I write my review then go back and see if I duplicated any info or if I said things that aren't necessary. I often give a little history of how I came upon the product or service and I won't cut that even if it means going longer.

I try to write tight but when I cut things out JUST because I don't want to go long, I feel I short changed the reader. I guess it's a matter of saying what you want to say in as many words as you need to say it.

The best thing I have found to do is to recap my opinion at the top of the review in case people want to just get the gist of things. Then I feel I can go into a bit more detail. I break up the review into pieces so people can skip what they don't care to read. I leave out things that they can get on the websites like ingredients (unless they are for vitamins or nutrition items), packaging, and other things that aren't necessary. I have written long reviews and felt anything less would not do the product/service/experience justice.

Great, that sounds like my thoughts exactly.  If I feel like the info is helpful, I break it into categories with headings so ppl can skip around.  For this particular review, I had a lot I wanted to say because there was a lot of information that the website didn't really tell me and I did a TON of research and asked TONS of questions on travel boards for help, so I feel like I might save the reader some time by writing everything up I wanted to :)

I could easily cover more!  I have more in my head right now, but if the reader wants to know more, they can always ask me :)  So I guess I decided my limit by not discussing those things and I shouldn't cut out anything else.

I tend to write short. In school, if the assignment was 15-20 pages, I'd come in with 13. I could have padded but didn't. The teachers never had a prob with it. The consensus was that I write tight.

Here I write what I have to say and hit publish. Some are longer and some shorter. I never worry much about length.

Then I go back and see all the typos (-: Bummer. Everything looks just dandy until it's up and live.

Mostly movie reviews is what I write. 

I also tend to give a summation of my opinion within the first two paragraphs of my review.   Then I play around a bit with both structure and tone of the review to make is interesting to me and so the reader hopefully experiences something a little different than a run of the mill movie review.

Eventually I will go into the movie's plot but I rarely rush into the details because I don't want to spoil things for readers.  So... readers can bow out of my reviews if they don't want to know much about the movie or they can keep reading.

If they keep reading loyal readers know I will never SPOIL an important plot point or reveal a surprise UNLESS I indicate  SPOILER  ... SPOILER ALERT.

I might discuss a particularly compelling or particularly awful scene in the movie.  I will mention acting and directing and quite often something about the writing of the script and probably the look of the film.

I may mention other films in the same genre or that have similar plots or have in common writers, directors, stars.

Then I may mention DVD special features.

I'll probably sum things up about my opinion of the film at the end.

These reviews range from fairly long to what some would consider very long.

Every once in a while I will write a extremely long detailed special analysis of a film, perhaps because I have quite a bit of knowledge about the film or feel I bring some insight to the table that some people will enjoy reading about.

I have done very short capsule reviews.  They actually take more time than you think to write.  I give a very brief rundown of basic plot (as in a couple of lines) mention my over-all impressions, one or two major pros and cons and that's it... done.    However....I am rarely happy or feel this is a fair way to review a film.

Sometimes I will do lists.... These include short capsule to medium length reviews of films I mention.  They take a very very long time to write since they represent 5 to 10 movies or more.  If I have already written a longer review of the movie, I may capsulize the review and do a link in the list review.

Trying to hard to convince someone about your opinion or being overly repititive will add length and make the review feel much too long.  These are mistakes everyone has probably made and may make again.   Finding the right balance, playing with tone and descriptive sentences is what keeps things interesting for me.

Keep writing.

Read someone you have never read before.... TODAY.

That is a great point, especially for me, since I tend to get, uh, wordy.   I read a book by Stephen King, "On Writing", and when I'm writing I keep in the back of my mind on of the most important things he said.  I'm paraphrasing, but he said when he re-reads something he wrote, I finds he can almost always cut out 10-20% and make it better. I find that is true for me.  I just start writing.  When I get to the end, I go back and read it again.  I ALWAYS cut something out and re-order stuff.

I want to make it tight as I can while being careful not to cut stuff that leaves the other stuff hanging.  That's one of my biggest fears, saying something in a review the will make sense only to me.  It can be a fine line, saying what needs to be said and adhering to the "brevity" rule.

Piggybacking on  ChrisJarmick's post, I never try and convince someone my opinion is correct.  I just lay it out there and let them decide.  Once I've read a review by someone implying if I don't agree with them I'm an idiot, I never, ever read anything by that reviewer again.  I hate arrogance.  Hate it.  My opinion is better than no one's.  I'm just a dude writing what I think and hoping someone reads it.

Then I go back and check for typos.  And usually miss some!

Mike, that does truly tick me off when I've read reviews stating stuff like "only complete idiots would like this!" especially if it was a movie I really liked!  It's one thing to say that I found a movie dumb or boring, but to claim that others who like it are idiots is just wrong.

I do the write - reread - cut thing everytime, but sometimes it still seems long.  But every sentance is useful for some products and I only end up trimming the sentances, getting rid of words like "really" or "very".  There are times I found that I repeated myself, and I cut that too, but other times every sentance is covering a unique topic and it just gets long!  I figure it's helpful to someone who wants to know all the details.

Please note, when I cover a lot of details I am rarely sharing facts that could be found online.  Most the details I feel MUST be shared are things I learned about the product/vacation spot that the website didn't tell me.

Mike, I read "On Writing" and really loved that side of Stephen King. I do go back and cut things out often because I find that I get repetitive unintentionally. Sometimes, writing a shorter review is more challenging than writing a long one. Quality over quantity can be tough! But I am trying to find a good balance between short and sweet and conversational and detailed.

Yeah sometimes when I try to stay short I find that the review doesn't make much sense.  I end up having to add sentances in to make more sense out of it.

I guess the most important thing (long or short) is to have good transitions between points. That's why I use bold headers b/c that's an easy transition and makes it so I don't have to try to make all the paragraphs flow together.

I've been cutting things short even when I know I want to say more.  VP seems to value the shorter, sweeter reviews so that is how I try to write mine.

I have been trying to keep my reviews shorter and more to the point.  There are times though that I think it cuts into the personality of the review.  I'm still looking for a balance.

I used to put too much manufacturer information in my reviews which unnecessarily added length.  I have cut down on that now and although my reviews are a bit shorter, I still think I need to start trimming the fat a bit more on some.   

RudiXeno said…
I have been trying to keep my reviews shorter and more to the point.  There are times though that I think it cuts into the personality of the review.  I'm still looking for a balance.

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