Although mostly useful in a performing arts sense, these same techniques are useful for anything: just ask yourself, “what was unique about my experience?” This stops your reviews committing the cardinal sin of reading like a press-release, and as long as you don’t start telling boring personal anecdotes like our friend from the Amazon review above, you’ll be fine!
10. Don’t be afraid to state the obvious.
You’re an expert in your field – anything you don’t know about the works of Stephen King isn’t worth knowing! So it can be a bit frustrating as a reviewer to have to hold your reader’s hand and explain to them that he’s a quite well-known horror writer, and that they may even have heard of <i>The Shining</i> – it was made into a film, you know?
Obviously, that depends on your audience. If it’s for the Stephen King fan club, by all means go straight into depth. But if it’s for a more general audience, don’t underestimate how little your reader may actually know about the subject. There’s no need to give a full life story, but a bit of background info is always good. When reviewing bands for example: where are they from, how many members are there, what’s their biggest hit, and so on. If nothing else, it means your first paragraph’s sorted!
Article comments
1 - Heather Ames
Lots of good advice, Jonathan. I'd better take one last look at my latest review to see if I stepped into any of the pitfalls you listed.
2 - Matt Paprocki
"A good rule of thumb is to try not to say “I” at all."
Yes, thank you. Nothing irritates me more than when I see "In my opinion" or "I felt" when reading a review. Do we not know that these are your personal thoughts from the word "review" in the title?
3 - Ray Ellis
Agreed, Matt. I've said this before, but you should strike "in my opinion" from your vocabulary--and not just in reviews. The phrase is either apologetic, showing your own insecurities--or condescending, as if you're talking down to your audience. They already know it's your opinion!
On the other hand, I see nothing wrong with peppering a piece with personal experience when appropriate. It makes the review more personable, and makes the reader feel like the reviewer is an okay guy, rather than an elitist foaming at the mouth.
4 - Pico
so says Ray Ellis:
"On the other hand, I see nothing wrong with peppering a piece with personal experience when appropriate. It makes the review more personable, and makes the reader feel like the reviewer is an okay guy, rather than an elitist foaming at the mouth."
I agree with this statement. Go read Mark Saleski's reviews, he does this all the time. They make his articles more like reading a story, and judging from the comments he gets, readers respond positively to that.
His latest article, published yesterday, barely mentions the Rush record he reviewed but the conversation he instigated is lively and very much on topic.
In my opinion (I know, I know), #4 should be "don't write about yourself, *unless* you can effectively relate your personal experience to the subject matter."
Aside from that, I think the tips were quite useful. I'll keep these in mind for my own writings. Thanks.
5 - Mark Saleski
Don’t write about yourself; it’s about the band, book, movie or whatever you’re reviewing.
BLASPHEMY!!!
;-)
seriously though (and gees pico, thanks for the kind words), look at somebody like Lester Bangs. i mean, not only did he sometimes write about himself, he wrote about...well, at times i didn't know what the hell he was getting at!
this isn't to say that i write the way i do because of Bangs, it just feels natural to me. i'm sure there are people out there who don't like it. so be it. i can't please everybody.
6 - Miss Cordy
I like this a lot, Jonathan. I think you hit on all of the major aspects of writing a review. I know I have a problem with being a bit too flowery when writing reviews (I used to write movie and TV reviews for my local newspaper), so I'm trying really hard to get better. Your piece will help me with that, so thanks!
Of course, if you want to add a bunch of extra stuff, you'd probably prefer writing recaps rather than strict reviews, which is what I'm trying.