How 2 rite eckselent opinonz (Writing a Good dooyoo Review)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Writing a Good dooyoo Review
Date:	25/09/01 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gives loads of info, can be fun to write

Disadvantages: Takes more time than churning

“Tips / Guides to writing good Dooyoo opinions” is what it says, but what does it mean?

Well, think about what Dooyoo is, what people use it for, and you should have the answer. Yes, it’s a web site where people can go to get “the word on the street” (as Huggy Bear might say) on mostly products and services, but also some contemporary issues that affect us all (Speaker’s Corner).

I can’t tell you how to write the latter, after all, there’s no real right or wrong way of writing Speakers Corner opinions, but hopefully I can suggest how to write a half decent consumer review.

*** First steps: “Content is God” and research ***

No, I haven’t started some sort of weird Dooyoo religion, but a mantra for everyone to chant when writing opinions. The best thing you can do is provide as much information as you can on whatever it is you’re writing about. My advice is not to worry about length, at least, not to begin with but instead pretend that people who read your opinion don’t have access to any other source of information. Some people don’t like to include information that others have already included, but I don’t mind reading the same thing a few times.

Some people make a point of reading through a selection of the opinions in the same category they’re going to write in before writing their own. This is a purely personal thing, but I don’t tend to do it as I think it influences my writing too much.

*** Step Two: Planning your opinion ***

Sit down, and write (or type) everything you can think of on the subject of your choice. No need to be too elaborate at this point – just make a list of good and bad points and anything else you think would be of interest to the reader. If there are any points which you are not 100% sure of, and you think you might be mistaken or wrong, then now is a good time to do the r
esearch before actually getting down to the writing proper.

Once you have everything written down in point form, you can shuffle it all around so that all the bad points are grouped together, then all the good points, followed by the pieces of interest. This should then form the basis of your opinion. Typically, an opinion of mine will have both an introduction and ending (or conclusion) with the good, bad and interesting bits forming the main body of the opinion.

*** Step Three: Getting down to it. ***

What you write in your introduction is up to you, but try not to get away from the subject matter too much. If you are going to try something a bit different, e.g. have a “comedy” character discuss the item or service, don’t let the comedy character take over the opinion, after all if people are reading too much about Fred the Duck (apologies to anyone who has used “Fred the Duck” in an opinion) rather than say, Sainsbury’s Baked Beans, then they’re more likely to tell you to “Duck off”.

Make sure the opinion you are writing is actually fit for the category you are writing in as well. Search the site thoroughly before posting your opinion (it always helps to type it out in Notepad / Wordpad / Word etc. first) in case there is a more suitable category available. Patience is a virtue, so if you have a good opinion in you about, say, Jackie Chan in general, then don’t post in any old Jackie Chan category and hope for the best, suggest a category for your opinion, and with any luck it will be added within a few days. This bit is quite important, because people can and will mark you down for having the opinion posted in the wrong category.

No, I don’t know about anyone else, but there are certain pieces of information I think are practically compulsory to include for most items. As an example, the ones I can think of offhand would be the special features on a DVD
. A DVD review that doesn’t have a description of special DVD features is useless as a DVD opinion, and should be moved (or posted) to the video section. Another example would be web sites – valuable information to include (apart from the content of the site which is obvious) would be the ease of navigation around the site, and also the loading speed of pages. So, obviously, try to include the “compulsory” information for whatever you are writing on.

If something is hard to describe, why not compare it to something else? If you’re having a hard time describing Sainsbury’s Baked Beans, could you compare them to Heinz Baked Beans? “The tomato sauce isn’t as thick, but tastes sweeter and more tomato-y”

Personal experience is also a good thing to include, wherever possible. This will probably vary from person to person but adds a lot more to opinions. It also helps if you have an active interest in your topic. This may sound stupid, but in many cases, most people’s better opinions are about those subjects that interest them most (I suspect the “my chocolate addiction” category is the most passionate and well-written topic on Dooyoo!) and this shines through when reading them.

Finally, the last part of your opinion is a conclusion-like ending. This may include summing up the important points you feel need repeating, perhaps other sources of information like web sites or books. I always try to include the price I personally paid for something in the actual opinion if it differs from the RRP, and then quote the RRP as part of the questions that Dooyoo ask you when posting the opinion.

*** Step Four: Making sure ***

Once you have written your opinion, save it to disk, and nip off for a cup of tea or something. Come back to your opinion after you’ve had a break for ten minutes, and read over what you’ve written. Hopefully, your break will mean you
come back to your opinion with fresh eyes. This should mean that any spelling errors will be more visible, and you should get a better idea if you opinion flows along, or stop-starts. If it stop-starts, then move pieces of your opinion around in order to give it a better structure, and thus make it easier for others to read. At this point, you might also want to make changes to the layout – are some paragraphs too long? People lose interest easily if your opinion is one long paragraph with no breaks or spaces, and this can also affect their rating of your opinion. Lastly – is your opinion too long? Do you find yourself waffling to make your opinion longer, or is it nice and trim and full of facts? If necessary, cut out the waffle – your readers will thank you for it.

Before you post, you might also want to give some consideration to the title of your opinion. Generally, anything goes as long as it’s fairly on-topic. Some people like to use innuendo, others like to play on words and some simply use the title of the category. There are no good or bad titles really, at least, not where the quality of writing is concerned.

Always try to include a price (where necessary) when posting your opinion – even if you can’t remember off hand what you paid, you can surely find the information on the Web.

Don’t forget to fill in the little questions that Dooyoo sometimes ask you at the end of an opinion, as well as the advantages / disadvantages. These are as much a part of the opinion as the words you have written yourself!

*** Step Five: They think it’s all over… It is now! ***

There you have it – you’ve researched, typed , cut ‘n’ pasted and posted. Now all you have to do is sit back smugly knowing you’ve done a good job. Most of what I’ve said above is common sense really, and has probably been said before in every other opinion in this categ
ory, so apologies if you’re bored senseless. I hope I’ve covered everything, but I’m bound to have left something out. Happy writing!

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