, the reader. Analyzing a piece is not the point, either. This is not a study of literature class.

Readability is the sole purpose of critiquing. Also, you may not be the audience for this piece. If you still can't let go of your position, make your argument a writing assignment.

Critiquing is an opportunity for the writer to hear different experiences from different readers . . . then determine which comments will help advance the piece.