Young Writers Society

I am here for the same purpose as my comrades before me. Checklist challenges. That aside, I'm Myth and I'll be reviewing this article/story. I hope you read this some day when you return, and if you do, please do tell me if it was useful...

I think your introduction was effective. Talking about your former opinions and also talking about how they changed after visiting this place, is a good way of engaging the reader. I do have a problem with your usage of "strengthened" here. It would seem like you're trying to say that your opinions changed, but when you say that they were "strengthened", it means that your opinions remained same but just grew and you were more convinced.

Coming to the grammar;

throughout, I noticed that you didn't put an apostrophe in your "don't"s and "didn't"s. There were also "I"s that weren't capitalized. In the last sentence, you're missing a comma before quoting the line. That's really all about the grammar. You could shorten your sentences a little.


The middle paragraph could be split into two. I get that it's a continuous narrative and that's where I think shortening your sentences will help you. If you don't get what I mean by "shortening sentences", do ask me and I'll give an example or two to show you.

You could've started your concluding paragraph a little better.

After this I dont remeber that much

Heya BustedFlush,

Shady here with a quick review for you this lovely RevMo!

This was a short piece, but I enjoyed reading it! I'm very curious to know whether this was nonfiction or just a short little story you thought up. I suspect that it's a personal story since you marked it as an essay rather than a short story, which makes it that much more enjoyable to read through.

I think you did a particularly good job of showing how your thoughts and opinions changed over the course of your time in Costa Rica. It is clear that you had a pretty negative view of the place before you went, but it sounds like you met some really cool Costa Ricans and eventually came around to appreciate them and their culture. I always like to see growth in a character arc, so even though this is an extremely short story, it's still nice to hear that personal growth that is happening to the narrator of this story.

I also like that your last sentence ties back in to the title of the story. Cowboys are not something that I generally associate with Costa Rica, so I really enjoyed hearing about these Costa Rican cowboys and all the chaos and scariness that you faced while there.

I think it would be more compelling, as a story, to describe the settings a bit more. Describe the places that you went to for site-seeing. Give more emotions and physical descriptions of the horse going off on its own thing. Help me FEEL what the narrator of the story is feeling.

But overall, I thought this was a nice story!

Keep writing and happy RevMo!

~Shady

Hey there! I'm sorry to dig up such an old piece, but I'm doing it for the Checklist Challenge xD I'll point out some things I noticed and then conclude with my thoughts at the end! These are mostly going to be grammar related, even though this piece is over a decade old, so I understand that you probably have improved since that time. And because of that, I won't point out every single grammar mistake (especially the comma ones).

Not for the whole trip just one part which I felt was something special to me.

My impression was strengthened when the first thing i saw when i flew into costa rica was a huge fire next to the runway.

I thought wow it is like looks like some war torn country.

I was very wrong about Costa Rica

The next day after my family landed in San Jose we headed off into the mountains of costa rica.

Dont get me wrong I have ridden horses before because my uncle owns about 5 or 6 of them but it had been awhile and I had always ridden on a western style saddle.

All of the horses were saddled with english style saddles.

I quickly became bored so I pulled far a head of my brother and the rest of the people I had my horse going at a full gallop when I began to lose control.

Of course it wasnt there so I had to do something I had seen In a western movie.

The last thing that went through my mind was I did not want to share the same destiny that Christopher Reeves had.

After this I dont remeber that much.

The Costa Rican looked down at me and said the words "Usted es un vaquero loco".

I later found out that what the Costa Rican said meant "You are a crazy cowboy".

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),

Hi! I'm Knight Hardy here on a mission to ensure that all works on YWS has at least two reviews. You will probably never see this but....Imma do this anyway.

First Impression: So this was a pretty straightforward story all about just this one small event and the circumstances that it took place under along with this title that this story is based on. And for something like that I think it does a pretty good job of showing that. There is some slight pacing issues in the middle of it and the flow isn't as nice as one would like but for the most part its pretty good.

Anyway let's get right to it,

I went to Costa Rica a year ago and it still is always on my mind. Not for the whole trip just one part which I felt was something special to me. My first impression of Costa Rica was that it was just some poor third world country with a volcano and a beach. My impression was strengthened when the first thing i saw when i flew into costa rica was a huge fire next to the runway. I thought wow it is like looks like some war torn country. I was very wrong about Costa Rica

The next day after my family landed in San Jose we headed off into the mountains of costa rica. We visited the natural hot springs. We also decided to go ziplining through the rain forest which is very popular. When we showed up at the place where we were going to zip line they had a bunch of horses waiting for us. I didnt know that I was going to have to ride a horse. Dont get me wrong I have ridden horses before because my uncle owns about 5 or 6 of them but it had been awhile and I had always ridden on a western style saddle. All of the horses were saddled with english style saddles. The difference with a western and english style is that the western had a horn on it that you can hold on to which for me makes a big differance. So I jump on my horse and like always I decide to race my brother to the top of the mountain. When riding up I saw some of the finest horse riding skills I had ever seen. The native Costa Ricans riding up with us moved up and the caravan of people and horses with great skill and tenacity. I quickly became bored so I pulled far a head of my brother and the rest of the people I had my horse going at a full gallop when I began to lose control. I started falling off to my right side so I went with my instinct and grabbed for the horn in the middle of the saddle. Of course it wasnt there so I had to do something I had seen In a western movie. I grabbed the horse around the neck and held on. The last thing that went through my mind was I did not want to share the same destiny that Christopher Reeves had.

After this I dont remeber that much. The horse must had hit a ditch or something along that line and threw me off. I remember waking up to my horse looking down at me and one of the Costa Rican Cowboys. The Costa Rican looked down at me and said the words "Usted es un vaquero loco". I was alright I just had bumped my head on something and knocked myself out. I later found out that what the Costa Rican said meant "You are a crazy cowboy".

Thanks for the advice. I am definitely not going to try that again.

I think you could have divided the middle paragraph into two different paragraphs, one about going on the adventures and another on how your perilous ride began.

I really enjoyed reading the story and I also agree con el vaquero, estuvo loco.

Don't try that again, OK?