The often-ignored nuances of writing . Review on Writing Reviews on MouthShut

MS might have started off being just a site for consumer reviews on products but somewhere along the line it has also become a platform for people to showcase their writing skills. Make no mistake, all of the writers on this site are very proud of their work and they will be ready to wrestle to the ground and crush the hand that dared to rate their reviews anything but 'very useful'. For your review to survive in such a tough atmosphere, it is helpful to know a few tips and tricks of the trade.

Write in English

Please use proper English. If you take your reviews seriously and if you want them to look and sound professional, don't use words like 'lol', 'ok', 'ur' or any of the thousand other short words we have invented for the computer age. They are rather handy to use in e-mails and text messages where the emphasis is on getting your point through using minimum number of characters in the least time possible, but it looks really bad when you use them in your reviews. If you disagree with me and point out that the important thing is that everyone understands it, just ask yourself when was the last time you saw 'sms style language' in your local newspaper. They don't use it because it is simply not English.

Do your research

The temptation to just sit down at your keyboard and type away furiously as soon as an idea strikes you is understandable; but it is also worthwhile to stop and check if someone before you has said the same things you have in mind. If you read more than ten reviews on any topic here on MS, you will see that most of them have similar content; which is a shame because all those writers probably thought they were penning some original stuff but they all ended up being duplicates of each other. If that is something you want to avoid, read around on the topic of your choice, see what other people have had to say about it and after the whole process, you will find that not only are you ready to present your ideas in a novel way, you also have more all-round knowledge about the topic which will have a bearing on the quality of the review.

Honesty the best policy?

In going through some of the previously written reviews on this topic, I was struck by the number of times people have advised reviewers saying as long as a review is honest and comes straight from the heart, it will turn out to be good. But I think honesty alone is not sufficient to make you a good reviewer. You should be able to question your views and convince yourself that what you think is true is really true. Properly done research often helps you do this because in the course of reading other people's reviews on the same topic, you are likely to come across different points of view and the way they are driven home. If you are lucky, you may even run into a piece that supports or refutes your own argument. So the most important thing about writing a good review is to be critical of your own ideas and to be able to present them logically.

No emotions please

If you see a review with a lot of exclamations and rhetorical questions, that is an example of an emotionally charged review. Appealing to the reader's emotion can be very powerful and it is no wonder that many of the popular reviews on MS adopt this strategy. Having said that, however, an appeal to the reader's emotion generally points to the writer’s inability to put forward a strong argument. While such a review usually impresses the readers that agree with the writer, it does a poor job of convincing the people on the other side of the fence. So the best strategy to adopt while writing a review is to present your case as rationally as you can in as calm a manner as you can. And while we are on the topic of emotions, don't use emoticons in your reviews. If you feel the need to make your piece funny, try doing it with your command of language, not by inserting a smiley face.

Now for the actual writing

I don't have much advice about how exactly to write your review because that really is up to you. It is said that your usual run-of-the-mill review follows the maxim 'Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them'. So you tell them what you are going to tell them in the introduction, tell them what you want to tell them in the body, and then tell them what you told them in the conclusion. Of course it is a little tongue-in-cheek but it is not too far from the truth. So let those creative juices flowing, keep experimenting, and remember; the best way to be a good writer is to spend some time as a bad writer. So if you are spending a lot of time staring at the screen thinking of how your sentences should be framed or how your paragraphs should be ordered, don’t fret; it is perfectly normal. Organizing your thoughts and putting them across in an orderly fashion is a skill that comes with practice.

Proofread your piece

One of the most important things essential for any piece of writing is continuity. Your ideas should seem to flow from one paragraph to another, with a single line of thought holding them together. While this is hard to achieve if you are new to writing, proofreading can help you get there faster. After you are finished with your review, resist the temptation to click on the 'submit' button and take some time to read your review once from top to bottom. Chances are that you will find some niggling spelling mistakes, some unnecessary commas, or some queer jumps in the narrative making it difficult to follow. Fix the problems in the best way you can, read it again, and submit once you are convinced that it is reasonably 'bug free'.

Opinions and their entitlements

You see some reviewers here that always harp on about how they are entitled to their views which to me is a bit funny because if all of us are entitled to our opinions, then we should all stop writing because no matter how well-structured and rational your argument is, a person can just cop out saying 'Hey I know what you are saying but I am entitled to my opinion'. This might be true for art-related products like movies or music but when you are reviewing on stuff like weight reduction or beauty care, no one is 'entitled' to their opinion because these are topics where a rational analysis is possible. So if someone comments on your review disagreeing with you, don't just say you are entitled to your opinion, try to read the argument put forward and question yourself if you have ever looked at it from that angle. Not only does this help your critical thinking as a reviewer, it will help you to deal with criticism more favourably.

Comments and ratings

You can expect some kind comments and ratings if your piece is well written but please don't go around asking for them. It advertises your desperation for recognition and besides, if your review is good enough, people will rate it anyway without you having to ask them. Concentrate on writing a good article and the accolades will flow if you deserve them. However, don't let the ratings dictate your writing style; for example, you might get a very high rating on a review where you used 'sms language', emoticons and multiple exclamation marks while a review written in beautiful English might end up getting moderate reviews. That does not mean that the first review was better. It only means it is more popular. Of course, whether you want to be popular or good is something you have to decide. Keep in mind, though, it is also possible to be both good and popular.