My views on reviews

Hello,

My name is Nathii and I really read all the items that introduce reviewing to the newbies. Yet I appear as a party pooper on the "public review" page.

"She doesn't speak English half as well as me, and still dares to almost call my writing names," you may hiss. I thought I needed a place to excuse myself, so you have better understanding of my ra(n)tings and reviews. Really, I only want the best for you and your "baby item".

I started writing "professionally" at the age of 15, when I took part in and won my first poetry contest. Anyway, I gave up poetry relatively early after figuring I wrote only for competitions. It's commercial, not a heart's need. In spite of that, analyzing poetry was my specialty at high school. But I enjoyed journalism even more. I was a head-journalist of a school's magazine for four years. It was fascinating to cooperate with different kind of students, also those from Maths-profiled classes, and helping them to believe in own possibilities. As the only ones without any professional help we managed to jump into the top ten of the best school papers in Poland! The writing's quality was our only weapon.

I also worked at the local newspaper when I was 16-17 and lost the job because of the intrigue, of which I was a victim. Oh my, I took it so personally! Sadly, it's sometimes the way of thinking in Poland to rather get rid of a good worker than allow them to be better than you within a short time period. I planned screwing journalism - did not care about all the awarded articles. (Had to compete in the contests because school was getting points.) After graduation, I entered law faculty at Wroclaw university and reduced my activity to writing on a tennis forum. This is how my boss has spotted me.

Actually, the first critique I've received on my "products" took place when I got my first job at the press office, at the age of 19. I remember how proud of myself I was. Yay, I wrote a text that was going to be published on the official event's website and whole Poland was to read it. In the past I could write literature essays during the break, just before the class. But on that day I kept producing the short text on an easy subject for nearly an hour. And still my boss took me aside and explained what was wrong. Soon the whole printed card turned red from his pen's ink. It was all wrong; for example I was told that me sunbathing in the stands during the boring match was not the highlight of the day.

You can imagine how I felt, left out with the deadline passing in twenty minutes. In the unknown city, in hostile environment, and with a co-worker who had hated me from the first gaze so much, that she didn't even say "hi" to me. Everyone was busy with own duties. But I completed my task. My boss initially liked three sentences from my text; I built up something new basing on that only. After it had been published, my friends kept calling me with praises telling me that it had been my best writing in long months. Since that time I believe everything can be re-written and polished to perfection. It usually takes more time than twenty minutes, but is doable. Anytime my boss has some issues with my articles, he repeats a hundred times it has nothing personal with me. I want you to know, when I criticize your items, it has nothing to do with YOU as people. The piece's improvement lays in our common zone of interest.

It's more and more rare that my boss has something negative to tell me. Because I learnt (yeah, "learnt" is the way it's spelled in UK ) to be own biggest critic. I gained a lot of practise, also thanks to bringing to life the suggestions I received in the past. When I have just "few minutes" to write a text, I am able to walk out of myself, stand nearby and judge.

I mainly use the comical style. There are some evergreen lines for every comic to be used in the cramp times, and with high probability people will buy them. "They buy them, I don't," - this is what I have written here in some reviews. I can't give 5.0 for such a comedy fragment, because it would be harmful to the really neat and spontaneous items of the same author. 4.5 is the highest I can give, if the rest is smooth enough.

When I review on WDC, I try to take care about whom I talk to: if it's a beginning teen or an author about to be published. At the same time I hope to keep some general standards; mainly based on how TRUE your story appears.

In case you still disagree with the way I treated your cute item, check this poem of Meg's out:

A BAD REVIEW OR RATING ?  (ASR) (Written for those who feel demoralised by a poor rating and/or review) #1357560 by Meg

Now, if you're brave enough:

Nathii reviews  (13+) No sugarcoating, just the naked truth #1355364 by Nathii M.