Looking For Tips On Writing Reviews

[megmno]

I was just reading the thread thanking people for writing reviews and I was wondering if anyone wanted to share tips on organizing material and writing them.

 

My tips:

 

Keep a little notepad to jot down a few words several times a day. It really helped keep stuff straight in my mind about what we ate at different meals and our activities. Once you've been home for a week or so the details start to blur.

 

Write a full first draft in a document offline and then edit and post sections of it over no more than a few days. That way you won't leave your readers hanging and feel pressured to finish.

 

Since I've read some comments here that some people like to read concise reviews while others like travelogs, I thought I'd do it both ways this year. I'm going to start with an "executive summary" and then follow by more lengthy review with pictures. I figure that will satisfy most people.

 

Anyone else have any tips or suggestions?

[GeorgiaMomof4]

My recommendation would be to use larger font and not too many sentences in a paragraph. Space the paragraphs apart because reviews get difficult to read sometimes.

 

Oh, and pictures, use lots of pictures!

[GradUT]

My recommendation is to write a review for the "Members Cruise Reviews". I'd rather go to one place to read all the reviews about the ship I am considering taking (or am already booked on) rather than having to do a search through the cruise line boards.

[Stevesan]

I was just reading the thread thanking people for writing reviews and I was wondering if anyone wanted to share tips on organizing material and writing them.

 

My tips:

 

Keep a little notepad to jot down a few words several times a day. It really helped keep stuff straight in my mind about what we ate at different meals and our activities. Once you've been home for a week or so the details start to blur.

 

Write a full first draft in a document offline and then edit and post sections of it over no more than a few days. That way you won't leave your readers hanging and feel pressured to finish.

 

Since I've read some comments here that some people like to read concise reviews while others like travelogs, I thought I'd do it both ways this year. I'm going to start with an "executive summary" and then follow by more lengthy review with pictures. I figure that will satisfy most people.

 

Anyone else have any tips or suggestions?

 

The same as a speech or school book review:

Tell them what you're going to say, say it, then tell them what you said.:p

[AdobeRN]

Pictures! I love looking at the pictures of people having a great time!

[sparkscruiser]

I agree that reviews should be posted in the review section but I guess there are times when it's really long and needs to be on the boards.....

 

I enjoy writing them and reading them so it's not really for me to judge where they are posted. If you write it with humor and good punctuation that is helpful too.

 

I also love pics but don't put them in the review, I normally include them in my signature as it makes for a more central location for folks to see what I have up there.

 

Good topic!

[Cigar Dude]

You can't have too many pictures! :D

[pyroguy]

What I do is write my review, including the "image" tags on a word processor prior to submitting. That way I can copy / paste text to my posts (6 pictures max at a time) and get almost the whole thing up at one time.

 

I'm not a big fan of the member reviews section because you can't ask questions and you can't post pictures.

 

I use Google's Picasa Web Albums for my picutures, I don't ever have the dreaded bandwidth sharing blockouts when a lot of people are looking at my reviews. Plus, Google makes it really easy to copy the code for the picture link.

[rajones007]

I agree. You can never have too many pictures.

 

For my input, I'll list three things;

 

--Paragraphs! I can't stress that enough. Paragraphs! Make sure there's a nice one-line break between paragraphs. Paragraphs! Some reviews are just a wall of text making it damn near impossible to read. You want people to easily flow through your review, not fight their way through it. Paragraphs!

 

--Please DO NOT use Comic Sans. See below.

 

--Don't get fancy with fonts and font colors. You figured out how to change the font colors and styles? Good for you! However, the board defaults are just fine for everyone. So please resist the temptation to play with the font buttons. There is no need to get fancy. Nobody cares. Keep the size reasonable. People of all ages love to cruise and visit Cruise Critic. We're not all 80 year old Grandmas who forgot their bi-focals upstairs.

[Kangapong]

Post large photographs - not thumbnails. See Kubanita's latest review for an example. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1646267&referrerid=354913 It's much easier to simply scroll through a review without needing to click on an image to view it.

[Kangapong]

Post large photographs - not thumbnails. See Kubanita's latest review for an example. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1646267&referrerid=354913 It's much easier to simply scroll through a review while reading without needing to click on an image to view it. :)

[luckybecky]

Great tips from everyone! Keep 'em coming!

 

I've already purchased a notebook for our trip to jot notes about what we did, where we ate in port and what we paid, thoughts about our shore excursions, etc. It's easy to carry along a little journal and write a note here and there to help jog your memory later.

[Gwendy914]

My recommendation is to write a review for the "Members Cruise Reviews". I'd rather go to one place to read all the reviews about the ship I am considering taking (or am already booked on) rather than having to do a search through the cruise line boards.

 

See...I disagree. I much prefer the threads on the boards because you can interact with reviewer.

 

OP, I guess moral is, do the kind of review you enjoy reading. Everyone here likes different things. :)