h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I see your point, Colonel, but to be good at constructive literary criticism doesn't require that you be a good writer yourself, and that's my point.

For example, you can be a good music journalist without having made a record. You can know when you like the colour scheme in a room without having to have decorated a room yourself. You can know what you like in an entry and give lots of good ideas for its improvement, but be dyslexic.

Being a good writer probably helps in the development of literary criticism skills, but I think making it a prerequisite is unfair. However, insisting that prospective Scouts have already been involved in commenting in Peer Review or the Writing Workshop is not a bad idea, as then they would be showing a propensity for the job itself. After all, Scouts give encouraging feedback, but they don't have to write entries.

How's this sound?

"Good music journalist" - Is there such a thing?

I guess we'll just agree to disagree on this one, then, and since you get to make the rules, we'll do it your way. Being a good critic may or may not mean being a good writer (although I would think that someone who recognizes and knows what it takes to produce good writing could just as easily produce some themselves, especially since we're only talking about short essays, for the most part), but being a good writer doesn't necessarily make one a good critic, either. I suppose the best measure of criticism skills would be previous excursions in PR.

Yeah. Ormy's a good music journalist.