ANST - Why A&S Gets Ignored

[Mjccmc01 at aol.com]

One of my favorite "positive comments" in the situation Gunnora describes is:

"It's much better than the first thing I ever made."  Note that, as I could
be describing coloring on the living room wall at the age of 18 months, this
is not technically an untruth.

On a more serious note, it opens the door for you to describe the steps you
took to hone your art and offer them as suggestions that you once found
helpful.  You've taken the focus away from the problematic entry itself, put
yourself on a semi-equal "we're all trying here" level with the contestant,
and you're giving general rather than item-specific feedback.  And I firmly
believe that, in the situation Gunnora describes, item-specific feedback is
not really helpful, whereas advice about how to get a good start in a given
area is.

BTW, this approach doesn't work well on paper, and should really be used for
in person critiques only.  In situations as potentially sensitive as this
one, body language and inflection are critical.

You know, it strikes me that in this thread we're giving away all the double
top-secret Laurel secrets.  Maybe we'll be put on double-secret probation and
prohibited from judging for a year.  (And the artisans rejoiced!)  ;-)

Hoping not to lose my secret decoder ring, I am,
Yours,
Siobhan 
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