Passion, from the heart, and truthfully!. Review on Writing Reviews on MouthShut

Writing reviews is an important topic, just like writing stories really.

I have never written a book(yet) or is that wrote a book?

Good start to an opinion that is to help people to write!

When I first joined Mouthshut, I was getting established at other opinion websites.

I started off writing short and pretty much useless ops, not worth the light of day.

I started writing a bit more and slightly longer, and started to enjoy it.

I was given some good advice from other members of all theses sites, and enjoyed listening and acting on their advice.

They were, after all, getting ten times the reads I was getting at that time.

Right, back to the actual subject, how to write better reviews.

Start off with a little story or insight, this gives you article a personal touch and helps people relate to your work.

This can be especially useful when reviewing technical items, as it lets people know there is a human side to you and that you haven’t just read something out of a magazine and are relaying it back in your own words.

Example:

As I  pressed print on my keyboard, the lights flashed on my HP laserjet1100.

I needed to get these posters done A.S.A.P. as the meeting was on Friday.

Suddenly, the printer went haywire, lights flashing, whirring noises, the lot!

Damn.

I removed the wedge of blocked paper and thankfully, the task was completed!

Now this is just a brief idea, but while you were reading that, could you relate to your printer ever jamming on you?

Always try to keep things in simple terms.

Never presume that people know what you are talking about.

Don’t ever abbreviate items unless you have mentioned them before, and even then it is better to say that it will be referred to as whatever the initials are throughout the article.

Example:

This car comes with PAS, AC, ESR, MSCDP, EW and RCL.

Great if you are an enthusiast.

If not, how does this car comes with Power Assisted Steering, Air Conditioning, Electric Sun Roof, Multi-Stack Compact Disc Player, Electric Windows and Remote Central locking, sound better?

Space out the sentences and paragraphs to make it easier on the eye.

Also, if like me, you can’t spell to save your life, use word.

This will help improve your ratings if you are solely writing for many writing sites.

If writing on a higher level, it will make script reading easier for whoever gets your work.

Write in pictures, not words.

Be there when you are writing.

Become part of your op.

Be a character in your book.

Make the page come alive.

Here is what I feel top be a good example of this is;

.

Her nose dipped under the swell created by the cross tide, as the two waters met. I stood proudly alongside my fellow shipmates, watching, anticipating the spoils of Karachi, a jewel of Pakistan, or so we were led to believe!

The first thing that hit me as we sailed ever closer to the harbour, was the way the water changed from a crystal blue, to a murky brown. Almost as if you had walked through the wardrobe into Narnia, as the ice queen had frozen the land.

Then the smell, a musty aroma that grew in strength as we pulled alongside the old stone jetty. I threw the rope across to the dockside workers, which they caught and secured to a bollard fixed, for many years, to the side of the harbour wall.

Quickly I ran down the ladders and into the shower, washing off the oil and grease from securing the ships fore spring in a figure of eight motion, around the double bollards on the ships focsle. In the mess, morale was high. We had been at sea for 6 weeks and were looking forward to this run ashore.

This is taken from my Karachi op, and was the opening to the review.

I have used this as I felt it made me re-visit Karachi in my mind, therefore I became not only the writer, but the story.

Grammar and punctuality are something that you need to work on, and I especially need to focus on these areas.

It may or may not surprise people to know I only have a C.S.E. grade 2 in English.

I tell you that so you can see for yourselves, its not how clever you are, but how much you want to put into your writing that counts.

Put your heart and mind in to your work, be there and make it personal, and you will nearly always get an HR from me, and you will also get a loyal band of readers.

Thanks

Angus