How to write a Review for FCE (Brugklas)

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 1

How to write a review 

A REVIEW is usually written for ...

an English-language magazine, newspaper or website. The main purpose is to describe and express a personal opinion about something which the writer has experienced (e.g. a film, a holiday, a product, a website etc.) and to give the reader a clear impression of what the item discussed is like. Description and explanation are key functions for this task, and a review will normally include a recommendation to the reader.

Who's going to read this? My classmates! What does that mean about the tone? It means I can be on the informal side of neutral. You know, serious but friendly.

140 - 190 words

Check two things when looking at a writing task: what to include and who is going to read their text. Read the task carefully and underline the key parts. Below I have done all of that for you.

There are also three main points that we have to include in the review: what surprising thing the main character of the book did, why it was surprising and whether or not you would recommend the book.

Planning Time

Okay, the first thing to do is to think of a book where the main character surprised me. This is quite an important step, because everything that follows is linked to this decision. Do you think I should spend five seconds on it, or thirty seconds?

[Thirty seconds later] 

I am going to choose one of my favourite books, Kensuke's Kindom, by Michael Morpurgo. It's great! 

So what do I have to include? 

- write a review of the book

- explain what the character did 

- and why it was surprising

- would I recommend it

It doesn't make much sense to have points 2 and 3 separate, so for this review I will keep them together in one paragraph.

So my outline looks like this:

Title

Introduction

Review

Main Character's Surprising Moment

Recommendation

Let's think of vocabulary and grammar I can use.

 I'm just going to brainstorm by writing words and phrases I know that might be useful in the different paragraphs.

• genre;  fiction but some historical references as
  

set in the late 1990s; friendship and loss

Useful language

• island; Japan; castaway;
• rescue; conflict; 
• a difficult choice; 
• there's no doubt that; 
• not only but also; 

Now I want to think of a title.

I want something that is interesting and that helps me to write the review. What do I mean by that? For example, I could write 'Review of Kensuke's Kingdom. But that's boring and doesn't help me to write it. If I have a title like 'The Surprising Truth about Kensuke's Kingdom - well, I can already think of a way to write the last paragraph.

The Surprising Truth about Kensuke's Kingdom

Kensuke's Kingdom seems to be a very simple story. An English family set off in a boat to sail the world. But is that all there is to it?

In fact, the story is as complicated as its main character , Kensuke OR Michael _____________________________________________

The key moment in the book comes when ............................................................................................................................................................

I really liked the book and I strongly recommend you read this novel as soon as possible.

(202 words)

I don't know about you, but I think that's a pretty good review!

It's not perfect though - I forgot to link the ending to the beginning. That's why I gave myself 5 minutes to check and change it!

All I have to do is re-word the ending:

Finding out the truth about Kensuke is one of the most rewarding things about the book , and that's why I strongly recommend you read this book as soon as possible.

That gives a 'thread' through the review, from start to finish.

Using the notes in this LessonUp, please do the exam task above, using either Michael or Kensuke as your 'Main Character'.

140 - 190 words

Brain storming!

Introduction:

Review and main character's suprisisng moment:

Recommendation:

Useful Vocabulary

Now brainstorm some useful vocabulary, including lots of adjectives. Avoid using boring adjectives like good or bad. It’s much more exciting to say ‘amazing’ and ‘disappointing’ or ‘terrific’ and ‘terrible’.

Here’s some more useful vocabulary to get you started:

fascinating / unbelievable / rich / lonely / kind / to be set in / to be written by /characters /protagonist / atmosphere / author / chapter / ending / fictional island / novel / sad story.

Your next step is to think of some linking phrases. These are going to help tie together your thoughts and bring your review to life!

 Overall if you like…

 I was pleasantly surprised by…

 In fact…

 What I disliked the most was…

 The book contains…

 As well as…

 This well-written book…

Cambridge First assignment

This is a formative task. It will show as O or V in magister but will not count as a grade. 

We will write the review in class Tomorrow. 

PLEASE BRING KENSUKE'S KINGDOM TO SCHOOL AS WE WILL USE IT DURING THE LESSON AND THEN RETURN IT TO THE LIBRARY

Now......

Make a plan, write some notes.... You can use the plan and the notes in tomorrow's lesson when we write the review.