Writing.Com General Discussion

Welcome to the site.

These are the pertinent site guidelines to follow for this question:
"Comment-In-A-Box" 
Guidelines To Great Reviewing from Writing.Com 101 

In "Comment-In-A-Box" , note the differences between the descriptions for the ratings:

When a poem that uses a form manages to convey the writer's idea(s) to the reader, technically follows the rules of the stated form, and does not make it interesting to the reader, that's a functional job = 3.0 stars = average.

Writing is a process. Every piece of writing starts with a blank page and a zero-star rating. When a writer has put in the work to create a piece of average writing, that isn't a negative -- it's a lack of extra positives. So treat it like that.

In "Guidelines To Great Reviewing" , note that respecting the author is important whether you enjoyed reading their work or not. You're to review only the writing, not the person.

Using language to review that talks about how you reacted to the piece of writing, aka I-messages, is more respectful than using language that says "you" (the writer) did something wrong or didn't do something right. Another strategy is to speak of the piece doing this or that without mentioning the writer.

Rather than citing generic negatives, such as "I was bored," you can talk about what specific positive things you were looking for from the poem and didn't find. This gives the writer useful information about reader expectations and about what could be improved and why.

For instance, in the example situation:


The first paragraph uses detail that shows the reviewer actually read the piece, and gives the writer credit for the positives that got the piece to a 3.0 rating. The second paragraph includes the reader's reaction and its cause: the missing positives that could have taken the piece to a higher rating than 3.0. The third paragraph is the encouragement to continue writing.

That's enough to cover the basics and justify the rating. A review could be more detailed/extensive if the reviewer is able and desires to do so.





Hope that helps.

Northernwrites___

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