How to write a review?

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• mavo, havo
• Leerjaar 2,3

Review writing

2 M Regular

2023-2024

Structure

We are going to have a look at the typical requirements, structure and other little things you should include, leave out and/or be careful with. A review can be about a book/film/restaurant/dish etc. 

So let’s start by having a look at an example task that could be part of your writing test.

.

What a typical review task looks like

What?

The first thing you should check when looking at a writing task is: what to include? 

What to include?

1. explain what the main character did
2. what you liked about the main character

What to include?

1. what surprised you the most about the book
2. why it was suprising what the main character did

What to include?

1. what your favourite book genre is
2. whether or not you would recommend this book to other people

What to include?

Besides the title and introduction there are always three things the assignment tells you to write about. These are usually: 

• a description (What did the main character do? / What was the film about? / What was the restaurant like?)
• a discussion (Why was it surprising? / What did you like and dislike about it? / What makes the film different?)
• a recommendation (Would you recommend the book to other people? / Would you advise watching the film? Would you recommend going there for dinner? ). 

Structure

The structure of our review (and every review, really) looks like this:

 1. Title

2. Introduction

3. Description (What did the main character do?)

4. Discussion (Why was it surprising?)

5. Recommendation (Would you recommend the book to other people?)

How many items should you include in your review?

1. 3
2. 4
3. 5
4. 6

Structure

The structure of our review (and every review, really) looks like this:

 1. Title

2. Introduction

3. Description (What did the main character do?)

4. Discussion (Why was it surprising?)

5. Recommendation (Would you recommend the book to other people?)

What is the correct structure of a review? Drag and drop!

Title

Introduction

Description

Discussion

Recommendation

What is the correct structure of a review?

Title

Make sure you have a title to attract the reader's attention.

Introduction

The main purpose of the introduction is to create interest so the reader wants to find out what you have to say about the book, film, restaurant or whatever you have to write about. You can use a few tricks to achieve that:

Firstly, start with a personalised question. This connects the reader to your review and makes them want to continue reading, and secondly, don’t give away the surprise but only give a little hint at it. This way, you can create even more excitement.

In your introduction you give a description of the book.

1. True
2. False

Starting your introduction with a personalised question is a good idea

1. True
2. False

Description

Here, you describe what the book is about. 

According to the assignment you need to give some information based on your instructions. In our example you have to say what surprising thing the main character did.

The best part about the description is that you don’t have to do anything special – just answer the question and move on. 

Description

1. Stick to the question and don’t talk about unrelated things.

2. Give some support to your answer (related details)

3. Use adjectives and adverbs to make it more interesting to read.

Include some descriptive adjectives and adverbs to make this paragraph a little bit more interesting (mysterious, ragged, exact, eventually, unexpected,

 brutally).

In your description you describe whatever you feel like

1. True
2. False

In your description you use lots of descriptive adjectives

1. True
2. False

Discussion

The next step is the discussion portion of your review. There is usually some part in which you have to give your opinion in every review writing task (that’s what discussion really means.) So it is really important to keep the following things in mind:

1. Again, don’t write about things that are not in the task.

2. Use specific language to give your opinion

Discussion

2. Use specific language to give your opinion:

o In my opinion/view, …

o For me, …

o I think/believe/feel that …

o I would say that …

o It seems to me that …

In your discussion you give your opinion

1. True
2. False

Recommendation

The last part of your review is usually a recommendation to your readers. Again: you have to use specific language to please the reader and to make it clear to the reader that you are recommending something.

Recommendation

1. Don’t mix up the recommendation with the other parts of your review.

2. Use specific language to give recommendations:

3. Write a final sentence to conclude the review.

Recommendation

2. Use specific language to give recommendations:

o I really recommend reading this book.

o I really suggest reading this book.

o I recommend that you read this book.

o I suggest that you read this book.

o You should read this book.

o You might want to read this book.

Write down one or more ways to recommend reading a book.