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New Reviewers,  What is a Review Tool? It is a pre-made template that has all the essential words you need to do a review. It usually starts with, "Review of:{item:xxxxxxx} This is followed by an opening comment from you, the categories you want to cover in your review, i.e., Grammar, Punctuation, Characters, Plot and many more, then your closing and an appropriate group sig for whomever you are reviewing for.:Here is a sample of one of my templates: Dear Gabriella, After reading "What is Happening in Wisconsin ?"  I'd like to offer this review of your work. Please know, these are just my own opinions/comments on your work, and any changes you make should be up to you.~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  Characters: Setting Voice/Diction/Style: Plot:~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Grammar/Punctuation: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Comments/Suggestion: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ I hope you will find my review helpful and courteous. Thank you for sharing your writing with me. Hannah The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Anaďs Nin   Why create one? It is a great time saver. Once it is set up, you only have to enter what you want to say about the piece, and the rest is already in place. It saves a lot of typing. You can make up one for poetry, short stories, novels or many others. Before you create a review tool, take a moment to read what many WDC members have said about what they like/don't like to receive in reviews: The reviews were helpful, but I was a little disappointed in the variety. I had three reviews done by one person and two by another. The five reviews consisited of four seperate items (one was reviewed twice) and the items were four of the shortest in my portfolio. I know longer pieces take longer to review, but it would have been nice to have at least one looked at. * A bit more understanding, the ability to "hear." * Unless to prove a point, I think summaries should be avoided, particularly if they make up the majority of the review. However, most of my reviews were wonderfully detailed; I wish to always receive such fine critique.  * I'd like to see more consistency. But this seems unlikely because of the subjective nature of reviews. Some are very harsh and others are fairly optimistic.Yes I don't know if this is any advice, but look at some of the reviews and if you agree they are 'over the top', talk to the reviewers and tell them to get back the to plot...positive, good criticism. It doesn't mean they have to write War and Peace. * Reviewer's feelings - the mechanic comments are helpful (well, not too much since I'm such a perfectionist LOL) but I'm more interested in HOW it made them feel. * I found that some of the reviews were nothing more than a synopsis of my story. , Instead of telling me what my story was about, (I already know, I wrote it.) I would prefer to know what the reviewer thought. Were the characters realistic? Did the story come across as authentic? Was the plot recognizable and believable? * Constructive criticism - What I can do to improve. There was one review which was way over the top concerning 'constructive criticism' and I don't ever wish to have that person review my work again. Yes * Grammatical concerns are what I like pointed out., It's a weakness that I seek to improve and the reviews help in that way. * I was very happy with my reviews, but would have liked to have reviewers concentrate on pieces they felt required work rather than ones already polished., * Specifically, characters, plot and storylines that didn't work or needed some fixes to improve them. * More specific examples of things that were good, and things that needed some tweaking. Generalizations can be helpful, but sometimes a writer does not know where the source of the general comment lies within their work. * One of my reviews was a serious, well-constructed review that offered a number of suggestions for improvement. The other two were glowing 5-star reviews which I very much appreciated but were by nature not as helpful in improving them. * Whether the pieces contain emotional resonance and specific feedback about the writing elements., , BTW - around 75% of the information I received fell within those two areas, but increasing that would make them even better. Check out this link for great tips on building your review tool:
 Be sure and look over, Leader Nicki's Review Page for great tips on what constitutes a great review and incorporate these into your personalized Review Tool.
When you look through the' Writing ML Help', you see there are many different things you can do with it, so the more you experiment, the more you'll learn. Within the 'Writing ML Help', you'll see an Emoticon 'Link to Emoticon Directory', click on it, then click on 'List of WDC Emoticons, and that will bring them all up. While we don't use these in writing poems or stories, they are very visually appealing when used to decorate forums, auctions and Review Templates. Keep in mind, though, using them sparingly is best! No one wants to see an entire page in bold-ed red, with the page drowning in emoticons! Spend some time reading others' reviews on the Public Review page to get more ideas on building your template. We'd like to see reviews that are 1,000 +, excluding your headers, writing ML. What we don't want to see are short reviews, with the same wording over and over. It gives it a sterile feel.  ~Please try to incorporate ALL of these into your reviews: Their name: Dear So and So, Technical aspects:Always comment on at least three of these, with at least two sentences for each.  Characterization (refer to specific character and events) Imagery (refer to specific lines). Plot-line (believability, engrossing etc.). Pace/Flow (at each part, not just overall). Techniques used (were they effective?). Whether it made sense and the emotional impact + how it related to you personally. Poetic devices: if you say , great use of personification, showcase it! Don't say, I really loved this, say why you really loved it.Other aspects to incorporate into your reviews: Comments/Suggestions: Unless it's worthy of being published, you should be able to give at least one suggestion on how to improve it. Favorite lines: add one, or a few of their lines as your favorites. This really personalizes it. Like this:This was one of my favorite lines: .A CHANCE TO SHARE YOUR SENSE OF WHAT IS GOING ON IN WISCONSIN. Grammar/Punctuation: ALWAYS include this, whether it's perfect or not, and include any errors with corrections. Your sig should ALWAYS be placed at the end of your review, not the top! This puts emphasis on their piece, and not our group. Please limit your use of color/emoticons, using them for headers only, not for your comments. A whole review in green is too much, and if used sparingly, it will make certain things pop! For a nice touch, add a poetry/short story quote at the end, just above your sig, Do not rifle-off cookie-cutter reviews, just changing one or two words or lines. Please put your best effort into each review, and remember, we award prizes, not for the most reviews, but for the best quality reviews.Now, you're ready to get started creating your own template! WDC has a place to create and store your templates. At the bottom of each piece you are reviewing; just click on, "Review Tool," and create and store as many templates as you need. A little Writing ML makes it interesting, but don't go overboard, it is highly discouraged in reviewing. At the very end of your Review Tool would be your name followed by your image number, like this: {image:xxxxxxx} for your Sig for our group. Once you save your image # in a template, you won't have to remember to add it to each review. WDC frowns on placing your sig up at the top of your review, because it takes the emphasis off of the piece you're reviewing, so please put it at the very end of your reviews. I can't wait to see what you come up with!  Hannah
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