You owe it to yourself to write good reviews

Review Day June 2011 is going on right now, and so I think it's an appropriate time once again to point out that when you write a hasty review, not only are you disrespecting the author but, more importantly, you are disrespecting yourself as well. All you need to do is spend 10 minutes on your review, which really isn't much. Otherwise, you're just selling yourself short.

Here are some quick tips on writing a good review:

• Use good grammar!
• Say why you liked or didn't like something
• If a story, what did you think of the characters and of the plot?
• If a poem, did it convey emotion? How does the poem look and read?

What's more important than anything else is to just give general impressions and to explain your points. As long as you do that, you'll be fine. And a great way to improve is to read reviews by other people. That way, you'll gradually develop an idea of what works and what doesn't work. Of course, the best way to improve is to just get out there and review!