This essay gets the point across, and I honestly hope this essay becomes a mandatory part for every writer to read before they officially join ffn or .

-Christie

Um, I just was searching on google how to review and all... And stumbled upon this. It's really neat, it gave me an idea of how to review. I always tend to look at grammar most of the time, because I don't know how to comment on the story plot, but with this, I think I got it somewhat. I was about to close the tab, but then thought I should at least say 'thank you.'
So, well. Thanks, for explaining it all, it was really helpful to me

Kewl! Plz r&r my stuff

Lol jokes, i totally agree with you right here.

Not that I've had too. many of these comments, but i can understand how frustrating it is when someone does that. Usually i can tell when the review comes straight to me after I've barely posted it. Its annoying and it makes you mad because they're basically advertising themselves on YOUR work.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I enjoyed reading this.

Brooke x

Agree completely. Really helpful essay! Well-written, impartial and stuff. :3

Yeah, the "review my stories" stuff is true. So annoying...

By the way, can you review my stories? Nah, I'm kidding.

Anyway, thanks for sharing such a helpful thought here on FP!

All sites with reviews should have some guidelines for constructive criticism attatched somewhere, and you've hit all the points.

The "start with the positive" is actually my own personal approach, along with ending with questions or any confusion bits, that way they don't get lost and people don't finish reading on the note of "I didn't like your choice to X, Y and Z." And you've got good advice on the flames too. Seriously, aspiring authors should know that those people aren't worth it. I'm far more disappointed if a friend or somebody whose work I respect is mildly disappointed or bored by a work than when somebody drive-by flames me.

And there you go with the long reviews, which I really should be leaving more of instead of reading like some sort of inactive vegtable. :)

Seeing as your essay was about reviews, I am a bit nervous about leaving one. At the same time, however, I can't leave without leaving one. I like the way you constructed this essay, addressing each issue individually and offering advice for each. Also, I find it interesting that you filed this essay under "Angst." Very amusing. D

Thank you for writing this essay. Each part makes absolute sense, and there is no need to expand further. This essay contains logic and good solutions, and this makes this essay an essay that helps me be a better reviewer.

How was that review?

what the heck is fiction press hey that rymes

You're making me nervous,writing this, but I'll try.

This was very sweet and polite, and I could feel the frustration that I feel with reviews thinly vieled behind it-it made me smile. You make very good points that I actually have never thought of. I don't have anythig that stands out in my mind as something to critisize, I just wanted to tell you I appreciated this. So, thanks. You came across as patiently explaining something, rather than angry- good job.

-Paige spinning

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This was an amazing guide. It brought up many good points that I never thought of before, and from now on I'm going to try and leave reviews like how you said.

Is it okay if I recommend this guide on my profile? People need to read these types of things.

And as a side note: Honestly, I have left comments asking people to review my stories/poems, but only after writing a review that gives advice and compliments. (Reviews that you mentioned). But I worded it more like, "Could you read my stories? They might give you some ideas." I never actually asked for a review, just suggested that the person read some of my work. Would this also be bad?

Again, an excellent guide on reviewing.

~Wolf Valkyrie Fang

This really helped. Sometimes I find myself not exactly leaving helpful reviews. They aren't mean, they're more often than not praise. But, for me, that means I really liked the story. I get so drawn into the story and what is happening that the only mistakes that draw me out are grammar mistakes. To really notice things that detract from the story, I have to go into it with the knowledge that I'm reading it to help the author improve their writing, and not for my own personal enjoyment. I'll try to do both (at the same time) from now on.

Thanks for the tips. The next time I review, I'll bear those in mind. ;)

P.S. I've added you in livejournal if you don't mind.

Before you go all,

-pointing- "AH! An anonymous reviewer! You shall die by flaming potatoes!"

on me, I would just like to point out that I do not have an FP account. Therefore, I am unable to login before reviewing.

Moving on, I give your essay two thumbs up and a cherry pie. I'm a bad writer without an FP account, so I don't get a whole lot of reviews, but I do give them. And when I give them, I usually check out what other people have said, too. Reviews simply telling the author to update or -gasp- reviews only telling the author to review other stories make me irritated on behalf of the author. Sometimes I've wanted to make an account for the sole reason of writing what you just did.

So I commend you for doing what I didn't!

However, the one thing that bugged me was your lack of capitalizing on the ... um, eh, bold-and-underlined-stuff. (Whatever you want to call them.) I realize caps are not needed on every word all the time, but I'm a bit OCD about stuff like that, and that's my opinion.

After reading a whole essay on 'How to Review Properly', only a -insert word of your choice here- would dare give you a simple: 'Kewl! Please R&R my story!' So, writing this is a very underhanded, clever way of wringing good reviews out of people. And sure enough, I checked your reviews, and all the ones I saw were very well written. ;)

With that, Adeiu, my underhandedly clever author.

-Mellie

well since you have pointed out so many factors that one needs to think about before reviewing i have to think before i write reviews now. the guide was very interesting and honestly helped me a lot!D

i came across this through someone's favorites and I'm glad i did! so thanks once again for the help.

sadly i don't have any sort of criticism to give to you...but once again i surprisingly enjoyed it since i usually don't read such things.

~drama princess2b