Ask for Critique Before Revision

Unit ID: PAW-M07-U03 Estimated active time: 20-25 minutes

Revision hides what was wrong

Ask for an improved version and you get one. What you do not get is a list of what was wrong, so you cannot tell whether it fixed the thing you cared about or something else.

Asking for the critique first separates diagnosis from treatment.

Critique your own draft too

This works on your writing, not only on generated text:

> Do not rewrite this. List the three weakest points, say why each is weak, and rank them by how much they would matter to the reader described above.

You keep your voice — Module 4's concern — and get the diagnostic value.

Ask for the objection, not the compliment

Unprompted critique tends to open with what works. That is pleasant and not useful.

> Skip anything positive. Give only what would make a careful reader stop, disagree, or ask a question.

The critique frame

CRITIQUE REQUEST

Do not rewrite. For this draft, give:

1. The three weakest points, ranked by impact on the reader
2. For each: why it is weak, in one sentence
3. Any claim a careful reader would want evidence for
4. Anything a reader might reasonably read the opposite way
5. One thing that is missing entirely

Then stop. I will decide what to change.

Item 4 catches ambiguity, which is the failure most likely to survive an ordinary review.

Decide what to accept

Critique is generated, so it is not authoritative. Some of it will be wrong, and some will be true but not worth fixing.

Mark each point accept / reject / not now, and act only on the accepted ones. The rejected ones are still useful — they tell you what a reader might raise.

Mini practice

Take a draft you wrote yourself.

Ask for the five-part critique with no positives.

Mark each point, then revise only what you accepted, in your own words.

Mark complete