How to review

There is a bit of etiquette.

  (I can't believe I remembered how to spell etiquette.)

It all comes back to your purpose.

Do you want to help,

  or try to inflate your ego?

Trust me,

  I look back at some of my writing,

     and can't help but shake my head.

The point of a review is to help,

  at least in my opinion.

Yes,

  you can say this is a piece of crap,

    but you need to give your reasons.

Each time we write,

  we are learning.

The reviews are supposed to help.

Reviews

[Lyn Anderson]

EXACTLY. I don't care if someone corrects me, or makes a suggestion. But saying something like, "you need to work on this", or "I don't like this form", is not a helpful review. It is an insult without a suggestion. If I think something is crap, I just read it and move on. What is the point of insulting the person? Now, what's tricky is if they have asked me to review it. Which, removing my RRs has greatly relieved most of that stress. All of that said, your writing is generally insightful, fun, and relatively straight forward, with few exceptions, and none of it would fall into the "crap" category, in my humble opinion.

[Jon Roggie]

This was in response to another poet's simple correction. Shadowine caught a minor grammar flaw. It doesn't take me much to write. I rarely get attacked, and I basically ignore it. When it comes to a review, I try to see what the writer was attempting.

[Lyn Anderson]

I love it when people catch an error. I hate it when people let me leave them up.:)

[Papaya]

I'm lousy at giving reviews. Rarely constructive.
If I don't like it or understand it then I usually move on or simply ask what it means.

[Jon Roggie]

If you don't like it, move on. If you don't catch the meaning, ask. The writer should want to hear the questions.

[Papaya]

Exactly. :)