: Re: Critique vs nitpicking During an in-class activity for my AP Lang class, each student did a cold read of a piece they chose, then all the students provided critique out loud and written on

@Jessie137

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You are being too sensitive.

Most critique was fine and constructive, but one paper that I got back really made a negative impression on me

The only objective truth is the number which were constructive verses the number which were negative.

1 is a statistical anomaly. There is no way to determine if this source is reliable, distracted, attempting to "normalize" the unfamiliar, or just didn't agree with your choices.

The biggest problem with being too sensitive, is finding a way to determine the objective truth. In your case a simple formula is to count the two types of feedback and compare the number as a ratio. 15 positive and 1 negative is a 15:1 ratio.

You can't prevent these incidents from standing out in your mind unfortunately, so you will need to de-sensitize yourself to what you perceive as negativity. If you still have the feedback paper, try extracting each sentence and looking for ambiguous ways each could be read. Imagine the feedback is said in neutral, flat tone, then imagine they are actually talking about their own work and something you wrote reminded them of their own writing issues. Lastly, try to imagine it in a voice that is (neutrally) letting you know what most stories have (balance) that yours does not, in case you missed it and want to address it.

There's a difference in giving "balance" feedback – mentioning what your story lacks that most readers expect; verses saying "Hey! You are writing wrong!"

I suspect (based on the other feedback being positive) that you might be able to work through your feelings about the "negative" feedback, if you try to be calm and critical about what they wrote. Did they miss the point? Are they trying to be mean? Are they the type who always sees the glass as half-empty? Do they think all stories should go a certain way?

Maybe it is them, and they wrote bad comments for everyone. Let this be practice, how to take criticism with a grain of salt, and then come back and see if there is anything useful to what they say, or if they are saying something very obvious because they don't know what they are suppose to feel.

"Your story is dark."
"Duh, it is about depression."

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