My 2 cents worth
Jul 01 '00 (Updated Jul 03 '00)
After initially submitting this review to Epinions, I received a comment from another member suggesting that my review appeared a little "bossy". Personally, I think anything listed in the "what not to do when writing a review" category is going to come off as a little bossy, I took this fellow epinioner's opinion into consideration.
While I appreciate that she let me know she was disappointed in my article, as a whole, I am not going to change it. Instead I decided to add a "disclaimer" to it. The following is a direct quote from my reply to the other epinioner.
"My apologies that my review seemed bossy, truthfully, I don't usually write reviews like this. But if you will notice the title of the category it is in, it is "things NOT to do when writing a review". This is not an all out attack on any one review or even on several reviews, it's not an attack at all. It's my advice to those that are trying to improve on their writing here. It's the things that I think need to be avoided. I have seen some terrible reviews before, most of which have been removed by Epinions staff. One review was EXACTLY 100 words long and all it said was "I don't have this product, but I don't like the name of it, so I don't think you should buy it. I think the price is a little high too, but since I don't know what it is for, I could be wrong. blah blah blah...." Had this category been, "things to do when writing a review", I would have focused on the positive aspect of things. I certainly wasn't trying to be bossy, just helpful."
With that in mind, here are my suggestions about what not to do when writing a review.
PLEASE! don't try to convince me to read all of your reviews by offering to return the favor.
PLEASE! don't post your referral code when you are reviewing a "pay to surf" "pay to search" "pay to whatever" website. Besides being irritating, it's against Epinion rules.
PLEASE! don't use foul language. It doesn't improve your review at all. If you aren't creative enough to express your opinion without cussing, then don't try.
PLEASE! don't just repeat what someone else said.
PLEASE! don't stray off of your subject, stay on track and get to the point.
PLEASE! don't use words too big for "normal" people like me to understand. Yes, we impressed that you are so smart, but if we can't understand a word you said, what good is the review!
PLEASE! don't try to trick people into reading your review by slipping in "keywords" that don't have any connection to your review.
PLEASE! don't write about things that you don't know anything about. "I've never actually owned one of these, but I saw one on the side of the road broken down, so I figure it must not be a good car" or "My husband's cousin's sister-in-law's boss had one of these and didn't like it at all". no No NO!!
PLEASE! don't be afraid to honestly express your opinion. If you don't like a product, say so. Even if everyone else on epinions has given it 5 stars, maybe you know something they don't!! It's okay to disagree with other reviewers. You are here to help other people make a decision, not to try to please everyone else.
PLEASE! don't be sloppy. Fix your mistakes, spell out your words, use proper grammar and punctuation and know when to shut up. If people are stumbling over your errors, the likelihood that they will retain anything you said is low. And if you ramble on and on, you're going to lose their attention.
With that said, I'm out of here. Happy writing!!!
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Epinions.com ID:
nicknack
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Member: Martie
Reviews written: 99
Trusted by: 80 members
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