In her own words, Jyotsna Arunkumar tries to approach the art of review with a certain level of sophistication. And for our My December Competition, this mature method served the young writer well; earning Jyotsna the prize for Best Peer Review and high praise from Guest Judge Rebecca Denton who remarked that the piece could have been written by a professional. In our interview with Jyotsna, she offers tips on how to write a thoughtful review, gives a glimpse at her writing resolutions for 2020, and shares her take on December in the American Southwest.
Can you tell us about your process for reviewing “December Dissonance” by Annabelle O’C?
I was pulled into the piece after reading the first paragraph, and when I read through the entire piece, I decided I wanted to give some constructive feedback. First, I went through looking for tiny grammatical errors so the author could get those out of their way. Then, I tried to look at the piece as a writer. What would I do had I been the author of this piece? I picked out what I thought seemed most important to the author and thought about them in different ways: where the focus was, how it flowed, how well the message was conveyed to the reader, etc.
Guest Judge Rebecca Denton said, “It felt like a professional editor had written this.” What were your reactions to her commentary?
When I read her commentary, I was incredibly pleased. I hadn’t realized my review was that helpful. I was surprised, and in fact, had a very childish response, quite the opposite of “professional”. I was glad to know that my review had a professional sort of touch to it. I always aspire to be sophisticated with what I do, and I was delighted to know I had achieved that.
December in Jyotsna’s home state of Texas, U.S.
What region in the US are you from? What is December like there?
I am from the south, in Texas, and Decembers here tend to be quite interesting. While we don’t get snow, the weather is ever-changing, with a harsh wind one day and the sun shining the next. With the spontaneous changes in climate, it makes living here exciting. The Christmas spirit tends to start weeks before the day itself, with lights going up in porches and stores starting their sales. In fact, Christmas is spread throughout the month of December here. That ensures that when Christmas does arrive, everyone is ready to begin a fresh year after celebrations.
Do you have any writing resolutions for 2020?
My writing resolution is really quite simple: edit my own work as if I was writing an important review for someone else. I’ve always had trouble editing my own work as compared to others, and that’s something I want to improve on. I believe I can get a good insight into how my writing appears to readers if I work hard at this particular side of editing.