Critique Letter Example: a Blueprint for Thoughtful Writing Feedback

Discover the qualities of a good critique letter and explore an example to elevate your critique process.

By Julie Tyler Ruiz

CONTENTS:

• What is a critique letter?
• How to write a critique letter
• Critique letter example
• Additional resources  

What is a critique letter?

A critique letter is a type of writing feedback you compose to help a writer improve a piece of creative, professional, or academic writing. Critique letters are used by many people in the writing world, including developmental editors, literary agents, book coaches, critique partners, and beta readers to communicate writing advice.

Their unique format is part of what makes them particularly useful. Unlike delivering verbal feedback or marking up a manuscript with comments, writing a critique letter means you can deliver a polished, structured message to a fellow writer about their work's strengths and opportunities for improvement. 

How to write a critique letter

Writing useful critique letters is a great way to strengthen your relationships with fellow writers, raise your awareness of craft, and establish credibility in the writing world. 

Here's a quick critique letter writing guide:

Aim to compose no more than two typed pages. That way, you keep your feedback succinct and concise enough for the writer to process easily.   

Right after the letter's greeting, write an introductory paragraph that thanks the writer for the opportunity to review their work and summarizes your overall impressions of the writing sample.

In the second paragraph, list the strengths of the writing sample and state why you think they're effective. Be sure to reference specific places in the sample where the strengths are most apparent.

Next, identify up to five main areas for improvement. For a piece of creative writing, you might see opportunities to improve the plot or characters. For professional or academic writing, you might see opportunities to sharpen the research or analysis.

Then, offers suggestions on specific writing strategies and techniques the writer can use to revise effectively. For example, you might advise the writer to explore characters' strongest desires, worst fears, secrets, values, and life philosophies, and then use these inner qualities to develop deeper emotional resonance in the story. 

Close the letter by inviting the writer to reach out to you with questions or updates on how their revisions turn out. 

TIP: Above all, a critique letter should offer genuine encouragement and actionable advice, so that it leaves the recipient feeling excited and empowered to revise their work, rather than discouraged or overwhelmed. 

Critique letter example

Below, I've summarized a passage from my novel and composed a critique letter example that summarizes feedback I received from various sources. This is the kind of critique letter that would love to receive in my inbox from a mentor or critique partner, because it offers encouragement, insightful observations, and actionable advice. 

Explore this passage summary and example to get inspiration for your next critique. 

Passage summary:

Emilie is an aspiring sociologist who's been trying to develop her career, while teaching part-time at a community college for low pay. In an effort to find a salaried, tenure-track position at a more prestigious university, Emilie launches a new research project.

At first the project is promising, but as fall semester continues, Emilie focuses so much on research that she begins to neglect her teaching duties. Students complain to the department chair that Emilie is skipping office hours, leading sloppy class discussions, and taking weeks to grade papers.

Midway through fall semester, the head of the community college sociology department schedules a meeting with Emilie to discuss the students' complaints. The department head implores Jane to improve her teaching performance or face losing her contract to continue teaching the following semester.

Critique letter: 

Dear Julie,

Thank you for giving me the chance to review the scene of Emilie's meeting with the Department chair. I enjoyed reading such a tense scene with a lot at stake for your protagonist. 

Overall, I felt intrigued by Emilie's situation. You've done a great job of showing how the "publish or perish" demands of academia can push junior scholars to make bad professional decisions. We readers cringe at Emilie's choices and side with students and the department chair, but we can still sympathize with Emilie and hope she'll get her career on the right track. It's especially moving when we see Emilie feel not only embarrassed, but genuinely remorseful for shortchanging her students. 

I've identified three main opportunities to improve this scene: 

1. Strengthen the dialogue between Jane and her boss, by making letting it flow like a real conversation, including pauses and physical gestures. Alternate between these characters more often to give it more momentum.
2. Distinguish the voice of these characters through differences in diction, vocal rhythms, and sentence structure. This approach can emphasize the hierarchy within the department and Jane's precarious position. 
3. Build tension and suspense throughout the scene. Start with the department chair listing out the different complaints and then build up to an explicit reprimand, with Jane feeling increasingly embarrassed and ashamed. End the scene with Jane's verbal and internal reactions to the news that her adjunct gig, low paying as it is, is on the line. 

I'd love to see you continue to develop this scene and your novel at large. Please let me know how your revisions go. Send me follow-up questions and an updated scene draft anytime!

Best, 

Jonathan

Additional resources

Offering helpful feedback is a skill unto itself and an important component of a thriving career as a writer. Read my other articles on this topic:

• How to Give Writing Feedback Authors Crave: the Ultimate Guide
• 4 Writing Feedback Examples to Help You Give (and Get) Better Critiques

Need some refreshers on the craft of writing? Check out these articles: 

• How to Write a Novel: 6 Key Steps + Why They Work
• How to Outline a Novel: Your Easy Guide to Plotting and Planning