Critiquing Critiques: A Genre Analysis of Feedback Across Novice to Expert Design Studios

In the discipline of design, the most common presentation genre is the critique,and the most central aspect of this genre is the feedback. Using a qualitative
framework, this article identifies a typology of feedback, compares the frequencies
of feedback types between different levels of design studios ranging
from novice to expert, and explores what the feedback reflects about the social
and educational context of these design studios. Results suggest that the
feedback socialized students into egalitarian relationships and autonomous
decision-making identities that were perhaps more reflective of academic
developmental stages or idealized workplace contexts than of actual professional
settings—therefore potentially complicating the preprofessional goals
of the critique.