Cooking an epinions soup: My recipe
Feb 12 '03 (Updated Feb 13 '03)
The Bottom Line There is no universal way to write a good review. This editorial presents a basic recipe, which you can modify and expand to suit your specific taste.
This editorial has been sitting in my drafts folder since 15th May 2001. But as I had been an epinions member for no more than a month I decided against publishing it and opted instead to use it as my own checklist to be used for pre-release quality control of my "proper" reviews.
However, having now reached my 10,000th hit I can no longer claim to be a newbie. On the contrary I often find myself guiding new members of the community on topics such as how to structure their reviews, what to include and so on. It is my hope that by publishing this editorial, I can contribute ever so slightly to easing the progress of new members from dabblers to master reviewers.
Of course, not everyone may agree with me that this recipe will produce the best-tasting epinions soup, and indeed I have myself on many occasions deviated from these ground rules. Some may even dismiss the credibility of a standard template for epinions reviews. Whatever your opinion, I hope that you will want to leave a comment and that we may all learn from the experience.
And finally, since it may possibly be perceived as somewhat arrogant of me to publish an editorial on "how to write epinions" after having written only about 20 of these myself, I must stress that this editorial is more to be considered as an initial attempt on my side at edging out the structure of an approach that I might myself pursue for future reviews.
The recipe that I have developed contains the following main headings:
1. Decide on a topic
2. Decide on an overriding point
3. Read other articles about the topic
4. Perform background research
5. Write draft article
6. Review article structure and revise as necessary
7. Review and correct article syntax and form
8. Publish article
I will in the following elaborate on each of these topics.
1. Decide on a topic
The first thing you need to do in order to contribute a review to epinions is to decide on what topic you will be writing.
This can actually be harder than it may at first seem to be. It is natural to think of the latest consumer goods that one may have purchased or consumed, and to line them up on a list for reviewing on epinions. This is all very fine. However, very often hundreds of members have done so before you and you will be surprised how many members own the same stuff as you. Writing the 123rd review on the Dizzymix Vacuum Cleaner may not be as beneficial to the community nor as satisfactory to you as being among the first to write about a product that is either very new or somewhat exotic.
It can be tempting to choose a product for review that you have strong negative feelings against. There is nothing wrong with this, and in fact the most entertaining reviews are often written on the inspiration that comes with pure, undiluted frustration. It is however important that you do not let your anger lead you to write what can be termed a "rant." A rant is a review consisting of no more than 5 - 10 sentences describing how awful this product is and how you really regret buying it but often neglecting to give the reader a general introduction as to what this product is all about. Negative reviews need to be as elaborate as their positive counterparts. You need to ask yourself the question: Could this product somehow be suitable to other people? Is the defect a one-of-a-kind situation or can I produce evidence to support the claim that this brand has a general quality problem and so on.
Sometimes you will find that the product you want to review does not yet exist on epinions. If you feel that you have selected a product which could be useful for other people to know about, you should contact one of the so-called category leads for the product in question. You can find a list of the category leads here.
And finally, you should not overlook the possibility of choosing a topic that is not related to the review of a product. Epinions provides a plethora of categories for writers to hone their skills, and a review written in one of these categories can be a useful vehicle for getting instant feedback on your writing.
2. Decide on an overriding point
Once you have settled on a specific product to review, you need to give a little thought to what will be the overarching message you want conveyed to your audience.
This is not simply a question of "rocks" versus "sucks." To be truly useful to readers your review must be written from a refined perspective that does not paint the world in colours of black and white only. It may sound absurd, but your review needs to contain various shades of gray. For example, you may like this product, but take a moment to think about what is it exactly that makes you like the product, and once you have scribbled down a few arguments, consider whether these circumstances would apply universally or whether they are limited to a specific group of individuals. Try then to reverse the exercise and see if the product has any features that would act as detractors to individuals in certain circumstances.
These simple exercises will hopefully provide you with a solid base of inspiration for the messages that you want to put into your review. Coincidentally, they can also help you think of a review title such as "The Frobnoggi Nasal Hair Remover: Not for petite nostrils."
3. Read other articles about the topic
Now that you know what to write about and the general message that you want to communicate, you will probably want to get into some more detail. It can be very helpful to read other members' reviews of the product in question in order to create for yourself a mental checklist of items that you should consider when assessing the product under review. This will give you a general impression of the depth of detail that is necessary to properly review a product of this type. You will find that reviews tend to vary in length depending on the complexity of the product. For example, automobile reviews tend to be somewhat longer than reviews of adhesive tape. This is because a car is such a complex and expensive product rich with features that allow it to be differentiated from the competition. A reviewer writing about a car thus needs to position himself on a much wider range of issues than his counterpart reviewing adhesive tape.
Of course you may be in a situation where nobody has reviewed a particular product before you. However, most often your product will be part of a larger product category, and most often people reviewing other products within the same category will have thought of a structure for their review, which can easily be translated to apply for your specific product as well.
