I'm both. I can bang out a review in 15 or 20 minutes, even a seemingly lengthy review on something complicated like electronics or computers. Then I almost always go back and re-read the review several times and make little edits, fixing a word here and a typo there.

I find that the secret to writing a review quickly is to have a good idea of what I'm going to say before I start writing. I also understand the basic formula for reviews and almost always stick to it:

How did I get the product? What are the product's features? How do I use the product? How did the product work for me? Summary.

But the key for me is to have some idea of what I'm going to say before starting the review. Of course, it may have taken me an hour or two of research (and another hour on photos) to get to the point where I start writing...

--Bob

I'm actually a grinder although it probably wouldn't look that way if someone watched me keying it all in.  Usually by the time I've sat down to do a review, I have already spent hours on and off thinking about it.  Planning reviews can be very addictive.  If you catch yourself thinking about reviewing a friend's pet, you're hooked ... and I should know, because I have reviewed a friend's pet.  (The Sheltie review.)  Some months, I am positively inspired and "on a roll" while other times it seems like I'm barely keeping up.

Once I'm ready to write, some reviews go quickly and sometimes I'll take a half hour or more with a review, even when it is about food ... more, if I'm looking things up about it.  Sometimes I'll leave something saved in draft in order to continue my research the next day.  Even food reviews can be complex if done correctly.

Even if I have proofread and used spell-check, I'll check a review over a couple times after I've published it and also the next day as well, to take a fresh look at it.

I'll never cave in and just pump for quantity.  I would rather have one or two good reviews that I can still take pride in a year from now than a whole bunch which make me cringe but maybe brought in a lot of votes but I don't think there is any way to award points for perceived quality since this is such a subjective, personal issue and people would have a difficult time agreeing on what is good or not. 

When I turn on in the morning, I check only my "reads" as I consider myself to be in competition with my own performance of the days that have gone before.  The new badge system is a lot of fun but I hope we won't end up getting too anxious and competitive of how we are stacking up against each other.  "Personal Best" is sometimes the best thing to aim for.

 

 

 

I just write. Sometimes I am not 100% sure what I will rate a product until I get there. Writing the review makes me see things clearer.

I have been writing reviews for many years and I did once agonize over what to say and how to say it but, in general, I can write a review here very quickly. I do try to get in as much info as I feel is needed without going too overboard because I want to write a novel every time I write a review. I have been mindful of my wordiness lately and try to cut the fat as much as I can but that doesn't always happen.

If I have the product and have any opinion at all on it, I will write a review of it here. I am not so confident doing that with electronics or other techy stuff elsewhere and I do struggle when I write.

I think the best thing to do is to think of what you would tell a friend who has no experience with the product you are reviewing. I find that works well for me and I hope it comes across as me just sharing my own opinion with my unseen online "friends".

My answer to this will be the same as many others I've given on this board...  It depends!  :)

I don't do schedules, I don't have a favorite time, and sometimes I'm fast and other times slow.  So some days I can sit here and boom boom boom 2 reviews written in 20 minutes.  Other days I start writing, then I feel like I'm babbling, so I reread it 100 times.  In those instances I often save it as a draft and come back later.  

It also depends on what it is!  Like all the perfume reviews I did, although short, took me longer because it was difficult to describe.  However if I see a movie or visit a website, usually those I can pump out in no time b/c I know more of what I want to say.

The best quick tips are to stick to what you enjoy the most - review those things.  Pick products you realllllly like or reallllly hate and you'll probably find the words come quicker. 

Review in your head: Whenever you try a new product, pretend you are reviewing it while you open it for the first time.  Take mental notes of what you like and dislike.  I find that it's easier to take these mental notes the FIRST time I use a product then it is the 100th time.  With a new shampoo, I'll usually notice the scent and lather the first time but the 100th time I tend to forget what made it so special.  Sometimes I even write these down in a draft of the product and save them until I've used the product more.

TunefulGal said…

Do you ponder over choices of words and re-read your reviews for typos, context, questions of detail?  I do.

Or are you one of those lucky ducks who "bangs out reviews" as if you were just tucking in your shirttails?  Oooooooh, some of you are, and you're making a gezillion points even as I sit here looking for the next sentence...

Do your writing habits correlate with your other life habits?  Do you have a writing schedule?  A favorite time of day or night?  A major frustration?  Or minor qualms? 

If you're a fast writer, what quick tips can you offer to those of us who grind along in a major effort to do our best? 

---

I'm definitely not a fast writer. I constantly focus on word choices, worry about tone, and often try to be witty, informative and entertaining simultaneously, especially if there are already several reviews about certain products.  Why?  Because I want my review to be outstanding.

