When someone asks you, 'what's your opinion about this issue of 'x' magazine?' most people often have several things to say. I know I do. But the general gist is usually a shrug or a nod, followed with a small positive or a big negative. Never too much praise is given away, because in my head there are always a bit more negatives than positives in order to go 'IT WAS AMAZING'.
That said!! That question doesn't come about very often. Hardly. In fact! The one that comes up the absolutely most is "did you read such and such in last month's issue?" And the response is very easily followed by either yes or no.
It's a whole other ball game when you're asked by the editor of a magazine to submit a 'critique' of their May 2011 issue along with two feature ideas, cv and a cover letter. Well of course, it couldn't just be a cv and cover letter could it? These things stress me a bit because I'm pretty sure it takes me forever to think of 'feature ideas', hence why I've left it two weeks before submitting my application!
And how Do you critique an entire issue? Is it the content of the articles? Is it the general content? Is it the layout? Do I comment on the fact that there are too many ads pushing Pizza Express? Or is it all of the above? That in itself will take another day as I'll have to stop myself several times from making it an entire ball of negative issues.
Oh dear. May issues - I don't like them.