I really love the amount of peer review we have in this class. As writers, getting feedback and critiques is the best way for us to improve. I really like comments that can point out a single aspect of a story and give an opinion on it. The very general comments about the quality of a story or how it reads are nice, but it's much more engaging if someone says "I liked the dialogue" or "The description of this scene seemed lacking."
In that same vein, I think it's best if comments are honest, even if that means they're negative. Honest comments are how a writer can tell that his or her audience is truly engaging with the story. If there is a serious problem in a story, then it needs to be pointed out to the author. Sometimes this could be a number of problems with the grammar, or it could be an issue with wording or sentence structure. Other times, this might include a more stylistic critique, looking at how characters are described and how the structure of a story is set up. Personally, I know that this is a very hard thing to do with a person face-to-face let alone in an online class where we don't have the chance to explain/deliver our critiques exactly as we would like. There have been a number of times where I've been conflicted over whether or not I should say something to an author because I didn't want to create bad vibes in the class. Moving forward, I hope to do a better job of leaving comments that are not only engaging, but also constructive.
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