(DEPRECATED) Policy on Writing Critiques

Question

We had a long, long discussion about this internally, and we've decided that writing critique questions are officially on-topic.

Edit: This is an older page, and has been superseded. The original text follows, but is no longer site policy. For more information, see this page.

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In retrospect, the idea that a site about writing doesn't allow talking about writing (except in the rather narrow context of objective question examples) was, uh, a bad one. Yes, all critiques are subjective, but we now allow some subjective topics so long as they are constructive. We think writing critiques, if properly directed, fit firmly in the "constructive" category.

Bottom line, a writing site should be about writing.

Therefore, we now welcome writing critique questions, provided ...

1. It is your actual real world writing
2. It is tagged critique (this tag is deprecated)
3. You provide context for the writing critique.

That is, you must tell us:

• what you were shooting for when you wrote that piece

• specifically what kind of critique feedback you are looking for

• also, what kinds of critique feedback we should avoid, to set boundaries

In other words, give us some direction, don't just paste a bunch of writing into a question and click submit, expecting coherent feedback.

See also: What are the guidelines for asking for a critique of my work?

Answer 1

This is great, but the real-world clause could be troubling. How do we satisfy this? Do we need to indicate where the writing is published? Much writing is done for its own sake, I know that a much of mine certainly is.

I'm looking forward to seeing how people use this, it should invigorate the site significantly.

Answer 2

Maybe it goes without saying, but I'm thinking that critique questions, being subjective, should always be marked as community wiki.