While I can sometimes do two, even three reviews per day, I try to write just one; it takes me about two hours, more or less, to create one from scratch, and even doing new versions of pre-existing ones from, say, Epinions, takes me hours because they need major rewrites. 

TunefulGal said…

Do you ponder over choices of words and re-read your reviews for typos, context, questions of detail?  I do.

Or are you one of those lucky ducks who "bangs out reviews" as if you were just tucking in your shirttails?  Oooooooh, some of you are, and you're making a gezillion points even as I sit here looking for the next sentence...

Do your writing habits correlate with your other life habits?  Do you have a writing schedule?  A favorite time of day or night?  A major frustration?  Or minor qualms? 

If you're a fast writer, what quick tips can you offer to those of us who grind along in a major effort to do our best? 

---

I think my former career is still in my blood, so it's fairly easy for me to write.  I try to be very thoughtful about my reviews, I re-edited one just today, to add something that is important to me and mine.  I like to think of myself as a good speller, I always won spelling bees when I was young, so that's important to me. 

Sometimes though, I've noticed as I've gotten older, that people get my drift anyway even if I do misspell and it's not so important.  I don't really have a writing schedule.  And I try to write as I would speak to you as if you were in my living room...that's the broadcaster in me. 

I do have a knack for proofreading, or at least I'd like to think I do.  Again, getting older I do miss some things...especially easy words for some odd reason.

 

PattyTherre said…

I think the best thing to do is to think of what you would tell a friend who has no experience with the product you are reviewing.

---

I think something along those lines is the key to good review writing. My trick is to think about what I wished I knew before I bought a product. Would I still buy the product knowing what I now know?

--Bob

I usually have everything I want to say in my mind and then I just type it all up. What I have trouble doing is finding things I think are worth reviewing. I don't want to write about something if I don't think anyone else will be interested in it.

It usually takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to write a review. By the time I write it, proofread it and get it just right. I have found that it is acceptable to write shorter reviews on this website and still get helpful votes, which is not the case on some other reviewer websites. I try to write once or twice a week on various websites at night since I work a full time job.

I can write a review in 10-15 minutes if I'm not interrupted by something or someone.  Because VP readers prefer reviews in the 200-word range, it doesn't take me that long to make the points that I want to include in the review. 

I tend to labor over the rough draft, then bang out the final copy in 10 or 15 minutes . . . however, my food reviews can take up to 20-25 minutes because I'm usually eating the product while I'm typing!

Noteworthy:  It took me 20 minutes just to write this . . . "wink!"  Oh your book is in the post!

Maybe if I simply focused on the product and didn't enjoy going that extra mile to add bits of trivia or personal recollections about when I first saw a movie or started using a product, my reviews would be shorter and I'd be posting two or three a day easy.  However, since I'm writing partly for my own pleasure and all that, I'm not really the "short and sweet" type even though I know that if I wrote concise reviews I'd get more page views from non-VP members.

njchicaa said…

I can write a review in 10-15 minutes if I'm not interrupted by something or someone.  Because VP readers prefer reviews in the 200-word range, it doesn't take me that long to make the points that I want to include in the review. 

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If I tried to stay in the 200 word range, THEN my reviews would take longer. Trying to figure out how to condense things to 200 words and give the info that readers want would take me ages.

I find I can do 350-550 word reviews now. Some just need more like comparisons and such but I have shortened up a lot. I honestly am not super proud of the short reviews but I do know people prefer the "get to the point, I don't care about the little things" reviews.

It's been a very tough transition for me amd one I refuse to stick to if I feel a review needs more.

Sometimes the words just seem to flow right from my keyboard to the web page.  Other times...I have to make a draft first, then go back & re-read & re-type. 

I've banged out some in 10 - 15 minutes.  Others have taken days.  Getting old is H***!

Usually I think and type it but I revise them before publishing them. But there were rare times I posted in a hurry or changed my mind on one.

I prefer to think about my review rather than just pumping out 10 more. I usually have a review in draft before I publish it just to make sure my rating is right, etc. I am a fast typist though and since I've been writing reviews for so long I think I hit the key points which makes reviewing easier. Tips depend on the subject but for example my new stove I haven't reviewed yet (not my favorite item to review): size, functions, pros, cons, who would like it. Cars: miles per gallon, handling in various situations, what's standard, price (always with everything), is it comfortable. Pictures are so great as is a link to where the consumer can find the product. Jo What happened to my spell check?? Was I dreaming?

Advice to writing quick reviews:

Devise a template, a formula and follow it.  

Know what your point of view it and bang it out.

 

I do NOT write this way at this site preferring to find an approach or let what I'm writing lead me into doing some additonal research so that those who are interested in what I'm writing about actually learns something more than my basic opinion of what I am reviewing.

