SAJ Review Reminders

!!!!! URGENT REVIEW REMINDERS !!!!!
All member of Showering Acts of Joy need to read this letter carefully.

This is one of the most exciting times SAJ has ever experienced. We are "re-modeling" our site. Our membership has doubled just in the last 6 or 8 months. We have some awesome new members who have just taken off in their contribution to Showering Acts of Joy. We are able to offer our members scholarships to attend the New Horizons Academy. So many great things are going on.

However, newbies and older members alike, we must never forget our purpose. Our very name is an abbreviated form of our purpose. We are to spread joy around Writing.com, one person at a time. How do we do that in our reviewing? We give sound, helpful reviews. Generally, this means writing at least 500 characters in your review, although we will accept less. Personally, I would like to change the minimum required count to be 500 characters. That is not hard to do if you are genuinely trying to give a thorough review.

You may think that, by spreading joy, we mean that everything in your review must be praise for the author's work. That is not at all what we expect. In fact, those reviews are not helpful at all. The author learns the most from reviews that give examples of what works and what doesn't work. General statements like, "I love your story," or "Your story needs some work," don't tell the author anything helpful. If you don't take time to find specific places that really worked for you, and specific places that you just didn't get, then you aren't spending enough time on your review.

Reviewing is both a skill and an art. If you are diligent in your reviewing and in reading the reviews of others, the quality of your reviews will grow with the amount of time you spend reviewing. Keep in mind that reviewing is not just for the benefit of the author. You are an author, too. By spending quality time with a piece and giving a thorough review, you are also learning for yourself what makes your own writing better. We are all students/teachers helping each other learn how to write more effectively.

The reviews that have been most helpful to me are those that offer concrete suggestions for ways to improve a line or section, and specific reasons that a line stood out. As authors, we learn from both. Next time we start to write or edit, we'll remember the things that readers liked and the things that were weak.

Most of my writing, thus far, has been poetry. If a reviewer said my rhythm was off in a particular line or verse, I knew where to start with my editing. If they said I needed to use more similes and metaphors, I understood that. I am just now really focusing on writing short stories. I kept getting suggestions like, "You need to do more 'showing' and less 'telling'. Well, that sounded like a good idea to me. The only problem was that I didn't know how to show instead of tell. Finally, a light bulb came on for me when a reviewer asked me some simple questions about specific lines. "What did that feeling look like?" "How did she show that she was miserable?" Okay! I could wrap my mind around that. It not only helped me with that particular part of the story. I was able to ask that question myself all the way through my story. Find a way to speak to the author in ways that will give them a tool to use in their future writing.

Every aspect of your review should demonstrate respect for the author. There are polite ways to say whatever you need to say. The staff of Writing.com states explicitly that all reviews are to be honest, encouraging, and respectful. Showering Acts of Joy upholds this stringently. We have a reputation of being a high-quality review group, and we intend to maintain that image. And, remember, your are not reviewing whether or not you like a story or poem's topic or content. You may not agree with the author's viewpoint on their topic. That doesn't matter. You are reviewing how effectively the author presented the content.

RATING: I have only two things to say about rating. First of all, I would vote for no ratings at all. They don't teach the author anything, and they are used so differently by each reviewer. However, since Writing.com does use ratings PLEASE do this one thing: Back up your rating with concrete reasons in your review. If it's a high rating, tell the author why, point out the parts or the aspects that made it good or great. If it's an average or low rating, you MUST back that rating up with substantial reasons for that rating. I cannot tell you how many times I have gotten a review that read something like this: "What a lovely poem. I enjoyed it so much!" ((end of review)) Then I scroll to see my rating and it's a 4.0. Now, how does that help me as a writer? It's lovely, but it's only a 4.0? Tell me what I could do to make it a 4.5 or 5.0. Teach me something. Does the emotion fall flat? Is the rhythm off? Is it choppy or hard to understand? None of us are experts, but we can take enough time to share our thoughts and opinions.

Last, but not least, always end your review on a positive note. Tell the author specific things you liked. We are here to encourage more writing. If we aren't careful we could discourage an author to the point where he would just give up writing altogether. How sad that would be!

The truth is that we have the reputation for giving top-notch reviews. We want to maintain that image. If you are fairly new to reviewing please take advantage of the resources available to you. We offer several links to very good articles about reviewing. ~A.J. Lyle~ is teaching a class on reviewing at New Horizons. We strongly encourage any member who has been on Writing.com less than six months to let us pay for you to take this class. If you can't find time for the class, at least read the articles listed below.

We are thrilled to have each and every one of you with us at Showering Acts of Joy. We're excited about our growing membership. We have some great talent in our group. I can't imagine a better group for anyone interested in growing as a reviewer or author. We hope you feel the same way.

Please look at these links and read at least one of them:

STATIC

Guidelines for Reviewing  (E) A Guide to Writing Reviews #1725553 by Pat ~ Rejoice always!

[#698741] "Guidelines To Great Reviewing" 

Comment-In-A-Box  (E) My view on and methods of rating items on Writing.Com. #544247 by The StoryMistress

Thanks for putting up with this lengthy letter. We all felt that it was important to get this information out to our growing group. We want you to be thrilled that you are a vital part of one of the best review groups on Writing.com. Only you can help us make that happen.

Other News: My goal is to launch the new site no later than Saturday (earlier if possible)! I will send out a group e-mail giving you the heads up about some significant changes. So be watching for the mailman!