Originally posted by Dulgrim Grudgebearer:

sneaking allows you to approach the target without them seeing you so then you draw the arrow and shoot them for the sneak crit thats what i mean sneaking is for positioning for a crit shot

It doesn't matter where you shoot from, if there's no red exclamation point above the enemy it's a "crit shot". As I said you exit sneak as soon as you draw the bow anyway, so if they don't see you while you're drawing, they wouldn't have seen you approach either.