Includes bibliographical references.

Part One: The Basics -- Time for critique! -- Critiques aren't tests -- Critiques aren't just conversations -- Critique formats -- Skills versus meaning -- Talking about composition is easier than talking about race -- What if you're asked to talk about your work? -- What if you didn't put in much work on your art? -- Teachers make their own artworks, different from yours -- Thinking about the critique afterward -- Part Two: BFA Issues -- A sample critique -- How long should a critique be? -- The first ten seconds of the critique -- The last ten minutes of the critique -- Five kinds of critiques: A. The silent teacher critique -- -- Five kinds of critiques: B. The conceptual critique -- Five kinds of critiques: C. The boot camp critique -- Five kinds of critiques: D. The silent student critique -- Five kinds of critiques: E. The anti-critique -- Student + teacher + artwork = confusion -- All the ways to fail -- Being close to your work, being too close to your work -- Does your teacher like the other teachers? -- Therapy -- Critiques don't always build on one another, but start again and again from scratch -- Critiques drift from topic to topic -- That critique room -- Part Three: MFA Issues critiques -- What if you make very different kinds of work? -- Managing interdisciplinary critiques -- Being behind the times, being average -- Some teachers are judicative, and others descriptive -- Teachers make idiosyncratic pronouncements -- Music critiques, dance critiques, theater critiques -- Part Four: Theories -- -- Criticism, critique, crit, criticality, Kritik -- Five purposes of criticism -- A sixth purpose of criticism, and some words for success -- M.H. Abrams's theory -- Five allegories for critiques: A. Critiques are like seductions, full of emotion -- Five allegories for critiques: B. Critiques are like different languages, all spoken at once -- Five allegories for critiques: C. Critiques are like storytelling -- Five allegories for critiques: D. Critiques are like battles -- Five allegories for critiques: E. Critiques are like trials -- Critiques are polyglot -- Part Five: Projects -- Tinkering with the critique format -- Three big projects: A Investigate the chain of questions -- Three big projects: B. Transcribe your critique -- Three big projects: C. Do a six-hour critique -- Part Six: PhD Issues -- The world of the PhD -- Why PhD programs leave critiques behind -- PhD programs are mainly concerned with research ... -- ... and knowledge -- The future of the PhD.