4. Perform background research
Having gone through similar reviews you will undoubtedly have identified a series of questions that you need answers to before being able to write a full-fledged review. Questions that arise at this point may have to do with the exact specifications of this product compared to alternatives, the history of the company producing it, relevant advice produced by third parties such as consumer organisations, the exact names and prices of product families and so on. You may of course choose to write a review without doing prior research, but in most cases you will not be able to write about the product with the same degree of precision or accuracy as when you have solid research on which to base your statements.
If at this point you are still short on ideas of what to research an idea may be to write a first draft of your review. During this process it usually becomes clear what issues you are able to write about and what issues you would like to address but feel unable to because of a lack of information. Having written this first draft you may then do some quick research and come back to revise your review.
5. Write draft
You are now ready to go ahead and take a shot at putting your thoughts to the screen. Perhaps you will find the following outline inspirational.
Buying
- Motivation to buy
- Purchasing criteria
- Possible alternatives
- Decisive factor
This section usually sets the scene for what you will be discussing. What happened that made you start looking for a product of this type? When you realised you needed such a product were you able to identify specific features of your demand that were guiding your search? Were you able to narrow down your search to a few specific products, or did you just grab the nearest product from the shelf of the local hardware store hoping that it would fulfill your needs? Did the product which you ended up choosing have any special characteristics that were decisive in your decision to buy it? Remember that in writing a product review you are in a sense acting as a role model to informed consumers. Ideally, you should be able to explain most of your decisions in a way that will allow your audience to assess whether the same circumstances apply to them.
[Motivation to buy]
"One morning I woke up with a strange tickling sensation in my nose. I got out of bed and looked into the mirror to find the most hideous dark hair sticking out of my nostril. An especially perplexing experience as I had scheduled the evening to be the occasion of my first date with Griselda, and although she did herself have a few hairs on her chin, I remembered her stating how much she felt body hair to be an intimate and personal issue. I did not want to push my luck on this one.
[Purchasing criteria]
Unfortunately, as I had already committed myself to an expenditure of 30 dollars for the evening (gas, movie tickets, big mac meals and contraceptives) I was not able to spend much money on a utensil to remove my nasal hair. On the other hand, I did not want to endure streneous pain, as my nose is quite a sensitive spot and I could easily imagine the inconvenience of having to breathe through my mouth for the duration of the evening in case the pain of removed hairs sustained itself for that long.
[Possible alternatives]
At my local drug store I found two products which seemed to fulfill my needs. One was the Acme Noseshaver and the other was the Frobnoggi Nasal Hair Remover. Both of these promised painless hair removal, but the Frobnoggi was about 10 dollars cheaper than the Acme.
[Decisive factor]
Although the Acme is a better known brand, I decided to go with the Frobnoggi. Looking at the package I could see instructions on how to carry out the procedure and I must say it seemed quite reassuring: The two utensils were almost identical, and I imagined that Acme were simply trying to make a buck on their strong brand."
Features specific to the product category
This is the section were you discuss the features of this product and relate it to specific needs that a consumer may have. It will also be relevant to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this particular product's feature set compared to alternatives and compared to its price.
"The Frobnoggi Nasal Hair Remover is of the shove and pull variety that works by applying a thin coating of superglue to a small stick made out of rubber, which you subsequently insert softly into one nostril. Having waited 5 seconds for the glue to solidify, you rapidly pull out the rubber stick from your nostril while turning it 180 degrees in order to pry out the nasal hears from their sockets.
The procedure can be slightly painful, but this unit is special in that the guys at Frobnoggi have mixed a strong local anaesthesia into the superglue. The anaesthesia works in a matter of seconds, which means that you will feel absolutely no pain at all."
Of course there will be more features to discuss in certain products such as those involving a high degree of technology. It would be futile to try to produce a list of product category-specific features for all categories listed here at epinions. As already stated, you can get an impression of the important points to cover in your product category by reading other reviews and sometimes from looking at the comments made by advisors in reviews that received low overall ratings.
Using the product
- Installing
- Using
- Wear and tear
- After sales services
- Expandability
- Satisfaction
In this section you will discuss your actual, personal and subjective experience of using the product. This is typically where your story-telling really starts. Ideally, this should be entertaining and if possible try to include some of your own personality and some background in order to let the reader feel that he or she is really there. In conclusion, you may want to put your experience somewhat in perspective. If you found the product to be good or bad , is it likely that other people will share your experience? Be prepared to explan why.
[Installing]
"Unpacking the Frobnoggi was trivial. It came in a cardboard box, which when opened revealed the three components of the product, namely (1) small rubber stick, (2) a jar of ointment containing superglue and anaesthesia, (3) a small broom with which to apply the ointment to the stick. The instructions were printed on the outside of the box, and I was still able to read them after opening the package.
[Using]
I used the little broom to cover my rubber stick in a coat of ointment. Having covered the stick I proceed as instructed immediately to insert the stick into my right nostril.
