Writing a review

When you write a review, you have several approaches you can take:

1. short-form reviews - this is a good approach to take if you are trying to cover as many things as possible in one article. (doing an article on all of the films coming out or the latest K-pop hits would warrant the short-form review treatment.)

2. long-form reviews - if you want to do an extended commentary on whether a work is worth checking out or not, this is the form you should take.

3. analyses - these aren't reviews in the strictest sense of the word because they're not a discussion of quality; this is more of a look at the themes/implications that a work of art would carry.

All of these are useful formats to know, and it's likely you will have to try all of these as you cover different mediums of art. Don't worry, though; once you get the basics down, writing a good review isn't too tough.

SHORT-FORM REVIEWS
If you're a fan of American TV, there's a chance you'll have seen an article like this one covering all of the new shows debuting. Now, when there are something around thirty new shows premiering at the same time, there's no way you can afford to write a full article for each and every one of them. In this case, you try to skim over the premise of each and give a brief opinion on all of them in order to cover more ground. This is the objective of a short-form review: to give an insight using as few words as possible.

Now, the good news is that you will never have to do anything as huge as that article: the majority of short-forms will be for either A) pop music or B) films. (The exception to that sorting is C) new television shows, but that will only take place in September. We'll aim to cover around five to six songs/film in each article of a short-form review series.

If you've been tasked with covering all the hot new summer films that have come out, then here's a place to begin:

1. Do your research. You have to get as much of the important material as possible, so before you even type a single word, ask yourself: what would my friends be interested in? Which works are the most relevant/current? You may be a huge 2NE1 fan, but if SNSD has a new #1 hit out, then you'll want to cover that, no matter how hot you think CL is.

2. Do your research, part 2. (This is the fun part, so relax!) You wouldn't take a GLP quiz on an article without reading that article first. (Well, some people would, but I assume the best of you.) Similarly, don't give an opinion on something if you haven't actually experienced it first! Do you have to cover May's hot new songs? Then take the time to listen through everything and pick a few you want to write about.
Now, the catch is that in some cases, doing this is impossible. You certainly aren't going to watch 10 movies after finals just so you can write a summer movie recap, right? In this case, you might be better off watching trailers and giving impressions based on those. There's always a way.

3. Get your feelings down. When I was in charge of POPWATCH (covering K-Pop) last year, I found that it helped if I just sat down with a blank sheet of paper and jotted down every single thought I had while I was listening. People read reviews because they want to know if what YOU feel is worth feeling for them; recording those feelings goes a long way towards insight.

When writing a review, try some of these things!

-Provide background information. Not everybody will know what you're talking about when you jump right into reviewing, so make sure you provide the context for each work. Talking about how that work fits into the scope of an artist is always a good idea.

-Focus on the main attribute of the work(s) you're covering. Short-form reviews are fairly broad; you gotta get the main idea across as quickly as possible. Reducing a work to its most prominent characteristic and then building other insights around that one often gets this done. Pound it in once again at the end for extra effect.

-Mix your opinion in with the facts. The lack of an actual opinion is often a problem in short-form reviews. Remember: you're not recapping or summarizing a work, you're providing an opinion on it. This is the difference between "Transformers is a movie about car robots who get peed on by dogs. It's fun and stuff. Bagels." and "Transformers is a monster of an action movie, with exquisite set-pieces, fiery explosions, and an Oscar-worthy performance from Megan Fox."

(Bending over a car trunk so your booty sticks out is hardly acting, but for the sake of that example let's just hypothesize that Megan Fox can, in fact, act.)

Here's a short-form review I did for SNSD's The Boys last year; see if you can spot some of the techniques I mentioned earlier.

SNSD – The Boys
For a group with such a lively personality, SNSD’s music has always been quite minimalistic, all the more better to pound their massive hooks even deeper into the earphones of fans everywhere. While “Oh!” and “Hoot” offset their sparse compositions with cheery pep, though, “The Boys” forgoes this attitude completely. At times it almost seems to revel in audio fascism, subsisting only on a diet of glitchy, spaced-out beats and distorted, robotic voices. Don’t be fooled, though: despite its barren terrain, the track stealthily builds until all of the nuts and bolts come together in calculated harmony. To sum up, like all SNSD tracks, it’s about boys, it’s loud, it’s pretty low on brains, and it’s going to steamroll every other song in Korea for the foreseeable future. (B)

If you want more ideas for short-term reviews, this website is a good place to start.

LONG FORM REVIEWS/ANALYSIS
Short-form is great for some things, but sometimes reviewing requires a deeper level of understanding. You might want to talk about that album that everyone's been talking about for the part two months, or that book you think deserves more attention, or that film that you find particularly interesting for whatever reason. And if you really want to make a point, "it's clever and funny and good, bye" isn't going to cut it.

Welcome to...(evil voice) the art of the LONG-FORM REVIEW! BWAHAHAHA!

You may be confused at the combination title up there, but quite honestly, writing long-form reviews is quite similar to writing an analysis piece. The objectives are different, but you'll use a lot of the same methods to get both places.

Things to think about:

1. Figure out your thesis. Yes, I'm serious: think of a thesis. A review is basically an opinion, and if you have no idea what your own opinion is, then how will anybody else?

In the case of a review, what makes that work good/bad/worthwhile/worthless, and why?
In the case of an analysis, what is this work trying to say/how does it fit into a bigger social or cultural picture?

2. Break that work down. A work of art never hinges on just one aspect. A film is not just an acting showcase: it's a script, it's visuals, it's a story, and it's a performance. An album is not just a voice: it's that voice, plus the songwriting, plus the lyrics, plus the production. Scrutinize each aspect and figure out how it fits in.

3. Look at the good and the bad--and back both up. Much like how hearing about how great/awful that movie/singer/TV show is and how everybody loves/hates it and how you have to watch/boycott it TODAY can get annoying, overly effusive praise--or criticism--can actually make you look less credible. It's perfectly fine to love or hate something, but just make sure that you can support those claims.

This is where both Steps 1 and 2 come into play: you go back to your point-of-view, and you show all of the evidence that supports that point.

Compare these two blurbs:
"Lea Michele is such a good actor [that's cool you think that, but what defines a good actor?], and boy can she sing. [I haven't heard her, can you include a YouTube link in your article next time?]"
"Lea Michele perfectly captures the struggle between the child she is and the adult she wants to be [why Lea Michele is good], particularly in a heartbreaking confrontation with rival Quinn. [evidence--a scene in which she displayed that attribute]"

4. Begin and end with the big picture. Once again, writing a long-form or an analysis is like writing an essay--it begins with the point of view, you justify it by breaking your topic down, and you end by reminding your audience why that matters. If you can do that, then you can write a badass review.

Here is one of my favorite reviews/analysis pieces of all time, if you're hungry for a good example.

Congrats on making it to the end of this how-to. Now go and put some snotty artists in their place.

-Moses Kim