Writing a detailed review is time well spent.
Reviewing is a writing exercise. Creating detailed feedback for a fellow writer is one of the best tools available for improving your own writing. That said, if you're going to spend the time to do it, helping the author is important. There is a better chance for the ideas in a review to get through to an author if they are well presented. This article contains a few basic guidelines for great reviewing.
Six Key Characteristics For Reviews
Reviews should be honest. Helping writers improve their craft is the mission of Writing.Com. Honest opinions are what help writers improve. Giving false feedback doesn't help anyone and can lead an author down a long road to bitter disappointment.
Reviews should be encouraging. Writing.Com is a site for writers of all ages and skill levels. Everyone at every level should be encouraged to continue writing! Encouraging reviews are more likely to be used by an author which means the time creating the review was well spent. Whether the author decides to use the reviewer's honest suggestions or not, the review should be motivating and encourage the author to keep writing.
Reviews should be
respectful. Regardless of an author's level of skill or talent, a reviewer should always respect that the author is an individual person. A reviewer flaunting that they are better than the author they're reviewing is not respectful and is counter productive.
Reviews should be
well rounded. While honesty is very important, a review that points out only flaws without any mention of an item's positive points is not nearly as helpful to an author as a well rounded review with
both positive and negative remarks. Don't forget, the same goes for reviews that only point out positives! Even the greatest pieces of writing have room for suggestions and opinions.
The
rating should reflect the review. If you're sending a review full of corrections, it's important to consider that with your star rating selection. 5.0's shouldn't need any corrections. On the other extreme, a 1.0 should have endless errors and you couldn't possibly list them all. Offering to return and rerate the item after a round of updates makes it more likely your suggestions will be considered.
Reviews should be
visually appealing and easy to understand. When reviewing, presentation is very important. Use
WritingML to make corrections stand out or quote
small portions of the work.
Emoticons can highlight important points in the review and can be creatively used to make the review feel more friendly.
Double spaced paragraphs and other appropriate spacing makes reading a review much easier on the eyes.
Remember: Too much WritingML can ruin your review; use it in moderation! (Help using
WritingML can be found linked as "WritingML Help" in your
Site Tools pull down menu.)
The Content Of A Review
Keeping in mind the six (6) points highlighted above, a review should contain
your opinion. While grammatical, typographical and other errors can be included within a review, don't forget to tell the author how the piece made you feel. Give them your thoughts about the
inside of their writing, not just the outside.
Some example questions you may ask yourself about the piece to help you get your opinion across are as follows:
How did the writing make you feel? Did it invoke any emotions?
Can you relate to the writing through a personal experience?
Did the plot interest you? Were the characters believable?
Did the time, place and other setting characteristics work together?
What did you like most? What did you like least? Did anything stand out?
Is there anything you would change within the writing?
If this were your own writing, what would you want to know from a reviewer?
Incorporating these thoughts within your reviews will expand your own analytical skills allowing you to better analyze your own writing. Whether the author agrees with any of your suggestions or ideas is not relevant. You have given them another perspective on their work they would not have otherwise had. They may hear the same thoughts from a number of different people which may give them a better understanding of their readers as a whole.
Use "copied and pasted" portions of the item you are reviewing
as little as possible. Posting sections of an item within your review leads to "review bloating" and takes away from the impact your comments and suggestions will have on the author.
Your Own Review Format
Developing your own format for reviewing can be a great asset. Determine what aspects of writings you like to focus on most, create a short outline to follow and start reviewing. Following this process will help keep your reviews honest and consistent. As your experience grows, you'll find ways to improve your format and your skills.
Get into the good habit of using a custom tag-line of encouragement within your reviews. Including "
Write On!", "
Keep Writing!" or something unique and individual within your reviews goes a long way to motivating an author. We know you mean it, so don't forget to say it!
Make use of Writing.Com's
Review Tool to create custom review templates. Using the template system makes the time you spend reviewing much more about the item you're reviewing, rather than about setting your review format up over and over.
Make Reviewing a Daily Creative Writing Exercise
Remember, reviewing grows your own writing skills unlike any other writing tool. Critically analyzing and reviewing others' writings makes a writer stop and think about what works and what doesn't. Putting that into words and communicating that to another writer, ultimately helps the reviewer to improve his or her own writing skills, as well. So it's about helping others, but it's a valuable way to help ourselves!
Further, Writing.Com is a community of writers here to help each other improve. While helping fellow members is certainly "good karma", we still offer plenty of incentives to help you make reviewing a daily activity. Please see "
The Review Mixer"
and "
Daily Review Rewards"
for more information on our two biggest programs.
Related Items and Information:
For examples of reviews, visit our
Public Reviewing section that can be accessed from the top right of any page on Writing.Com or visit it directly at:
http://www.writing.com/main/my_feedback/action/rrs
For other information relating to Writing.Com and reviewing, please see the following:
"
Reviewing @ Writing.Com"
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The StoryMistress ![View storymistress's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/costumicons/ps-icon-rocking_horse-90.gif "View storymistress's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]")
Information regarding the public reviewing page at Writing.Com.
"
Comment-In-A-Box"
[
E] by
The StoryMistress My view on and methods of rating items on Writing.Com.
"
Public Review: Tool or Weapon"
[
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Vivian Zabel ![View vzabel's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/costumicons/ps-icon-scrabble_Z-60.gif "View vzabel's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]")
What I believe a public review should and shouldn't contain.
"
Are You Qualified to Write a Review?"
[
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Jessiebelle™ ![View jessiebelle's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/costumicons/ps-icon-regular-60.gif "View jessiebelle's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]")
I cringe reading "I'm not qualified to review this!" Here's why you are!
Have Fun & Happy Reviewing! 
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Guidelines To Great Reviewing
