Keep criticism tied to conduct
Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.
The organizer's hostility became clear when he described the reporting students as enemies and tried to exclude them from future software meetings. The organizer's derision of one student's careful notes took the form of contemptuous imitation intended to make the rest of the room laugh at her. A subsequent message added detraction by dismissing her useful observations as the work of someone incapable of understanding anything technical. Another club member challenged those statements and brought the discussion back to the recorded interruptions that everyone could inspect.
The club could address the organizer's hostility without assuming that every disagreement about the program expressed personal ill will. The derision offered no answer to the student's recorded examples; it simply made her the object of contemptuous amusement. The detraction likewise diminished her merit without engaging with the accuracy of the observations she had supplied. Members agreed to discuss the report's specific claims, allowing errors to be corrected if found while refusing to treat ridicule or personal disparagement as a substitute for examination.
Before you move on
Look away from the passage. Can you explain each focus word in your own words?
Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.