One of the most common types of writing exercises that we engage in, both in academia and in the “real world,” is giving reviews. We are asked to give reviews of our academic peers’ research papers and of our instructors. We are even asked to review our Uber drivers! Despite how often we are asked to provide a review, little formal instruction is ever given to us on how to conduct or craft a review. In this blog post, I offer a few tips that can help anyone, be they an undergraduate or a distinguished professor, improve their reviews.

These tips are based on other’s work (see Brunsma, Prasad, and Zuckerman 2013), as well as my own experiences as both a reviewer and the subject of reviews.

 

1. State Why

The primary purpose for reviewing something or someone is to help the subject that is being reviewed improve. Unfortunately, however, many reviews are written to attack the subject. It is important to remind yourself that there is a difference between constructive criticism and degradation. We should provide the former. Stating the purpose of the review can help serve as a reminder that we’re trying to help the subject, not degrade them. For example, you may want to remind yourself of the following: I am reviewing my instructors’ performance as a teaching assistant to help them improve next quarter.

 

 

[Image Description: Jay Sherman, from The Critic, seated in a chair, smiling at the viewer as he says: “It stinks!”]

Pictured: An example of how not to start your review

 

Unfortunately, misusing reviews as an opportunity to degrade others is common. For example, undergraduate students especially misunderstand reviews as a chance to comment on their instructors’ physical appearance. While all instructors have the potential to receive such comments, female instructors often receive more inappropriate comments about their physical appearance in student evaluations (see Boring, Anne. "Gender biases in student evaluations of teaching." Journal of public economics 145 (2017): 27-41;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.11.006) than their male counterparts. Fortunately, there is evidence that something as simple as reminding students about the purpose of their reviews reduces these inequalities (see Peterson, David AM, Lori A. Biederman, David Andersen, Tessa M. Ditonto, and Kevin Roe. "Mitigating gender bias in student evaluations of teaching." PloS one 14, no. 5 (2019): e0216241; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216241). Use this tip to remind yourself and, when appropriate, to remind your students why you’re reviewing: Reviews are to help the subject improve. Do not comment on the subjects’ physical appearance.

 

2. State What

In addition to stating why you are writing a review, it is useful to clarify what specifically you will be reviewing. For example, if you review a product on Amazon and give the product a one-star review because the delivery was late you are not truly reviewing the product. Ideally, one should only review those aspects that the subject has control over. In this instance, you will want to keep in mind the fact that independent sellers on Amazon have little control over shipping. It is more useful to give a review on the actual product and save your angry rant regarding shipping errors for FedEx’s customer services. Similarly, when reviewing a research paper, it is useful to clarify that you will be reviewing the substance of the paper and not the minor grammatical details.

 

 

[Image Description: In a single-panel comic from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, a man stares up in fear at the devil. The man asks: “I’m in hell?” The devil replies: “So, you didn’t like the packaging, eh?” The man replies: “W-what?”]

Pictured: The conversation awaiting those who leave irrelevant product reviews based only on packaging

 

Not only does stating what you will be reviewing help others understand the scope of the review, but it also helps you create a structure for yourself. It is easy to turn your review into a list of disconnected bullet points if you aren’t careful. While bullet points can be helpful when listing minor recommendations, such as “There is a typo in page 48…,” they should be preceded by a discussion of the subject’s larger goal (“This paper is a discussion of underwater basket weaving in 16th century Poland…“). Stating the topic being reviewed helps assure others that you understood the overall subject matter. If you are reviewing your Uber drivers by state, but end up reviewing the quality of Californian roads instead, others reading your review will know that communication broke down somewhere along the way.

 

3. Be Timely

Life is busy. It can be tempting to put off work. Procrastinating on reviews doesn’t help anyone though. If you’re a busy person, you’ll likely be as busy today as you will be in three weeks. It is better to get a review done as soon as possible. Reviewing something quickly will also help you remember what you’re reviewing. Imagine if you were asked to review your Uber driver from six weeks ago. Unless it was an extremely awful or pleasant experience you won’t remember the details.

 

 

[Image Description: John Cena at the Kids’ Choice Awards looking at the watch on his wrist before glancing up and shouting, “The time is now!”]

Pictured: You, telling yourself to start that review 

 

Reviewing shouldn’t take a lot of time to complete. If something has so many problems that you need to devote an entire afternoon to review, it likely needs a major overhaul. If this is the case, suggest said overhaul and limit yourself to three major concerns.

 

4. Double-Check 

Finally, before submitting your review, double-check and remove any mean language. Mean language reduces the likelihood that your review will be acted on. Who wants to listen to someone who was mean? Furthermore, you will be labeled as someone who doesn’t know how to help others.

 

 

[Image Description: Raven Symone holds up a finger to emphasize her point as she says, “Rude!”]

Pictured: How those you review will react to unconstructive language

 

What is “mean language”? My rule of thumb is to imagine if you received your own review. Would you want to punch the reviewer? If so, remove the offending sentence.

Go forth and review!