Be Yourself. Review on Writing Reviews on MouthShut

Mouthshut has been my online home for the past 1+ years, and although I have grown accustomed to the site's and its members' idiosyncrasies--the MS neighborhood is eccentric at best--I still have to add my two-pence where review writing is concerned.

There are a million different ways to write a review. One should have the basic idea on how to write an essay to start out, and whatever you fill it with is your business. There is almost no wrong way to write a review, if you have common sense and courtesy.

~~Write Under the Right Category~~

There is almost no excuse for a person to write a review under the wrong banner. If you want to write about the movie ''50 First Dates'', find the category and write under it. If there is no category, e-mail and ask the nice staff at Mouthshut.com to add it. If they won't add it, write under a similar topic and add a disclaimer telling your readers why the topic doesn't exactly match the review.

On a similar note, readers who are reading these reviews should not get their panties in a bunch when a member has decided to post their ''almost the topic'' review there. If it's completely off topic, by all means, assert your review-snobbery.

~~Write What YOU Felt About the TOPIC~~

The whole point of writing a review on a particular topic is to be a beacon of information for other people who will be reading your review. It is not kosher to write about what you think the product might be like, or what your friend thought about it. If you haven't seen, say, Passion of the Christ, do NOT write a review on it!

Moving up from that, try to write something close to the topic. Nobody wants or needs to know every detail about the product at hand. Please don't write the ingredients of the lotion, or everything that happens in the movie, or what colour the packaging is (unless it's REALLY cool and noteable). Write the basics, and what you liked and didn't like.

~~Don't Write A Review Worthy Of a Grad School Thesis~~

This is not university, or a perfect essay writing contest. Some people have good writing skills and they should show them off. Don't be intimidated by them. Write in your style. But please PLEASE do not continue writing into the comments section. You do not know how annoying it is to have to continue reading after the space is through. There is a word limit for a reason. And for those who write over the word limit, if this was university, you would have major points taken off for not being able to control your words.

~~Take It From An Expert~~

I recommend reading reviews done by experts, who write reviews on movies, restaurants, and etc., for a living. Read the newspaper, magazines, or other periodicals. I like to read my local newspaper online. Here is an excerpt:

''Faith Hill's character in The Stepford Wives, a beautiful Barbie doll of a suburban housewife, spins wildly out of control while square dancing at a Fourth of July celebration in the idyllic Connecticut town that gives the film its title.

Then she falls to the floor with a thud and twitches a few times as smoke and sparks spew from her head, indicating to newcomer Joanna Eberhart (Nicole Kidman) that maybe this woman, and the others in town, aren't as perfect as they seem -- or even human.

The moment is an apt symbol for the film as a whole.''

( http://www.canada.com/entertainment--Christy Lemire, Canadian Press)

The rest of the review is much like this, giving the much needed information about the movie without writing the entire synopsis. Take the hint.

As you can see by my aids above, there is nothing much really to writing a review on Mouthshut.com. You don't have to have perfect grammar or spelling (although it helps for clarity). Simply test something and tell us about it! That's what it's all about.