Yes, in the very beginning when the founding reviewers were trying to build up a ton of reviews I pounded out a bunch of short ones.. in fact there was a fun contest around writing as many reviews as you could... and a few of us were neck and neck on that one... quite fun....

wow. i feel kinda like i'm not putting enough effort into my reviews now. 45 minutes? eek!

My style is, I sit here reading other reviws, and suddenly I think, "oh! I haven't reviewd X yet!" and then I search, read others' reviews on X and use that as a jumping off point for my own review. If something hasn't been covered, I cover it. I usually sit here at the keyboard for about 20 minutes or so, just writing freely, the way I speak, sort of like if I were telling a friend about the product. 

Then I proofread it and publish. The whole review takes maybe a half hour. I like to be a little more organic and maybe inject some of the silly side of my personality into the reviews. Sometimes it's really boring reading these staid reviews, I like to imagine people chuckling at my stuff. But maybe they don't get it at all and just think I'm a weirdo. That's ok too.

You know, I agree a lot with what other posters have said here. Write like you're talking to a friend. Proofread before publishing. Use spell check. Be yourself. And the only person you should be competing with is YOU. I like to go back and read my reviews much later on. Sometimes I edit them, sometimes I let them lie and just learn from what I consider to be my mistakes. I find it really fascinating that my most read review is on Timber Oil. When I wrote it, I thought maybe 5 people might read it. So what I learned there is: Never assume. Review all kinds of things. You never know who you might help.

CloudNine said…

wow. i feel kinda like i'm not putting enough effort into my reviews now. 45 minutes? eek!

My style is, I sit here reading other reviws, and suddenly I think, "oh! I haven't reviewd X yet!" and then I search, read others' reviews on X and use that as a jumping off point for my own review. If something hasn't been covered, I cover it. I usually sit here at the keyboard for about 20 minutes or so, just writing freely, the way I speak, sort of like if I were telling a friend about the product. 

Then I proofread it and publish. The whole review takes maybe a half hour. I like to be a little more organic and maybe inject some of the silly side of my personality into the reviews. Sometimes it's really boring reading these staid reviews, I like to imagine people chuckling at my stuff. But maybe they don't get it at all and just think I'm a weirdo. That's ok too.

You know, I agree a lot with what other posters have said here. Write like you're talking to a friend. Proofread before publishing. Use spell check. Be yourself. And the only person you should be competing with is YOU. I like to go back and read my reviews much later on. Sometimes I edit them, sometimes I let them lie and just learn from what I consider to be my mistakes. I find it really fascinating that my most read review is on Timber Oil. When I wrote it, I thought maybe 5 people might read it. So what I learned there is: Never assume. Review all kinds of things. You never know who you might help.

---

The only thing I don't or wouldn't  do myself is reading others' reviews of something I'm going to review.  I like reading other reviewers' takes on stuff I review, sure, but only after I write my own. 

As a former copy editor and entertaiment section editor, I am always looking for errors to correct in my reviews.  I'm too much of a details guy to let mistakes stand in my own stuff......

(I found one typo on this post, and true to my word, I fixed it!)

Depends on my mood - and I get by with a lot of help from my friends - like Fardreamer or Angela LaFon who don't mind telling me when I did things in too much of a rush!  :) 

Although years ago I would read long essays on film by Pauline Kael, John Simon, James Agee, Andrew Sarris, Farber and others, that was before cable t.v., Video and multiplexes.    Popular movies opens wide starting in the late 70s and small films opened in amost major cities at the same time.  You wouldn't wait several years to see a foreign film and have to travel 50 miles or more to see it.    I would read about a movie sometimes before I saw it, because it was more of a committment to see a movie and there were people writing poetry and literature and brilliant essays about film... not just quick reviews.

These days however if I know I'm going to see a movie either in the next few weeks or in a few months when it comes to DVD  I will NOT read about it.  We don't have many people writing good critical essays about film (there's a few thank goodness) and I prefer to watch a film fresh and then write about it from my own perspective.

I've also developed my aesthetic and discernment over the last several decades of watching film. I know the variables of classic, modern, neo and updated film noir that I find acceptable to me and ones I do not.   Those who haven't developed any kind of discernment regarding films or books should only write quickie reviews and not even attempt anything that mimics actual critical analysis.   Of course posting a more accademic article on a pop-site like Viewpoints is futile--few would enjoy reading such an article.

I've tried to write reviews in under an hour and it just doesn't happen if I'm doing more than a few paragrahs.  Heck writing comments often takes me 15 minutes and that's if I don't edit and re-work my words and double check everything for typos and grammatical errors.