Writing From Experience:

The Review Genre

Overview:

People turn to reviews when they are called on to evaluate something (a media production, a
product, a person, etc.) to make a critical judgment of its qualities.
It is inevitable that peoples evaluationswhether in politics, academic work, the arts, or
other contextsand the criteria and assumptions that underlie them will differ in interesting,
sometimes trying, and always significant ways.

Reviewer Positionality:
Reviewers are not neutral observersthey have a responsibility to their readers because
something of consequence is at stake for both the consumers and the producers. Reviewers
should ask themselves:
On whose behalf will you be writing?
What are the potential consequences of the evaluations you will make?
What responsibilities does this bring to you as a reviewer?

Establishing Criteria of Evaluation:

Reviews are usually grounded in explicit (quantitative) or implicit (qualitative) criteria to make
evaluations. Criteria are the standards critics and reviewers use to justify their evaluationsthey are
the enabling assumptions by which reviewers link their claim (the movie was good, bad,
disappointing, sensational, etc.) to the available evidence (the movie itself).
To identify criteria of evaluation, it can be helpful to think about the following:
What is a good example of the type of item being reviewed? What qualities make it
good?
What makes a particularly bad example? (This isnt necessarily just the opposite of the
good qualities.)
What criteria do other reviewers use in their evaluations? What is the significance of
employing evaluative criteria that is different from or similar to criteria employed by others?

Description Versus Evaluation:

It is important for reviewers to think about how much they need to describe what they are
reviewing. The level of detail a reviewer needs to include depends on the readers prior knowledge
about the topic. Reader familiarity will shape how much a reviewer needs to provide as background
information and description, and whether or not a reviewer can effectively incorporate comparison
and contrast to something similar. Depending upon the subject of the review, descriptions can be
separate from or combined with the evaluation.

English 201