How to get real criticism of your work
An assistant asked for feedback produces encouragement, because encouragement is what feedback usually means in its training. Asking for the strongest objection, for the weakest section by name, for what a hostile reader would say, and for a ranking of problems produces something useful.
The reflex is to ask what could be improved and to receive 4 polite suggestions. Nothing there is false and none of it changes what you do next, which is the only test of feedback.
On this page
Ask for the objection, not the improvement
What is the strongest argument that this is wrong is a different question from how could this be better. The first produces a position and the second produces suggestions. Only the first can change your mind, which is the reason to ask for feedback at all.
Force a ranking
Ask which single problem matters most and why the others matter less. A list of 5 issues transfers the work back to you; a ranking is the judgement you wanted. Requiring a reason for the ranking prevents an arbitrary order.
Name the hostile reader
Ask what a reviewer who wants to reject this would say. Naming a role gives the model permission that a neutral request withholds, and the output changes noticeably. This is the same mechanism as the steelman, applied against your own work.
Ask what is missing rather than what is wrong
Absent content is invisible to a checklist and it is where most weak work is weak. What would a reader expect here that is not present produces different findings from what is wrong with this, and the 2 questions are worth asking separately.
Questions a buyer asks
Does asking to be harsh work?
It changes the tone and rarely the content: the same suggestions arrive with sharper adjectives. Asking for an objection changes the content.
Is generated criticism worth anything?
It is worth what a fast, uninformed reader is worth, which is a lot for structure and clarity and little for domain judgement.
Should I say the work is mine?
Saying it is a draft you did not write measurably increases the criticism, and that says more about the training than about you.
Paste your draft and ask for the strongest objection to it.
Open the tool