*Some Handy Infoooooooo!* (Writing a Good dooyoo Review)

Member Name: mmmbuffy

Product:	Writing a Good dooyoo Review
Date:	29/08/01 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything

Disadvantages: None

After being on Dooyoo for almost a year, collecting three of those little yellow pointy hats, I feel that it is time that I should share some of what I have learned with my fellow community members. There are a lot of points that you have to remember when writing your opinions, if you want them to be good that is, so I shall do my best and try to explain them so that everyone can benefit.

I feel I should explain why it is important to write really good opinions. If you write really good opinions you will gain a reputation for writing good opinions, which will draw people back to read more of your opinions. This will result in more Dooyoo miles if that is what you are on Dooyoo for. And if you are writing really good opinions you will have a good chance of earning the pointy hat of greatness (crown opinions, but I guess that was obvious).

First of all, you should probably read the 'ethos', this gives you some fairly good advice on writing well, and it also tells you what and what not to do. This option can be accessed from your member profile, it is located at the bottom of the yellow column on the left-hand side of the page. I should point out that in my near one year on Dooyoo I have only checked this a few times and have still managed to write some good opinions, so this isn't essential.

Then you should check out the 'tips on writing well', also accessed through your profile, you can find it just next to the 'ethos'. Clicking on this link will take you to the category that this opinion will be located in. I would recommend having a look at this. Only recently have I started looking at this to write good opinions, you literally see where I started using this option by the average ratings for my opinions, it really does help, so check it out.

When looking at the 'tips for writing well', have a look at more than one. Remember, the opinions on the first page are the ones with the most reads, not
the best, so have a look about.

This piece of advice is fairly straightforward, know what you are talking about. Simple huh? Even though it is fairly straightforward I do sometimes find opinions that the authors don't seem to know what they are talking about, so this is a simple yet important rule. DO NOT WRITE WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW!!! If you know about football, then that is what you should write about, if you know about wrestling, then write about that. People can tell if you don't know what you are talking about, and so they won't come back and read your opinions because you will gain the reputation of writing for money alone.

On the subject of knowing what you are talking about, it is also a good idea to have experienced what you are writing about. Don't write opinions on a computer game if you have never played on it before, if you do this then the people on Dooyoo will soon realise that you have no experience about what you are writing about, and won't read any more of your opinions because they will feel that if you lie about one thing, then you could well be lying about other things too. Don't think that people won't notice, because there are a whole lot of smart people on Dooyoo who WILL catch you out.

Even if you do know so much on a subject, if you go to write an opinion about that subject, make sure that you can write a good, decent, helpful opinion about it. Many times I have found myself going to write about something I know all about and then realising that I'm not sure what to put in the opinion.

Now, unless you are really good at typing and spelling, I would recommend doing your opinion on a word processor, just to ensure that you don't make any silly spelling or grammar mistakes. The only problem with this is that when you copy and paste it onto Dooyoo, you must go through your opinion and change the following (that I know of): -, ' and ". I don't know why this h
appens, but if you don't change them they will all come out as question marks when you submit your opinion, making it harder for others to read.

On the subject of spelling and grammar, do not use abbreviations such as u instead of you, or btw instead of by the way. These are ok to use in comments, but not in opinions. Despite being on the internet, Dooyoo isn't a chat room or what not, so avoid using such abbreviations as they show that you haven't tried with your opinion and they also imply that you rushed your opinion.

This piece of advice is very important if you want a really, really good opinion. Plan your opinion, simple as that, if you plan your opinion then you can't go wrong by making silly mistakes such as repeating yourself. You only have to take an extra five minutes planning your opinion, and it really does make the difference. I like to plan my opinions paragraph by paragraph, but you may find that different methods may work better for you.

The first thing that people see when it comes to your opinion is the title, since this is the first thing that people see, the title should be good enough to catch peoples eye. Once they have noticed your title, then the next thing they can see is the first fifteen odd words, so make this good as well. So you see, these two in combination are the key to getting and keeping the peoples interest, if these two aren't good enough, people won't read it, if however they are great, then you will find yourself getting a lot of reads.

Remember, the whole point is to write good opinions, so don't just make the effort on your first couple of lines only to get peoples attention, make the effort for the whole of your opinion.

Presentation is also very important. If people can't read your opinions very well, then they won't read them at all. It is also a good idea for you to make you opinions easy on the eyes, this will ensure that people will actual
ly read your opinion. When I say 'making it easy on the eyes', I don't mean having fancy italics and whatnot, I mean paragraphs. Not only paragraphs, but to make your opinion look good and easy to read you should leave a line between each paragraph. This really does help when reading opinions.

Now it isn't important how long your opinions are, what is important is that it can help others to understand what you think on the given subject, so don't try to make your opinions really, really long. The minimum for an opinion is 75 words, if you feel you can get across your opinion in 75 words, then that will be good enough, don't feel the need to go over the top.

Once your opinion is done, read through it again, I know that this may seem tiresome and boring, but it can be the difference between a useful and a very useful opinion. When reading through it try to consider the following:

Have you managed to communicate your point clearly? If not go back and add to your opinion so that you do get the point across.

Are there many or any typing errors or spelling mistakes? If there is, change them. The spelling errors are easy enough to eliminate, but look out for typing errors as they are hard to spot, errors such as typing their instead of there.

Does it contain anything that could be considered offensive? Does it contain anything offensive such as racism or sexism, if so remove the offensive parts.

Is the grammar good? This includes capitals, full stops, commas and so on, make sure these are actually there and in the right place.

Once you have checked all this, then your opinion is free and clear to be thrown into the mass of opinions that Dooyoo has to offer. Remember that if you do your opinion on a word processor, go through your opinion again whilst it is on Dooyoo about to be submitted and change the ', - and " so that they don't appear as question marks.

Now, I r
eally hate it when I read things that are meant to help me and all the main points are mixed in with masses of text. So now I shall put all my points here as bullet points just to help those people like me:

Read the 'ethos' for beginner's advice.

Read the 'tips for writing well' to find out how fellow Dooyoo maestro's write their opinions.

Know and have some experience about what subject you are about to write about.

Use a word processor if you aren't sure about your typing skills.

Don't use abbreviations such as u, only use them for comments.

Plan your opinion.

Have a good title and opening fifteen words.

Check your opinion for mistakes.

Once you are about to put up your opinion, check it again and change the mentioned symbols.

I hope that this opinion has helped you in anyway. However, as my last piece of advice, I would recommend coming up with your own personal way of writing good opinion, as it is all good and helpful using other people's advice, but it is even better to come up with your ways of writing. Once again, hoped this helped.

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