Tips (Writing a Good dooyoo Review)

Member Name: roger_smith

Product:	Writing a Good dooyoo Review
Date:	09/02/01 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: MONEY!!!!!

Disadvantages: Can be monotonious

I've jotted down some tips here to write a great useful opinion. Hope you find them useful:-

Tip #1: Have something to say.
I wouldn't bring this up, except for the ample evidence that it's not as obvious as it seems.

One thing I've learned here is that nobody cares about my opinion. And no matter how many Very Useful's you get, nobody cares about yours, either. What they care about is what we've got to back up our opinions - facts, impressions, logic, feeling, argument, and inspiration.

Nothing disappoints more than a music review that says little more than "ARTIST X KICKS ASS!" So what? Give me some details. Whose ass? Why? Steel-toe boots or high-top sneakers?

Even better (and more to the point), tell me about Artist X's style, compare him to other artists with similar style, tell me how well-known or influential he is in his milieu, if he's dead or living, and where I might have heard his work. In fact, providing all this information, along with some impassioned prose about the music itself, would go far to make me open my mind to random and vehement claims of ass-kicking. If you do it right, I'll even believe you about the ass-kicking.

This bears repeating: Be prepared to add some weight to your opinions in the form of facts or supporting arguments, or nobody will think them worth anything.

Tip #2: Be knowledgeable
Not every review requires deep expertise in some field. For example, it seems reasonable to me that one could write a review of a novel without having an academic background in literary criticism, simply by being accurate and descriptive about the content of the book and concentrating on what was enjoyed or not enjoyed about it.

On the other hand, there are some places where expertise is necessary if you're to make a cogent comment. For example, it always peeves me when people who clearly lack any background in mathematics or compu
ter security comment on cryptography software. For some reason, cryptography is one of those fields where the uninformed seem happy to offer their thoughts, and have some illusion that those thoughts are valuable.

Parenting seems to be another of those fields. Being childless, I wouldn't dare write an editorial in the "Parenting" section of the Kids & Family category, except perhaps to comment very narrowly on something very specific out of my experience as a child, and even then I'd heap it with disclaimers and express my humility and general ignorance on the subject. Ye gods forbid that some new parent take an all-around bad moral example like me seriously when making decisions about his child... And when I see other, admittedly childless people now and then offering long-winded and detailed opinions on child rearing based on their personal philosophies or their sophomore year sociology course or whatever, I can't think of it as anything but blowing smoke.

When you write a review, ask yourself if it's a review that requires some kind of expert knowledge, then think carefully about whether you have that knowledge. If it turns out that you don't, that doesn't mean you can't write the piece - but you'd do well to back it up with research and cited sources for whatever facts you present, so that both you and your reader come away knowing that you wrote an informed and worthwhile article.

Tip #3: Be brief
Some reviews need to be long to be good. A review of something like a full-featured automobile or computer has to contain a lot of information in order to be useful.

On the other hand, there are plenty of times when providing all the available information is simply overkill. For example, this is one of the reasons that I never review all the tracks on a CD. Partly I do it to leave the reader some surprises, and partly I do it because not every track is worth reviewing, but I also do it b
ecause it keeps the length of the review well within the reader's attention span, while still giving more than enough information about the product.

Likewise for overly flowery prose, lengthy storytelling, or anything else that lengthens the article without helping the reader understand the subject of the review any better. This isn't to say that interesting trivia, a relevant personal anecdote, or the occasional bon mot shouldn't be included - but too much of a good thing will cause you to lose your reader's interest.

Tip #4: Stick to the topic.
I recently read an article by one of my favorite Opinionators to which I had to give a "Not Very Useful". It hurt, but the article deserved it. It was about 8 paragraphs of some random anecdote from the writer's life, followed by a weak transition into 2 or 3 paragraphs about the product being reviewed. The article was funny, and it was a cute story, and the punchline was good, but most of it had nothing to do with the product. Had the anecdote-to-information ratio been tipped more the other way, I probably would have been far more generous.

People come here for advice on buying products. If you want to use Dooyoo as a personal playground to show how witty you are, go ahead - nobody can stop you. Don't be surprised (and certainly don't whine), however, when even those who think you wittiest give you poor ratings.

Again, going off on a tangent or telling a story can be an good way to catch a reader's interest or drive home a point if you can keep it brief and bring it back to the topic at hand. If you can't, just stick to the facts.

Tip #5: Spelling and Grammar
People rationalize copiously about why it's acceptable to include poor spelling and grammar in an article. Usually, their arguments center around the content of their writing - they feel that they're getting their message across, so why does it matter?

I
t matters because, despite the fact that they know what they meant to write, the rest of us don't - we're stuck with what these lazy twits actually wrote. When someone uses "there" instead of "their" or "they're" in a sentence, I usually have to back up in the sentence, read it again, and try to decipher what the writer actually meant to say.

Of course, nobody's perfect and we all let through the occasional error in spelling or grammar. Any article with many errors shows not just poor spelling, but contemptible laziness. Anyone too lazy to look at his own spelling errors when they are automatically highlighted for him can't be trusted. How am I to know he's not equally lackadaisical checking his facts?

It takes such a pathetically small effort to check one's spelling, and not a great deal more to look over one's grammar or have someone else look at it, that I can't agree with anyone who argues that this cost in effort isn't worth the benefits in conveyance of meaning. No sympathy, and no good ratings.

Tip #6: Have some fun.
Yes, people come here to learn things about products they want to buy, and yes, a lot of us are here because of the money, and yes, there are all these things you have to do to write a really good review, but try to have some fun with it. Write about things you like. Use humour, if that's your style. Engage your readers, banter in the comments section, and have a blast.

If you're not enjoying yourself, you're not dooing it right!

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