What is a review?
Review is a textual genre that consists of the description of a text or a film, in which the writer can express their opinion.
Reviews are read by people who want to know something about a content (what it is or if it is well rated by critics, for example). Therefore, they can influence the choice of the reader, who has doubts about reading one book or another, and the viewer, who has not yet decided whether or not to watch a certain movie.
The review is NOT a summary
The difference between summary and review is that the summary describes the events of a text or movie in a brief way, that is, without details. The review, in turn, reports on the subject that the text or film addresses, without describing the events.
This means that the abstract is a brief presentation that is faithful to the text. Thus, whoever writes it does not add anything new, nor does he opine about its content.
The purpose of the review is not to describe the content in a summarized way, but to make the reader aware of the proposal presented by the text, thus influencing their choice.
Review Features:
- descriptive: the reviewer describes the text in his own words, offering an overview of the work;
- can be opinionated;
- soon.
Summary Features:
- faithful presentation of the text: the author of the abstract writes a text reducing as much as possible what is written in the work, without adding anything new;
- not opinionated;
- soon.
Example of excerpt from a review of Vidas Secas, by Graciliano Ramos
The work reveals its author's mastery in dealing with social problems, in this case, the drought in the northeast. Inspired by Graciliano Ramos' own experience, Vidas Secas has become an emblematic work that invites the reader to delight in reading simple words, most of the chapters can be read outside his sequence.
Sample excerpt from the summary of Vidas Secas, by Graciliano Ramos
The work consists of a social critique of the drought in the northeast. Vidas Secas portrays the difficulties of a family of migrants: Fabiano and his wife Sinhá Vitória, the couple's two children and the dog Baleia, esteemed by everyone as if she were a member of the family.
The 2 types of review
1. descriptive review
In this type of review, the reviewer makes known to the reader a little about the author and his work. The subject covered in the book, for example, is what is done very briefly, that is, without detailing characters and events.
The descriptive review is informative, as it is a way to expose something related to a content, without reporting its history and making judgments.
2. critical review
Also called opinionated, in this type of review, in addition to exposing something about a content, the author gives his opinion critically, influencing the behavior of readers.
Without detailing a book or a movie, for example, the author of the critical review informs the reader about its plot, but does not tell its story. The author says what he thinks about the text or the book, giving his opinion on the content and style used.
See too:
How to make a critical review
Movie Review: How To (With Examples)
Review Structure
Like any textual genre, the review has a pattern that allows it to be identified in this way:
1. Bibliography of the reviewed work, in accordance with ABNT standards;
2. Identification of the reviewer, which can only contain his name, or be more complete and also include profession / title;
3. Continuous review text, that is, no subtitle breaks. This text should be organized into an introduction, development and conclusion, which can be done as follows:
3.1. Review introduction - information about the author of the work, such as education, place and time where he lived and other works who wrote, as well as information about the theme and genre of the work, how it is approached and what is the intention of the author.
3.2. Review development - inform how the work is organized in terms of text and image, which reader or viewer it is intended for.
3.3. Review conclusion - inform if the topic is easy to understand, if the work is interesting and stands out within its genre, compare with other works by the same author.
The 5 essential features of a review
1. conciseness
Conciseness is the most striking feature of the textual review genre. After all, it is a brief text, without details, in which the reviewer only intends to inform what a text is about.
In the case of critical reviews, in addition to informing, the reviewer intends to give his opinion regarding a content, often with the objective of influencing readers' choice.
2. Objectivity
Objectivity is another very important aspect. Focusing on the key point of the content being reviewed can ensure the success of a review, especially if the reviewer intends to convince his or her readers.
3. argumentation
Critical reviews intend to persuade the reader to choose a certain work, therefore, the reviewer must know how to argue. Therefore, the reviews resort to cohesion and coherence, which are fundamental for the construction of an effective text, which exposes ideas and tries to convince someone.
4. Recommendation
Reviews serve to recommend, or not, a work. In either type, they are meant to inform, so many people read them when looking for a book or a movie, just as if they were asking someone for a referral.
5. Structure
In structural terms, the review is characterized by containing the identification of the reviewed work and the author, and a text that is only informative, or informative and opinionated, written without breaks, that is, without resorting to subtitles.
If you want to know more about summaries, see: Text Summary: how-to, types and examples
