What earns the praise?
Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.
An illustrator received local acclaim for a series of posters that made a small theater festival easy to recognize. An eminent book designer visited the display and commented on the clarity of the lettering as well as the balance of the images. The illustrator valued praise of that caliber because it identified choices she had worked hard to make. She kept the designer's specific observations beside the sketches, where they could inform her next project instead of remaining only a pleasant memory of the opening.
The public acclaim was encouraging, but it did not tell the illustrator which parts of the work had been most effective. The eminent visitor's experience gave his observations weight, while the reasons he supplied made them useful to examine. Feedback of high caliber could also include a thoughtful criticism, as when he questioned the spacing on one crowded poster. The illustrator revised that example before reprinting it, treating recognition as an invitation to look more closely rather than a reason to stop improving.
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.