I wrote a post a very long time ago about why I used the sliding scale of 1-10 in my reviews. But I haven't talked about it in a while - or why I talk about certain things, or why I mention covers and summaries, or how I actually write a review.
I'm not a blog that writes a review and posts it as soon as they're done reading the book - but that's mostly because I schedule all of my posts weeks in advance. (To give you an idea of how I schedule things, this was written on the last day of July. Nearly a three week period between writing and posting.)
I do, however, tend to write my reviews right when I'm done reading them; I think the feelings you have as soon as a book ends are important to how you enjoy a book and whether you'd recommend it. Did you devour it? Did you want more? Were you sad it was over? Or were you just generally unimpressed?
I can formulate my thoughts on whether or not I like something very quickly. I don't take notes on stories, and I don't wait days before writing a review (unless I'm not near a computer). It doesn't take me long to figure out whether I liked the trifecta of the story as a whole: plot, characters, setting.
Whether I liked the writing is another story; normally if I don't, it ends up in my did-not-finish pile anyway, but I have a harder time putting it to words than some of my other stuff. I hate Oxford commas, but I can't fault an author for using them; on the other hand, there are some phrases and grammatical errors that I just can't stand. Do I mention them? Sometimes, if it's important. (For instance, my upcoming review of Innocent Darkness talks about why I picked up so quickly on the use of the Oxford comma and why it got on my nerves.)
After rambling for paragraphs about why I liked and didn't like, I do offer the final section: Overall Rating and Final Comments.
Mostly it's a quick-glance for people who don't want to read the entire review - a one or two sentence summary of the pros and cons.
And the rating? Well, that's mostly for me. There's no strict criteria; it's merely how much I liked it or thought it was good. It's the same scale we've been using in my house to show how much we liked a movie since... as long as I can remember. It's second nature for me to give something the 1 to 10 treatment.
The one thing I can say about my reviews is that they're honest, to the point of brutality at some things. (I edit. I always have to edit.) I've never said anything I didn't actually mean, with the exception of the Breaking Dawn review I wrote. (To be fair, I was leaving my Twi-phase and was in denial that the book was as terrible as I had thought.)
How do you write reviews? (And any more questions on how I write reviews?)
Interesting reading, thanks for sharing! Everyone's different, and there's no one right way to do a review probably, but a lot of what you say makes sense to me.
ReplyDeleteI tend to begin with a plot summary, and in some cases a bit about the author and their previous works. I might give a bit of context on genre too. I then try to start with the positives (hey, I'm a positive person!) before moving on to the negatives (hey, I'm a tough critic!). Like you, I believe honesty is the best policy! The summing up part then says whether I personally recommend the book or not. I don't give star ratings, as I find them a bit arbitary, although it appears you're obliged to on Good Reads...Other than that, I'm in broad agreeement with you :-)
How you can hate the Oxford comma? It's grammatically correct to use it! Series look incomplete without it. Okay, most of the time it doesn't add clarification, but sometimes the sentence needs it.
ReplyDelete"I'm bringing a dozen each of oatmeal, chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies."
Is that 2 dozen or 3 dozen cookies? Long live the Oxford comma!
See, when it's needed for clarification it's one thing, but sometimes the Oxford comma is thrown in there when it doesn't need to be. The sentence would have been understood without it! In the example above, of course, it's important, but if you used:
Delete"The flowers were red, blue and yellow."
you would know that the there are three different colors of flowers, now that there was a red flower and a blue and yellow flower. You'd know there were blue flowers, yellow flowers and red flowers. It didn't NEED the extra clarification unless you're being nitpicky and what have you. I dunno. The sentence looks cleaner without them, in my opinion, but I use them when necessary.
/oxford comma feels.
To the writer, it's always clear what he/she means. I think style guides recommend the Oxford comma in all series just in case that 1 time out of 100 it's confusing to the reader.
DeleteI had to google "Oxford comma". I'm sort of perplexed now. I studied English as a foreign language at university, and at least two different teachers were big supporters of this serial comma. They recommended a punctuation manual according to which the Oxford comma was "a must" (and it was indeed published with Oxford University Press).
ReplyDeleteI like this kind of comma very much for some strange reason. I do agree with you that a comma interrupting the flow of the sentence sounds weird and/or off-putting.
How can you hate the serial coma? It sometimes clarifies the sentence and it looks much worse if the text switches between using it and not. A document's grammar should be consistent.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's not really up to the author whether the serial comma is there - that's usually house style and the copy editor will add or remove it as needed.
I should add that I prefer the way the serial comma looks as well. It's just more . . . balanced.
DeleteAh, the controversial comma. Well, fwiw, Kristan is with Laura and Liviania on this one. Ingrid is not. And Sarah and Steph doesn't care so much. :P
ReplyDeleteVery interesting to hear about your review process. And how cute that the 1-10 scale thing started with your family! :)
Individually, we all have our own ways of reviewing, and they are very much instinctual as opposed to objective and/or formulaic. As a group, we tend not to rate or review, we just discuss books (pros and cons and themes and techniques) and give a sort of collective thumb up or thumb down. (Or thumb neutral?)
I don't mind commas - in fact, I overuse them myself. *grin*
ReplyDeleteAs for reviews, I tend to do an introductory paragraph or two (usually with a personal tie-in), a one paragraph plot summary (sans spoilers), and then 2-3 paragraphs on what I liked and didn't like, followed by a 'Recommended for' section. The style has definitely developed over time, but I can say I've been doing that format for over a year, and it works for me. For people who don't want to read the whole post, they can skip to recommendations, and for the rest, there's a lot of meat.
I too have to self-censor. Sometimes I let a negative review sit for a couple of days while I experiment with different phrasing. I've even sent a Word file with the review to my sister before posting to make sure I haven't been unnecessarily harsh. Reviews are tricky beasts.