03-28-2022, 09:42 PM
Speaking only for myself, I find full rewrites (even of only a complete line or couplet) unhelpful when delivered to me even with the best intentions, and impolite when I provide them to others. That's why I always apologize even when offering rewrite of only a complete phrase, not to mention a line. I feel clues without set answers are best: I'm better than you are, but you're better than I am, so show me how you can do better here in your own way.
To me, critique at its best improves not only the work under discussion but its author's skills in general. In fact, it can improve *everyone's* skills, including readers of the crit and the critic's own ("you know, I do that, too" and "I should try that some time"). To mix a metaphor, a rewrite is "here's another way you could have caught this fish" while advice of a more general nature is "here's a trick that makes your lure more attractive to the fish." The pinnacle could be, I don't know, "think of other ways patience and encouraging what you want to come to you might improve your success in life."
To me, critique at its best improves not only the work under discussion but its author's skills in general. In fact, it can improve *everyone's* skills, including readers of the crit and the critic's own ("you know, I do that, too" and "I should try that some time"). To mix a metaphor, a rewrite is "here's another way you could have caught this fish" while advice of a more general nature is "here's a trick that makes your lure more attractive to the fish." The pinnacle could be, I don't know, "think of other ways patience and encouraging what you want to come to you might improve your success in life."
Non-practicing atheist