I've been the guide for the books and magazine category for a while now and I thought I'd dust down and update this review. Needless to say this is not the only review you can read on the subject.

The first thing to remember is that there is no right or wrong way of writing a book/magazine review! This might seem like useless advice but what I'm really trying to say is that when doing a review, any review, you have to follow a style that is right for you, there is little point in trying to adopt a style that you are not comfortable with just because you think it will get you more reads or crowns. Chances are it won't work.

SO WHAT CAN I TELL YOU?

Leaving the subject of style and presentation to one side for the moment there are some basic features that I think should be more or less common to every well written book review and I think these are features that will make the review of use to someone making a decision of whether to buy/read the book or not. Remember this is a consumer site!

BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION

With most books it is helpful to include a little background about the author and any general details about the book that might be useful to the reader.

Is this the first book that the author has written? Is it the last? Was it written at a particular time? During the war or at some other notable historical period that might have influenced its content or style? Does the book or the author fit into a particular literary movement? Is it a 'beat' novel, a 'realist' novel, a 'gothic' horror or a holiday read etc.

For a non-fiction book you can tell us what special knowledge the author has in relation to the subject of the book. If it is a biography did the writer ever meet the subject, were they friends? Was it an approved biography etc.

OK not every book will need such an introduction but if you do have the information briefly include, it will make a good point to start the review. Having said this, remember to keep the introduction short after all it is your opinion of the book that counts.

THE PLOT/SUBJECT MATTER

Be careful!! The one thing that most commonly spoils a book review is giving away too much information. The plot should be briefly outlined, characters can be introduced, and general events can be described but don't give away any surprises that might be integral to the story. Essentially you want to set up the scene and wet the reader's appetite if you can (or warn them off if you don't like the book).

This section of your review should give a good indication of what the reader is going to be in for if he or she decides to read the book. It should not make the reading of the book irrelevant. This tends to be more important in fiction and newer publication rather than non-fiction or textbooks.

If a novel has attained a classic status and everyone even if they had not read the book knows the story (for instance in the case of Dracula or Frankenstein) then you could afford to include more plot detail if this is going to allow you to make more detailed points about the book in general. But even with these to be on the safe side don't give too much away, after all someone could have been living on a desert island all their life and not know that Count Dracula turns out to be a Vampire?

For most non-fiction books the same is true although a more in depth description of what subject area the book covers might actually be useful to the prospective reader.

For reference books it becomes essential to give details about what aspects of the subject the book covers so that a potential reader of buyer can be sure this is the book they want.

THE OPINION

This should represent the bulk of your review in most cases. The most important thing to remember is to make it personal. What did YOU think about the book? Did YOU find it entertaining, useful, boring?

This is also the section of the opinion where you can look into and talk about any themes that you might have noticed. Is the author trying to make a specific point? Does he/she succeed? What can you say about the style of writing? Was is a traditional novel or was something different about it? You can also make specific points about the characters or plot (remember don't give too much away though!). Did you find the characters believable? Did you sympathise or empathise with them? Was the story realistic? Was it supposed to be? Was it funny or was it sad?

Having said all this remember that this is not supposed to be a academic exercise so keep the comments reasonably brief and don't get carried away in an in depth analysis of the text. If you want to quote from the text do so but make sure it is relevant to some point you are trying to make and not just an attempt to 'pad out' the length of the review.

Beware of waffling!

It would also be useful to include your personal experiences, is this the first book you have read by the author or are you a world expert! How does it compare with other books by the same author or to others in the same genre?

If it is a textbook, do you have some special knowledge or experience in the subject, have you not only read the book but also have you used it a study aid? Was it useful?

I could go on but I hope you get the idea.

THE CONCLUSION

To tie up the opinion it's always nice to bring all the different strands together into a final paragraph. Give your overall impression of the book and a final comment on why people should go out and buy it or why they should avoid it like the plague.

It is also useful at this point to give some specific information, where can you buy it? How much does it cost? What is the publisher?s code and how many pages is it.

STYLE AND LENGTH

So far I've talked about what information should/could be included in your opinion, now I'm going to approach the thorny subject of how to present it.

More than any other aspect of writing opinions on Dooyoo this will be guaranteed to give rise to most disagreement between users. Each camp will defend their approach with sound justification and I don't think there is a right or wrong way to do it.

There are two basic approaches to writing and presenting your opinion, you can either write a free flowing piece which while covering all the points listed above might not necessarily divide the text into distinct sections. The alternative is to clearly divide the opinion into the various sections and even put headings at the top of each. Which is best?

I have tried both approaches and I while think ideally a free flowing opinion is more satisfying and can be more eloquent it is much harder to write. There are some wonderful examples on Dooyoo of how the free flow approach can work but you do need to be a very good writer to organise your ideas and deliver you message in this way. For a less talented writer (such as myself) or people still getting used to the idea of writing opinions, I would suggest to use the second method and split you opinion up in distinct sections. A further advantage of using sections is that it generally makes the opinion easier to read and enables the reader to pick out specific parts of the opinion that they might be interested in, this is very important for longer opinion...but more about length later...

This choice really comes down to personal preference and in the end there is no reason why either approach shouldn't lead to a crown winning opinion.

NOW TO THE LENGTH!

In the Dooyoo rules it states that an opinion has to be at least 75 words to be accepted. This is not meant to be a guide to how long an opinion should be and in fact 75 words for almost all types of reviews is far too few. The ideal length if there is a such a thing will vary from product to product but in general for books, assuming you are trying to cover the points I have listed above, I don't think it is possible to write a 'very useful' (VU) opinion in less that 400 words and even then you have to be a very good writer to make it so concise. In general most VU opinion are closer to 1000 words. This doesn't mean that a shorter op will automatically be excluded from nominations for a crown but it is much more difficult to include the kind of detail needed for a crown in a short opinion.

Having said all this longer is not necessarily better. At the other end of the scale generally an opinion that is longer than 3000 words is probably too detailed for the purposes of the consumer site. Again beware of waffling!

The amount of detail to include will vary from product to product, for instance if you are writing a opinion about washing up liquid it probably doesn't need to be as long as a Travel opinion describing 'France in General'. For books it can be similar, you might feel that there is a lot more to say about a classic such as 'War and Peace' than there is about 'Bart Simpson's Book of Jokes'. However be careful, remember that we are not trying to produce a university thesis but a consumer review. If you fell the need to put your thoughts about a book you really love (or hate) in great detail then I would urge you to write it in sections clearly label the section and warn people that the opinion is going to be more detailed than a simple consumer review, this at least allows them to pick and choose the bits they want to read, this is not possible in a free flowing text.

One further approach to consider is the 'Chapter by Chapter' review. This is almost always unsuitable for a fictional work for the reasons I have already outlined above (spoilers etc.) but for a textbook this might be good way of going into the kind of detail that's needed and keeping the text manageable, again it is a question of style.

A further point to make is that it is better to write the opinion on 'Word' or similar and to run it through a spell check. Make sure you proofread it before posting it. Some users get really annoyed by spelling mistakes, lack of paragraph breaks etc.

Finally the best advice I can give anyone is to read as many opinions on books as you can and see how it can/should (or should not) be done. Use these examples to work out what is best for you but remember make it YOUR opinion in YOUR own style not a 'copy' of someone else.

I hope you have found this of use. Happy writing!

© Mauri 2007