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The complete guide to a successful review

September 10, 2008 · Blogging · 178 views ·

Have you ever written a review you did not like? Or can never think of what to write? If so then this post should help you achieve your desires. Writing good reviews is a very good skill for anyone to have, this is because it improves your skills of evaluating peoples work, including your own.

When you are planning your review, which you should be doing before every post, you must take notes about all the elements of the site. Some of these elements are explained below.

Design - The first thing that the audience see is the website design, and more specifically the header. It is this that grabs the attention of the reader so it is very important that the design is carefully explained and the reader of the post can understand why it is good or bad.

Focus and Target Audience - Who is the site aimed at? What is the main subject of the website? Is the creator successful in achieving this? These questions are very important to ask yourself, and answer in your review, as it shows whether the creator of the site has been successful in his or her planning of it.

Content - This is undoubtedly the most important part of any website, as without it there is no point in having a website and it is the reason the reader is there. Content can be reviewed by writing how it reflects the focus and target audience of the site. It can also be reviewed by writing about the authors writing style, grammar, spelling and punctuation. Everyone develops their own writing style, which can tell a lot about themselves.

Deflects - There is something wrong with every site, no matter how big or small it is. Every review must be totally honest, so if you see something that is wrong then you should write about it. Remember, reviews are often used to help the owner of the reviewed site to improve it. So it is very important to describe how the owner could improve.

These elements would probably need their own paragraph or two each. Well, it is all very well knowing what to write about, but the main problem with most reviews is knowing how to write it. This is where You develop your own writing style. You may remember learning, at school, to write and answer questions using Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? questions. This may sound really stupid but it really does make your writing better.

Some questions that you could ask yourself might include:

Who is the creator of the website?

What is the purpose of the website?

When was it made?

Why is the site good/bad?

How does the site work?

How does the website capture readers?

How can you learn and improve yourself from the site review?

While writing the review you should keep the questions and elements in mind. It is good practice to write each paragraph with the good points then the bad points about the element being discussed.

Below is a review for the game “The Golden Compass”, I have chosen this review because, although it is not a website review, I believe it includes most of the elements needed to make a good review. I wrote it a couple of months ago for my school project Game Reviewed.

The Golden Compass is a game based on the film of Philip Pullman’s famous book, The Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass in the USA). It is a game set in a parallel dimension of ours, a place where souls are in the forms of daemons which follow everyone around. In this game you will need to control Lyra, and with help from her daemon Pan, rescue children, fight daemons and learn the truth through a magical compass!

The first impressions of this game for most are “wow”. The first level is based in the north with snow and armoured bears, the graphics are very advanced for a PlayStation 2 game. The graphics and sound of just the first level are amazing.

The interface of the game is fairly easy to use. Some may find the Alethiometer interface quite hard, as with some of the in-game puzzles, but after a while they get easier.

The Golden Compass is extremely aesthetically pleasing. The realism of Jordan College and of the armoured bears is really and amazing sight, one which is rarely seen on this generation of console.
Also, the soundtrack gives effect to the whole game, with roars from the bears and abuse from Lyra, you are sure to be pulled into the game.

The difficulty is different for everyone. I had trouble getting used to some of the minigames but after a few hours it gets fairly easy. It also takes a while to figure out where to go and what to do but some people can do it easily. The challenges in this game are not too hard to make you want to quit but not too easy either.

The replay factor is fairly high for most people as it is a very fun game and even if you can do it once you may not be able to do it again. I have only played it once however I know people that have played it over 5 times.

As a whole, The Golden Compass is a brilliant game which grabs everyone’s attention. The graphics are amazing; and the sound makes everything much more realistic. This is an excellent game to play as a family and take turns climbing over Jordan College or the Gypsies boats. No matter your taste, you will find some fun here.

As you can see, this includes clearly what the game is, who wrote the book it was based on, where it was set and how it is good. Obviously this is not the best example, but it does include most of what is needed, it also includes a very good conclusion which is the final point to say everything that is needed.

I hope you have learned something from this post, whether you are a novice or a pro blogger. This post may be extended in the future, but for now I have said enough.

Thank you for reading, I hope you have enjoyed this post as much as I did writing it.