The Critic wrote:

      C&C is valuable, and if we feel that we have a *constructive*
point to make, we should.  We should remember, however, that there is
another human being sitting at the other terminal, one who is more

likely

to hear you out if they don't feel like they're whole system of beliefs
is under siege.

Writers would much rather get negative criticism than no criticism; with
that in mind, the critic can lie or he can tell the cold truth. Lying
makes the bad fanfic writer feel good, but it's pointless because it
does not make him write better fics. In the end, if you write bad
fanfics, treasure the negative comments and learn from them; if you
follow the criticisms you are far more likely to produce a piece people
will GENUINELY like.

	I just know this is going to degenerate, but I'll respond.  Look
at the nice bick astericks arount constructive.  Constructive criticism
is going over point by point of exactly what you think should be fixed.
And when I mean point by point, it is necessary to comment on almost each
and every paragraph.  This is fine.
	Making blanket statements such as "This is pointless.", "This is
stupid.", or "This is a waste of my time." are NOT constructive.  They
do nothing to identify the problem, and the critic presents their POV in
such a way that there is absolutely no way in which the author would 
accept it with an open mind.
	To be fair, I must say that people who write short one liners 
saying "I liked it." are being equally unfair to the author.  There is
no such thing as a perfect piece of writing, and coming up with one or
two lines in such a fashion is an offhanded comment, not C&C.  If you
find yourself really, really being moved by a piece of writing, you 
should leave it for a few days and go back to it when doing a C&C.
	My point is twofold.  Whether good or bad, your C&C should be 
very specific.  To not do so is insulting to yourself.  You bother to
read the whole piece, and then make statements in such a way that the
author is not sure which passages you are talking about.  In all 
liklihood, the author would find such comments unhelpful.
	The second part brings in to question why we do C&C.  We do C&C
out of the belief that we can help the author improve their piece of
writing.  We are doing this to aid each other because we want to.  It
would be logical to extrapolate that people doing C&C WANT the author
to listen to them.  Our points do not become less valid by writing them
in a non-hostile manner, but it increases the receptiveness on the 
author's part by many times.  Perhaps the cold, unfeeling Vulcan may
feel that this makes no sense, but we're all human beings with egos
and emotions, neither of which leave for an open mind when bruised.

-skeezy5