[Artemisia] judging A&S (longish)

[Caointiarn]

Morgan,
 I think it's great you're teaching this class.  Wish I could be there to be 
a participant!
 I have a concern, and one that I feel I was blind-sided and cannot resolve. 
I hope you can add another chapter to your class.
 I was  "counseled"  by an "important someone" who was asked by another 
"important someone" to speak to me about the "harshness" of my judging, 
because whoever was judged complained to the 2nd "I S" about what I 
said/wrote.
 I have NO IDEA what I said/wrote for what entry over a span of 2 different 
A&S events where I  *volunteered*  to judge.
   I want to think I was fair, and went over the "good" points of the entry, 
and suggested how to improve the "bad" points.
But I will never know because the entrant is too much a coward to speak to 
me, but brave enough to complain to another!
Thank you!
Caointiarn


>> Question- Don't you think that the judges should make an effort to be 
>> nice in their judging?
> Answer- No, I think they should be impartial, honest, polite, and judge 
> the entry solely on it's merits, not on who the artisan is and what 
> they've done in the past.  <> I don't think judges should be required to 
> be "nice", but an impartial, polite critique of the work shouldn't come up 
> with anything like "I hate this" or "you can do better".  If you are 
> judging on the merits of the work, whether or not you hate it has no 
> bearing.  Same for whether or not the entrant has done better work in the 
> past, you aren't judging their entire body of work, you're judging *this 
> piece, solely on it's merits*.