Young Writers Society

alliyah wrote:

Hey Spooky Friends! Happy Spooktober Review Day!

If you haven't signed up for the upcoming Review Day : - There's still time! I thought it be fun to share some spooky themed #ReviewTips for #Spooktober so here we go ~ feel free to join me if you like! Also I'm going to need everyone to read this YWS Halloween Classic to get into the Spooktober mood before we start Review Day.



My first #SpooktoberReviewTip is called Tips to Avoid Leaving a SPOOKY Review: It's fun to scare people with fun costumes and scary movies, but not so good to scare people with your critiques in reviews - here's some tips to make sure your review doesn't come across as tooooo spooky / critical.

Open and close with a compliment! As the saying goes, a spoonful of sugar Halloween treats, makes the medicine go down! And this is true for criticism too - if you want to share a harsh critique try to make sure you leave some kind words too! This reminds the author your intention is to help, not hurt!

Know the difference between fact, preference, and opinion and differentiate these in your review. There is feedback that you can give that is a matter of fact and then there is feedback that you can give that is more based on preference / opinion. Just because something is more up to taste - doesn't mean it's a bad critique, but that should change how you present the information. For example:

(Fact) I wanted to let you know that "gremlin" is spelled this way, rather than "gremlen".

(Fact) Your stanzas had quite a bit of variety in length between the first and second half of your poem!

(Opinion) I felt like the tone shift between the first and second half of the poem was abrupt and might confuse readers.

(Preference) I prefer a little more formal punctuation and capitalization style, so I found the lack of capitalization to undermine your very formal message.

(Preference) I think you may want to take a double check on some of the consistency in your line break placement - it felt a bit choppy to me in some places.

^ Do you see where hedge words like "I prefer," "I think," and "I felt" can differentiate preference / opinion feedback to the less subjective feedback. This can help authors understand where you're coming from.

Your next piece of advice to making a non-spooky review, is to try to give the author the "benefit of the doubt" as you read. When in doubt, assume there was a reasoning for their author choices, assume there was thought, assume there is meaning rather than a lack of intention. I find this not only helps me write a kinder and more interesting review, but it also helps me enjoy reading their piece more! For instance if you see they used the word candle 14 times in their 3 stanza poem you could 1) assume it was an accident and they don't know many words besides candle, or 2) you could give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are trying to bring your attention to that word to emphasize some meaning. Start with assuming the best, give your thoughts and feedback and go from there.

And finally, your last tip is to Avoid Review Spam - don't leave AI generated reviews, don't copy & paste reviews, and be sure to leave feedback (at least 5 sentences) that is relevant to the piece you are reviewing. If you see Review Spam please report it to a moderator, as it does not count towards Review Day Team points and will be removed.

Have a Spooktacular Review Day!