Young Writers Society

Hi I was just wondering if anyone could give me some tips on how to write a review.

Gladly!

To start off with, read the work all the way through, and be aware of your reactions as you read.

Then, start writing the review. Good reviews often take about 15 minutes to write, but you might take more or less time depending on the length of the piece and what you have to say.

Everyone structures their reviews differently, but we like to recommend the The YWS Critique Sandwich while you're just starting out. Basically, you start out with what you liked about the work. Then, you offer some suggestions for improvement, and finally, you round the whole thing off with a conclusion.

If you really can't think of anything to critique, giving the author a really detailed overview of how you felt while reading the work, what interested you, confused you, etc., can be really helpful to the author, even if you aren't offering any "fixes." Often, reader reactions are very helpful on their own, but only if they're detailed, and usually if you really think about it you can find something to suggest.

That should give you a good start, but if you really want to learn more, the YWS section of the Knowledge Base has some really great, in-depth articles on reviewing. Here's a few of my favorites:
A Rundown on Reviewing
What isn't a good critique?
Need Help Writing a Basic Review?

Happy reviewing!