Xah's Edu Corner: Criticism vs Constructive Criticism

[Ari Johnson]

"Xah Lee" <xah at xahlee.org> writes:

A large amount of free, constructive criticism follows.

1. Learn where to post things.

> Criticism versus Constructive Criticism

2. Learn when to capitalize words in a title.

> Xah Lee, 2003-01

3. Learn when to post things.

> A lot intelligent people are rather confused about criticism,
> especially in our “free-speech” free-for-all internet age. When
> they say “constructive criticisms are welcome” they mostly mean
> “bitching and complaints not welcome”. Rarely do people actually
> mean that “criticism without suggestion of possible solutions are not
> welcome” or “impolite criticism not welcome”.

4. Try "many."

5. Learn how to use commas.

6. Nobody says "constructive criticisms are welcome."  They use the
singular, as should you.

7. Learn how to use commas.

8. Learn how to use parallel structure.

> Such discernment is important. Wanton bitching as internet-using geeks
> are used to is not criticism is any form.

9. Generally, the use of sentence forms like "such <noun> is
<adjective>" is even frowned upon in legal writing anymore; but it
is almost never appropriate to use the word "bitching" in the next
sentence.

> People can be respected and make a living out of criticisms, called
> critics, but not bitching. And when one really value opinions, you
> often want criticism without qualifications. Just be happy that
> valuable criticisms may come to you free from the experts in the
> public. The instant you qualify what kind of feedback are welcome, your
> feedback is compromised. (this is particularly so for political or
> controversial subjects)

10. You're still insisting that criticism in the general sense is a
plural thing.  It is not.  Also, these "criticisms" are not what we
call "critics."  We call the people making them critics.  I'd let this
one slide but you bounce back and forth too many times in one sentence
to get away with it.

11. Learn how to match a verb to its noun.

12. You still haven't figured out when to use "criticisms."  I'll give
you another hint: nowhere within your writing.

13. Learn when your "expert" criticism is apropos and when it is not.

14. If you can't figure out when not to pluralize the word criticism,
I don't know why I expect you to know when to use "is" instead of
"are."  However, I still recommend you learn this not-so-subtle
point of English grammar.

15. Sentences in parentheses are still sentences - capitalize and
punctuate appropriately.

16. When you make a sweeping, general statement, it helps to support
it with some kind of logically-related evidence.

> One easy way for many of the unix geeks to understand this is the
> cryptology industry.

17. Learn when to capitalize proper nouns.

18. The cryptology industry is not a "way."  It is an industry.  Learn
how to write clear sentences that use words in meaningful ways.  One
way to do this is to utilize verbs.

> If one really desires valuable criticisms that is polite or with
> solutions or “constructive” (whatever that means), one usually have
> to pay.

19. The rule is that third-person singular subjects take "is" and
third-person plural subjects take "are."  You seem to have this
backwards.

20. If you are offering a dissertation on constructive criticism, you
ought to define the term rather than using a parenthetical
shoulder-shrug like this.

21. Third-person singular subjects take "has," not "have."

22. When you write something, even when it is not welcome or not
relevant to the place you post it, it is helpful to actually make
a point rather than just making several statements of things which
alternate between obvious and nonsensical.

> This post is archived at:
> http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/criticism.html

23. If something from three years ago is on the web, it is indexed by
Google.  If someone wants to read it, they will find it via
Google.  There is no need to post it on inappropriate newsgroups.

>
>    Xah
>    xah at xahlee.org
>  ∑ http://xahlee.org/

(This isn't constructive criticism, but just a question:) Are you the
sum of your web page?