Tricia, great to hear from you. And yeah, the critiques as doorways is clearly a lovely idea that has positives and negatives…

I like the image of revision doorways, too, Sarah. I think I was just trying to remind myself that sometimes rather than fixing, a circle and a question mark might give the writer the space to clarify the muddled passage her own way.

Terresa, glad to hear about the reading and writing and chocolate. Same here I’m happy to report.

Jeff, thanks for your thoughtful response. I think you’re exactly right that responding only with a question mark is not the universal best response. I can easily see how framing a note to a writer about whether he or she meant X or Y might enable the writer to see where the problem lay far better than a question mark. It might just crack open the issue and allow for the writer to realize that after all she meant Z.

I love the prohibition against marginalia by the lectors. I’ve never heard of such a thing but what a great idea. I’ve just finished my critical thesis, and one of my points was that merely writing “show; don’t tell” in the manuscript margins has done more harm than it has good.

Also, I’m sure I oversimplified Wallace’s points. When she is working with someone, her response is to point to a muddled passage and ask the writer to talk to her about what’s going on in that passage. So perhaps the question mark is only the preferred response in the absence of an opportunity for articulation, written or otherwise. And here again, I can even think of examples where “fixing” would show the writer something that a question mark would not…

Ha! Thanks, Jodi : )

Great advice on critiquing, I met with my crit group a few days ago, I like the idea of “troubles” not as problems to be fixed but rather as doorways…I’m bringing these thoughts to my next meet up! (Thank you for this!)

Hope you are well and writing, as always, yes? 🙂

I also learned a lot from a longstanding policy in the University Writing Program at UChicago that prohibits lectors (the teachers who lead writing groups) from writing marginalia. Instead of writing puzzling phrases like AWK or Huh? in the margins, lectors at UChicago have to articulate their responses to a text in written comments.

That process of articulation is often also a process of discovery that reveals more to the lector about the problem between the text and the reader. And a question mark can’t convey what was learned. We should read like writers, right? Be analytical readers, so we don’t devolve into “I like your character Bob, but that character named Jane—?”