Review

Who is the audience? The audience for this question is usually an interested consumer or magazine reader.
What is the purpose of the writing? You need to describe something (or some things) and give your opinion.
Is it formal? No.
Should I use headings or bullet points? You can use headings if you like.
How should it start? You want to capture the readers’ interest. Use a good title and an exciting opening sentence.
How should it finish? Clearly state your opinion in the conclusion.

A review may be about a book, magazine, film, play or concert; it may also be about a product or a service.
A review in the C1 Advanced Writing paper does not merely ask for a general description of the thing
reviewed, but requires an evaluation of its suitability for a particular purpose or audience. The target reader
is specified in the task, and candidates should be encouraged to use this information when choosing
appropriate ideas and language to include in their response. from: Cambridge English First Handbook for
Teachers

Reviews are fun!

Reviews are fun because reading reviews is fun. Who doesn’t enjoy a few opinions from other people before
making the decision on which restaurant to go to, which film to watch or which book to buy? Also, in our
day and age, we are constantly looking at social proof for a wide range of topics so reviews are much more
natural to us than they were only a few years ago when the internet wasn’t everywhere so you might even
have written about a few of your own experiences online. Of course, when writing a review for C1 Advanced you
have to follow a specific structure and fulfill certain requirements, but the good thing for you is that they are always the
same so you can study and practise them and become better every single day until you get to the official exam and it
won’t be a problem for you anymore. We are going to look at different aspects of review writing, from looking at a
typical task and its structure, useful language and mistakes to avoid. If you are interested, keep reading.

What a typical review task looks like

Speaking from my experience as a teacher and preparing numerous students for the exam, I can say that most
review tasks look pretty much the same. The structure is very similar and once you know what to look for,
you can use it to your advantage by saving a lot of time and going into the test ready and calm.

When you see a writing task for C1 Advanced (not only reviews, but really all of them), you should
always ask yourself a few very specific questions which can help you to better understand what you have to
do and set you up for a successful writing exam.
 What is the situation? (topic)
 What exactly do I have to include in my review? (main points)
 Who is going to read the review?
To find the answers to these three questions read the task very carefully and underline the key information.

I underlined the information in different colours as each colour refers to one of the questions from above.
First of all, the topic is underlined with red. Secondly, the main points or questions you have to answer in
your review are green and, finally, you are writing for a website called Great Lives (blue).
This structure is usually the same in every task so make sure that you look for the same type of information
whenever you sit down to practise reviews.

You
might ask yourself why it is so important to know who you are writing for, but this tells you exactly if you
should use formal, neutral or informal language. Imagine you had to write to your boss or the director of your
school. You would choose a more formal style than if you were writing to your friends. In our example, we
should choose something that is more of a neutral style. After all, we don’t the people on the website, but we
want to keep it light and as interesting as possible.
When writing in a neutral style you can use contractions like ‘I’m’ or ‘don’t’ and you can use phrasal verbs
as well as interesting adjectives and adverbs to make your review more lively. However, I wouldn’t
recommend using slang words or too many colloquial expressions nor anything that is too formal as you
would in an essay or formal letter.
How to organise your review
Now that we know what the task’s topic is, what exactly we need to include and the tone we should write in,
it is time to look at the structure of a review. Luckily, this can be repeated from review to review and you
simply have to change the content depending on the topic and main points.
Remember, there are two main questions for you to answer here (Did you learn anything new about the
person’s life? Did the book or film help you understand why this person made their important contribution?)
It makes a lot of sense to give each of those questions their own paragraph as they talk about different aspects
of your review.

