How to write Good Critiquebrainz Reviews

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General guidelines before writing a review

  • Read some good reviews!
    You can find lots of great reviews on CritiqueBrainz, or search the web.
  • Write in a comfortable voice.
    A good review probably won't sound like an academic paper, and probably won't sound like a Youtube comment, but it should sound like you.
    Reviews don't need to be in English. If you're more comfortable in another language, go for it. Choose a language in which you can express your emotions/thoughts freely.

Writing a well formatted review

The editor in the review column follows Markdown so you may always beautify your review using the formatting styles because a well formatted article/review makes it readable and it becomes a little easy to understand what you have written. You can use the following link to learn markdown.

Writing the Review

Here are some tips for getting started as a reviewer :-

  • Writing short description - Give your review a short context as to what you are reviewing.
  • Follow your thinking/feelings - A good reviewer is one who always review a particular thing based on what he feels rather than what others.
  • Good reviews are neither too short nor too long - It's better neither to make your reviews too short nor too long. Try to make it something which gives the readers a clear image as to how the work is and at the same time it doesn't bore them.
  • Don't mention only factual data in your review - Sometimes people mention only factual data in reviews which makes the review a press release, not a good review.

More tips for specific review types

In addition to the general tips given above, here are some specific tips for each review type which might help you to strengthen your review :-

Album Reviews

  • Describing the instrumental arrangement - Mentioning about the rhythmic effects, describing the variety of instruments used in the song and how were the digital effects etc.
  • You may tell about lyrics and the recording quality -
    Lyrics is what makes a song/album meaningful. You can always write about how were the lyrics? Was it meaningful? Did it match the music?
    Recording quality matters a lot. If it's good it's good but if it's bad it will flop the whole album. It's always better to note these things and mention about it in your review.
  • Be clear with your conclusion - If it's a must hear album give it some direction. It's always good to mention the genre of the music. You may try to compare it with some other album which has been already released having the same genre which will give the readers an idea as to what they can expect.

Event Reviews

  • Describe the event place - Event reviews are enhanced by description of the event venue as to how big was it? Was it sufficient for the crowd? or How well the band/artist sound in it?
  • Writing about the music played there - You may describe which songs were played in the event. Which were your favourite songs played, you can write about the staging of the band. Were there any things which you didn't like? If yes, then why?
  • Special moments, effects and surprises - Often there are special moments in every event, you may describe such moments that took place. You may also write about special guests(if any) also any special effects in the event which caught everyone's attention.
  • Writing about Event atmosphere - You may always describe about the crowd, how well the artists/band were able to entertain the crowd? Was the crowd exciting or was it a monotonous atmosphere?

Place Review

  • Description about the location - You may describe where the place is located, whether it's located in the heart of the city or is it located on the periphery.
  • Writing about the architecture - If it's a musical stadium people want to know about how many people can the place occupy, how well the artist sounds in each corner of the place etc.


Note Note: Try to be honest while reviewing, simply don't follow the trend. Review the album as to what you felt. And try to follow active voice.

Common mistakes people do while writing reviews

  • Writing long reviews that lack specific details.
  • Forgetting to check the factual information in the review after completing the writing process.
  • Overlooking proofreading the review after finishing it.
  • Mistakes such as punctuation, typo errors, capitalization etc.
  • Writing in slangs - Try to write in proper English (or whatever language you prefer). It's better not to write reviews in slangs.

External links

You can read some reviews from these sites before writing your own :-

A few great review sites


How-To Pages
Introductory Guides
Basic How-Tos
Specific How-Tos