Cómo escribir una reseña: How to write a review

Hello everybody! Today we're going to learn how to write a review. This post is written in English, since most of you should understand pretty much everything, if you're already writing a review.

A review is a type of essay which describes your opinion about something, such as a book, a movie, a place... It usually appears on a newspaper, magazine or website. The keys for a review is a description of the product and a recommendation of it, either positive or negative. Also, an interesting title will catch the attention of the reader, which is important to make your review stand out from the rest.

You should write at least four paragraphs: 1) a description, 2) your opinion, 3) other important details you must or want to include with further information, and 4) a conclusive recommendation. If one of any of these paragraphs include different main points, you can divide them in two.

• Description:

1. Describe the product you are talking about. It's important to get the reader's attention here, so make it stimulating. Remember that you might not like the product, but that doesn't mean your review is not appealing to a reader who would like to know more, or an examiner, who will correct yours and a bunch more.
2. Tips: Explain the characteristics of the product. Specify the genre of the movie or the book ("sci-fi", "manual", "thriller", "cook book", "based on a true story", "sitcom", "soap opera"...), the role of the character and how it was ("lead role", "star", "starring", "true to life", "believable"...), the type of music or the type of musician ("pop music", "folk music", "cool tune", "amazing gig", "lead guitarist", "drummer", "back singer"...) the kind of place or venue it is ("auditorium", "gallery", "facilities"...) etc. Compare the product with similar or older ones, use parallelisms, metaphors...
3. Example: Last Alan Smith's book has been the greatest drama reading of the summer. "A path in the forest" has been released in several editions and has now become a milestone in his writing career, as if his books had reached adulthood.

• ​​​Personal opinion:

1. Here you need to express what you think about the product. Remember to keep a nice flow of sentences; be fluent, don't make lists, rather, explain yourself widely. Make good use of adjectives: use plenty of them to create a vivid image of the product in the mind of the reader.
2. Useful Vocabulary:

• Opinions: "I was pleased by ...", "what I like the most was...", "I was dissapointed with...", "I deeply enjoyed...", "it surprised  me that...", "I was pleasantly  surprised by..."...
• Descriptions: "overpriced", "reasonable prices", "worth the money", "owned by", "written by", "handcrafted", "well-plotted", "beautifully displayed", "bestseller", "appealing",  "catchy", "overwhelming", "striking", "factual", "based on real life", "predictable"...
• Example:  "The book has been released in a beautifull hard-cover edition. The story is  well-thought and written , but what I truly loved was the atmosphere that the characters help build. I was shocked with this certainly engaging writing style".

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• Recommendation:

1. Finish your composition with a convincing recommendation. This final evaluation will give the text a nice clean touch and closure. Remember you'd like to influence your readers somehow, so be encouraging and stimulating.
2. Useful Verbs: recommend + -ing,  encourage + infinitive, suggest + -ing, ...
3. Useful Adverbs: "strongly", "heartily", "thoroughly", "sincerely", "earnestly", "from the bottom of my heart"...
4. Example: "For  all the above reasons/For all these reasons, I would  honestly suggest you buying the book and check it over it as soon as you finish your current reading".

And that's it! Following these points will make it easier for you to properly write a neat review. Some easy homework, why don't you review us in Google? You can easily practice these points writing a brief paragraph in Spanish as well, so give it a try. Also, if you feel like writing it in English, you will be practicing more.

We hope you find this post useful, feel free to ask any question in the comments below. Till the next time, sing high as a Starling!