Separating Description from Judgment
How clearly the critique distinguishes "what is in the work" (description) from "my opinion of it" (judgment), rather than blurring them in one undifferentiated sentence
The five levels
Each anchor describes what separates one level from the next — not a general description of quality. This is the text the evaluator itself reads.
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Level 1 Below Standard
Description and judgment are always fused; not one neutral descriptive sentence in the whole text
Example "The chaotic line ruins the painting" — description and judgment fused in one sentence with no separation
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Level 2 Approaching
Some sentences separate them, but most of the text still mixes the two
Example A first paragraph purely descriptive, then the rest is direct judgment with no supporting description
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Level 3 At Standard
The separation is clear through most of the text: a descriptive sentence followed by a judgment sentence linguistically distinct from it
Example "The composition is centered and symmetrical (description). This symmetry gives the work an intentional stillness (judgment)"
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Level 4 Above Standard
The separation holds throughout, and the critic moves between description and judgment with a conscious linguistic bridge ("therefore", "this makes", "based on this")
Example Every paragraph opens with a neutral observation then builds an explicit evaluative conclusion on it
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Level 5 Exemplary
The separation is structural to the text's own design; a reader could extract the description and judgment layers separately without ambiguity even if the linking words were removed
Example A clear structure: a full descriptive paragraph, then a full judgment paragraph explicitly referring back to the description
Where does your own work sit on these levels?
Submit one work to be read against this criterion alone: your position across the five levels, why you are not higher and why not lower, three literal quotes from your own work, and one exercise with its success check. Your first card is free.
Price: 7 SAR · Included in Pro & Artist Plus · First one free — Pricing details
Read my work by this criterionOther criteria in the same art
Whether every evaluative judgment is paired with a specific pointer to an actual location or detail in the work that grounds it
The five levels →How closely the work's details the critic describes (color, shape, composition, word, rhythm) match what is actually present in the work
The five levels →Whether the critique goes past the first impression to uncover relationships or causes not obvious on the surface, rather than stopping at surface-level description
The five levels →The critic's distinction between "what is seen in the work" and "what it is presumed to mean or symbolize", and whether the move from the first to the second is signalled
The five levels →Whether the critic's judgments hold together across the text, rather than contradicting themself evaluating the same element or equivalent elements
The five levels →Whether evidentiary grounding is sustained throughout the text, rather than concentrated in one paragraph while the rest of the critique is unmoored judgment
The five levels →The critic's use of the discipline's own terms (composition, rhythm, contrast, plot, maqam...) with their precise conventional meaning in that art, rather than as loose metaphor
The five levels →Whether the critic explicitly distinguishes between what is personal taste preference and what is judgment grounded in a general, defensible artistic standard
The five levels →