Additionally, you should add an introduction (with a title) in which you create some anticipation and engage
the reader as well as a conclusion where you summarise your main points and make a recommendation
(because that’s why we read reviews). In total, that comes to four paragraphs which could look like this:
1. Title/Introduction
2. What new things did you learn about the person’s life?
3. Do you now better understand why the person made their important contribution?
4. Conclusion/Recommendation

Always plan your review

Whenever you sit down to write for your exam preparation, make a plan before you start your review, report,
proposal, email/letter or essay. It only takes 3-5 minutes and it can save you so much time down the road
when you need to make corrections.A plan can be very short and only include a few keywords that you add
under each heading so you know what you want to write about and don’t have to rethink everything halfway
through the writing task.
 1. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – Ask a question to engage reader. Brief life background.
2. New things I learned – his work as a lawyer, marriage problems, his reliance on Winnie
3. Why did he do all of it – oppression in South Africa was terrible
4. Conclusion: The film gives great insight into Mandela’s life. I definitely recommend it.
The different parts of a review
Introduction
The introduction of a review aims to engage the reader from the beginning. You want to create interest and
anticipation of what you have to say about the book, film, restaurant or whatever else you might be
reviewing. It is always a good idea to start with a question because you can involve the reader’s own
mind and, therefore, generate the engagement you want. Also, don’t give any spoilers, but hint at
what’s going to come in the rest of the text.
Let’s look at a possible introduction.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – a review
Have you ever been so passionate about something that you would sacrifice your very best years for it?
Would you even put it ahead of your family and friends? In the film Mandela: Lond Walk to Freedom we get
not only a glimpse of Nelson Mandela’s life, but rather dive deep into who he was and how he changed a
whole country.

I gave my review a title, which doesn’t have to be fancy, and in the introduction I didn’t do anything crazy
either. It starts with a couple of questions to generate interest and I don’t give away too much of the storyline.
Obviously, a lot of people know something about Nelson Mandela’s life, but that’s not the point. Give the
reader just a tiny little taste so they want more and keep reading.

Body
The body of your review for C1 Advanced includes all the main topic points that we elicited earlier from the
example task.
 What new things did you learn about the person’s life?
 Do you now better understand why the person made their important contribution?
Each point gets its own paragraph to make sure that the text is clearly organised. you also want to make sure
that you keep the reader’s attention which you have carefully caught in the introduction. Treat it like
something very valuable that you don’t want to lose again until the end of your review.
Don’t let the reader’s attention get away.

While the whole film captivated me throughout, there was one aspect that truly stood out to me. Nelson
Mandela and his second wife Winnie had a one-of-a-kind relationship driving each other to continue and
grow the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa even after Mr Mandela was captured and
imprisoned. It is a testament to their dedication and partnership and something that a lot of us can learn
from.
Despite having a strong and driven partner in his wife, I still used to be astonished by the fact that
someone would simply sacrifice themselves and give up a big part of their life to help others, but this biopic
made me reconsider. Witnessing a segregated society and all the racial abuse the black community had to
endure during apartheid, there was no other option for Nelson Mandela than to stand up and fight for
equality.
I’ve highlighted some of the more important language features for you. At the beginning of each paragraph, I
play with contrasting statements (while, despite) as this keeps the reader guessing. I also tried to use
some vocabulary that is specific to Mandela’s life (anti-apartheid movement, sacrifice themselves,
segregated society, racial abuse…had to endure, stand up and fight for equality) and some words and
expressions to make the review more interesting for the reader (one-of-a-kind, captured and imprisoned,
it is a testament to…, astonished).
All of these little things together make for an engaging review that the reader wants to read fully and
thoroughly.

Conclusion/Recommendation
To finish your review you need a conclusion in which you summarise what you’ve written up to this point
and make a recommendation to the reader. After all, that’s why we read reviews in the first place – we want
someone to tell us about a product or an experience and see if they would recommend it or not.
There is some specific language that you should incorporate when you make a recommendation
because you want to persuade the reader and make the examiner happy:
 I recommend/suggest [title/name] to + person
 I recommend/suggest + -ing
 I recommend/suggest that …
 You should + base verb
 You might want to + base verb

All in all, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom gives some incredible insight into the life of one of the world’s
most famous and influential personalities of the 20th century. It would be a shame not to watch it so I highly
recommend that you check your favourite streaming service or buy the film as soon as you can and I promise
you won’t regret it.
You see that it is very much straightforward. The first sentence recaps what I like about the film and the
second one makes a recommendation and tries to persuade the reader (“I promise you won’t regret it.”).