Welcome to the Emotive-Box's guide to writing Positive Critique. Remember, that these are only guidelines, not necessarily rules and these guidelines do not apply to everyday critique or other groups, just to Emotive-Box.

When giving critique to a piece of poetry, you follow some certain steps. The steps are described below and will be the main body, if not all of your critique.

Step One: Comment on whether you like the poem, or not.
Remember, that liking poems is a personal taste. What one may like, another may not. Don't be afraid to say you don't like it, but remember to state things you think the poet did WELL.

Step Two: Point out something that the poet did well, or several things.
Once pointed out you need to describe why the things he did so well were so effective, or moving, ect... You get the jist. Try to focuse more on this step than the next one.

Step Three: Point out ONE negative thing about the poem.
It's always good to give some negative critique in a poem. Now remember, negative does not necessarily mean bad. If there was something major in the poem that the poet didn't do particularly well, then point it out and give some suggestions on how he may improve on that area.

Step Four: Give an overall summary of the poem.
Give and small summary and an encouragment to the poet. Here you may describe any emotions or attachments you felt to the poem while reading it.

-------------

Three Golden Rules of Critique:

Rule One: Always be positive.

Rule Two: Remember that negativity doesn't mean bad.

Rule Three: Don't tell to fix... suggest to improve.

-------------

Thankyou for reading. If you want to extend or make any adjustments to this, please feel free to note me at either ~emotive-box or ~pres-requin.