I just finished writing another review using the extended template. I found myself at a loss for words for the "use" and "summary" portions. I seem to always get stuck in those sections with every review I write.
Does anyone else have difficulty with certain aspects/sections of writing reviews. Feel free to vote for more than one section if writing is just not your thing.
Or if this poll doesn't apply to you, let us know what you've discovered that makes writing reviews so easy.
I just finished writing another review using the extended template. I found myself at a loss for words for the "use" and "summary" portions. I seem to always get stuck in those sections with every review I write.
Does anyone else have
...
I just finished writing another review using the extended template. I found myself at a loss for words for the "use" and "summary" portions. I seem to always get stuck in those sections with every review I write.
Does anyone else have difficulty with certain aspects/sections of writing reviews. Feel free to vote for more than one section if writing is just not your thing.
Or if this poll doesn't apply to you, let us know what you've discovered that makes writing reviews so easy.
It depends, there are a lot of times when I have a difficult time coming up with a title or I have trouble deciding what to say (or not say) in the summary.
I usually have the most difficulty writing with the extended review layout in general. I like to put mine together my way, rather than breaking it up into each of the sections in the extended layout. I can start writing right away on standard, but sit staring at the monitor for what seems like hours trying to figure out how to start an extended review.
I have a hard time with the stuff that doesn't work with being straightforward and factual. I'm not a sexy writer
And stuff like the summary or performance vs. use are difficult particularly because it's hard not to just repeat myself.
Agreed!
The instructions on the summary say that I should try not to repeat what I said earlier. But a summary is more or less restating the information in a concise format. So how am I supposed to do that without being repetitive?
On top of that, the example provided in the "use" section seems like something between an extended summary and abridged review. It's all very perplexing to me.
It depends, there are a lot of times when I have a difficult time coming up with a title or I have trouble deciding what to say (or not say) in the summary.
Ooh I should have made a voting box for that one too! I know we're supposed to keep it about the product, but there's a section to write about our own personal experience with it. So clearly, my experience is relevant to some extent. I'm always wondering how much is this much personal allegory? If I eliminate this personal aside, will my review read as dry and boring? I think it should be a fun read too.
I mean we're all people here, not sexbots . . . mostly . . .
For me, the entire review is really difficult if the product was something I didn't like. I have a hard time giving negative feedback so I've just convinced myself that it's important to just be honest about my experience, be it negative or positive.
For me, I'm hit and miss on ease of writing reviews. Some reviews flow out of me easily and others it seems like I bumble the whole way. The summary I struggle with either way though. I usually wonder what I could say that I hadn't already said.
I think that it is the whole review that I struggle with. I am never happy with them, it is hard for me to try and come up with what is important to others. What is important to them is sometimes different than what I consider important. I can never figure out if the review (in its entirety) is useful, which causes me to hold on to them in editing way longer then I should.
I seem to always be changing things, trying to get everything perfect. Titles are a huge struggle for me. I guess, it is everything that I struggle with when it comes to reviews.
Update: Wow! This poll is less than a day old and 19 EF members have already participated in the voting. Thanks for the feedback everyone, It's nice to know I'm not alone in my review writing struggles.
There are a few trends already showing up in the graph that I'm wondering if we should point out to EF admins.
1. Nobody has voted that writing product reviews is easy. (I don't know if this is good or bad, but it's certainly worth noticing.)
2. Out of the 19 voters, 12 of us (63%) have trouble writing the summary portion. (This seems disporportionately high.)
3. In a distant second place is the review title with 6(32%) of the participating voters checking that box.
Any thoughts or observations on this? Should/can we do anything about this as a community to make review writing easier and more productive?
I don't really like the extended template, as some of the sections feel a little redundant. I prefer the standard, where I can come up with my own sections; however, then I have trouble with the character limits! I guess I just have too much to say! The summary section really gives trouble, as you only get 500 characters to cover the most important info. I usually end up revising my summary about 3-4 times to get under the character limit, but still say all the things I though were important.
I have a lot of trouble with writing reviews altogether. I'be just never been a great writer. I feel my reviews are usually pretty technical and detailed, rather than entertaining, which doesn't necessarily make for a fun read. I also procrastinate a ton. Once I start writing, it flows really easily. I even end up way over the word limits and having cut stuff out most of the time. It's just so hard to get started.
I don't have too much trouble with the summary. It's usually the use I have trouble with, since that's first and where I start writing.
It's not that I feel too inexperienced, I worry too much that the community won't find my review useful and I get overwhelmed with worry and anxiety. It's very frustrating because I'm what makes writing reviews difficult for me. I'm trying to get over my reviewing worries and fears.
I feel too inexperienced a lot of the time. The most challenging was writing my first condom review because it was literally after my first few times using condoms and having PIV sex. I thought everyone would think I was wrong about what I said. My mentor gave me great advice, though, assuring me that even though I wasn't an expert on condoms, I knew those condoms and I was the expert on how they made me feel, which is all you need for a good review. I'm slowly getting more confident with practice, methinks.
I normally struggle to find a good, witty, concise title.
That, and, sometimes it's just really hard to get myself started on a review. And if I get distracted in the middle, it can be like pulling teeth sometimes to get back to it.
Other times, I just sit down and go "Hey, I need to write a review of ___. Let's get to it!"
and it just comes out perfectly.
I struggle with the whole review. I come up with cleaver, witty, informative ideas during the day, sit down at the computer, and can't think of a thing to write! When I finally do get something down to actually writing the review I have a problem with my brain communicating to my fingers. As I have said before, I think I missed school the day they taught how to properly write a sex toy review
I just finished writing another review using the extended template. I found myself at a loss for words for the "use" and "summary" portions. I seem to always get stuck in those sections with every review I write.
Does anyone else have
...
I just finished writing another review using the extended template. I found myself at a loss for words for the "use" and "summary" portions. I seem to always get stuck in those sections with every review I write.
Does anyone else have difficulty with certain aspects/sections of writing reviews. Feel free to vote for more than one section if writing is just not your thing.
Or if this poll doesn't apply to you, let us know what you've discovered that makes writing reviews so easy.
I always have a hard time coming up with an original title. I'm very guilty of usually just using the name of the toy I'm reviewing.
I voted for there things: I'm a procrastinator, because I am. Title because it is hard sometimes but the biggest thing for me is the summary. The reasons is not because it is hard but because I do my reviews off site i already included a "Closing thoughts" section in all my reviews on my blog. The hard part comes when in because this mean I have to basically write I second summery for EF on-site portion.
Titles are usually tricky for me, but the summaries take the cake. I usually end my review with a reasonably thorough recap, and then I'm supposed to type the summary in the box following that... I just feel like I'm repeating myself. But it does make sense to have the summary prompt come after you've written the review, so all your ideas are fresh...
I usually write the review, and then come back the next day to fill in the title and the summary.
I'm also usually nervous when a product already has lots of great reviews, but that's my own shyness, mostly. I don't want to be presumptuous---but at the same time I know that my views might be helpful to others, too.
I struggle the most thinking of a title for my review. I don't want it to be boring and blah... I also don't want it to be the lyrics to a bad song. lol. I get stuck on that a lot.
I think my issue is organizing the information on the boxes, I think I'm more of a free style sort of writer and the boxes sort of hinder me because some information overlaps and I don't know where to put it and I just want it to all flow together. But I also want it to be easy to find the information you're looking for about the product when reading the review.
