From: GUEST,leeneia - PM
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 09:16 AM

I stand by what I said upthread. Don't criticize. Instead, give examples from other people. Tell the students to record themselves and listen. Let them do their own criticizing.

There's too much criticism in our culture today. Every columnist has to criticize.

It's not so much that there is too much criticism, more there is too much blaming and putting down.

"Instead give examples from other people" strikes me as one form of constructive criticism - along the lines of "If you do it like this ... you might find you'll get better results"


There's also a strong force that tells people not to make their own music. "Shut up and buy recordings from the APPROVED performers!" - that's the modern way of life.

Too true!!!!!!

Thus it's too easy for somebody's 'constructive criticism' to be construed as a message that I'm no good.

Properly framed constructive criticism does not do this. I was told for years "You can't sing" and I believed them. Then I went to a workshop and at one point was told I was singing a fifth low. The tutor suggested that may have been what prompted the comment "You can't sing" because, without realising it, I was singing a harmony. That helped me to realise that I can sing and it was the start to finding the confidence to stand up and sing. Without someone pointing out what I was doing wrong - i.e. criticising, I would not have gained that confidence.

Also anybody who has to ask how to criticize probably lacks the huge range of social and verbal skills to carry off the constructive criticism of strangers.

Now there's a piece of negative criticism if ever there was one and a huge and unjustified assumption. I would suggest that a person who asks this question is someone aware of the lack of a skill they need. This is the first and most important step in rectifying that lack. They may well have the basic skills required but need to learn how to deploy them effectively.