However, this was when problems arose: The stick was just slightly too big to fit nicely into my nostril. To begin with I managed to only fit inside the first five milimetres or so. Anxious to complete the procedure, I increased my shove and after a little wrestling finally succeeded in squeezing the rub all the way into my nostril. I then counted to five before starting to pull it out.
Unfortunately, the stick had problems coming loose. It turned out I had shoved it so strongly into my nostril that it got stuck. And now the superglue was beginning to solidify making it utterly impossible to pull the stick in any direction. My breathing turned heavier out of frustration.
[Wear and tear]
I am sure that this product will last those to whom it is of use a long time. The rubber is just soft enough to resist any strong blows yet hard enough to resist attacks made on it by scissors, knives or similar. I tried anything to get it out but it proved to be futile. The Frobnoggi resisted anything that I could throw at it. Even the Black & Dekker.
[After sales services]
I finally came around to taking another long hard look at the package. In one corner it said 'For consumer advice call our hotline at 555-5555555'. Needless to say, I dialed this number immediately.
It took about two minutes before I got through to a customer service representative (C):
C: 'Frobnoggi Solutions Incorporated. How may I help you?'
Me: 'In'ts ne damned ning. Nit not nuck. Nat nan I do?'
C: 'Ah, it sounds to me as if you've had the pleasure of experiencing our nasal hair remover, but that you failed to get it out in time?'
Me: 'Nailed nu net it out? Ny you!!!'
C: 'Hold on there just a second sir, while I read out the emergency procedure to you.'
Me: 'All night.'
C: 'Fill a bath tub or possibly a bucket with lukewarm water. Once filled, dip your head below the water and hold it there for 30 seconds. Raise your head and proceed immediately to pull out the Frobnoggi rubber stick. Would you care to try that with me on stand-by, sir?'
Me: 'No, in'ts alnight. I'll manage.'
C: 'Well good luck sir, and goodbye.'
I followed the instructions and out went the Frobnoggi along with the hairs and a good deal of other stuff from my nose. Better yet, I saved some time in preparing for my date by not having to take a shover since I had already had my head under water.
[Expandability]
Frobnoggi Solutions are currently marketing the Frobbuddi, which is a device that will allow you to band two Frobnoggi rubber sticks together in order that you may execute the hair removal procedure at twice the speed of a single Frobnoggi. I feel convinced that simultaneous hair removal from both nostrils is the way that the market is headed, but I think the price is still a bit too steep for consumers to really desire this feature.
[Satisfaction]
The Frobnoggi did as advertised, and I felt no pain except from a minor onset of panic when the stick got stuck in my nostril. I was very satisfied with the caring and considerate attitude of their customer service representative. Perhaps he had experienced the problem before. However, I am afraid that the Frobnoggi stick is just slightly too big for my perhaps rather delicate nostrils. In the future I will opt for the Acme model, which comes in junior models as well. I recommend that people with small nostrils try the Frobnoggi on before deciding to buy it. It may be too big for their nostrils! I think the store could be reasonably expected to have an 'open box' sample for demonstration purposes."
6. Review article structure and revise as necessary
Once you've written your first draft, you may have a feeling that it would be a more intuitive read if you swapped the order of a few paragraphs. This is a very common feeling in my experience and it only confirms that no pre-defined structure can accomadate all reviews. If for a particular product it makes more sense to have one section before another, by all means swap them around. In the end it is all about legibility. At this point you may also want to consider checking if you have inserted the proper whitespace between paragraphs, lists and so on.
7. Review and correct article syntax and form
Checking the syntax is facilitated by epinions built-in spell checker, which catches the most obvious spelling mistakes and highlights them in yellow. However, some spelling mistakes will not be caught by the built-in checker. This applies to such mistakes as confusing "they're" with "their" for example. You may want to run the text through a more sophisticated spell-checker such as the one that comes with the major word processors or perhaps you could show the text to a friend (through e-mail, if necessary) before publishing. Of course, it is rarely possible to catch each and every typo or spelling mistake. The purpose of this exercise is simply to root out the worst deviations and make your text seem credible to the casual reader.
8. Publish article
Once you have finalised your piece, you will want to submit it for evaluation by the epinions community. While waiting for ratings to arrive on your new review, you may find it entertaining to take a look at other people's new reviews. In fact it is often a useful marketing ploy to rate a few of the other incoming reviews while waiting, as this will direct the attention of other on-line users your way. You can find a list of incoming reviews here.
If you get lower ratings than expected, do not be afraid to contact the raters to ask what they think you could have done better if they did not already leave a comment. Most people are only too happy to provide advice, if asked to do so in a courteous way.
Conclusion
I have now shared with you a few of the items that I take into consideration when writing a new review. Following this recipe you should be able to make a decent epinions soup, although the taste may not be to everyone's liking.
I have provided you with the basic procedure, now it is up to you to supply the ingredients. Good luck and happy writing!
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Epinions.com ID:
knilaus
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Member: Kristoffer Nilaus Olsen
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Reviews written: 22
Trusted by: 35 members
About Me:
Just out of temporal stasis.
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