Structural Organization of the Critique
Whether the critique has a clear structure (a framing opening, an analytical body, a concluding close) rather than scattered, unordered observations
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
A sequence of unordered observations, with no opening and no closing
Example Scattered sentences about different elements of the work with no connecting thread
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Level 2 Approaching
An opening or closing exists, but the body is not logically ordered
Example A clear opening then body paragraphs that jump between unconnected elements
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Level 3 At Standard
A clear three-part structure: framing, ordered analysis, a closing that sums up the judgment
Example An opening that sets the critique's angle, a body addressing elements in logical order, a close that reaches a general judgment
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Level 4 Above Standard
The structure itself serves the argument; paragraph order builds toward the conclusion rather than being a neutral list
Example Opens with the weakest observations and ends with the strongest to justify the closing judgment
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Level 5 Exemplary
The structure itself mirrors the logic of the work under critique (follows its narrative sequence, or its visual layers) rather than a generic template imposed on it
Example Organizes a short film's critique following its own chronological sequence rather than a random order of observations
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.
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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 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 →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 →