Judy Reeves, author ofWriting Alone, Writing Together, offered this comment to my first post about feedback:

“Thanks for this post, Rosanne. I know from personal experience how criticism can do harm, but I also know critique is valuable to me as a writer and to those writers I work with. I wanted to pass along a list of what I found the differences to be between critique and criticism.”

The distinctions Judy offers come from Writing Alone, Writing Together in a section aptly titled “The Difference between Critique and Criticism Is Like the Difference between a Crystal Ball and a Wrecking Ball.”

“Criticism finds fault
Critique looks at structure

Criticism looks for what’s lacking
Critique finds what’s working

Criticism condemns what it doesn’t understand
Critique asks for clarification

Criticism is spoken with a cruel wit and sarcastic tongue
Critique is positive (even about what isn’t working)

Criticism is…