Week 8 Crit: Criticism as genre

Writing a note for strangers instead of for the person who made the work --- the restaurant review, the film review, the published take.

12 April 2027

Bring#

A short published review of your choosing — restaurant, film, book, anything — that you think is actually good, and a first draft of your own review of something you experienced this week.

The crit#

We take apart the published review first: where’s the specific claim, where does the writer tell you what would change their mind, where does it slide into pure verdict with nothing under it. Then the same pass on your own drafts. This is the domain where “care” gets tested hardest in the other direction from prose — the audience isn’t the person who made the thing, so the temptation is to stop being specific and just perform an opinion.

Leaves with#

A published-style review with at least one line a stranger could disagree with on the evidence, not just on taste.