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How to Write a Review

Last Updated: April 29, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Marissa Levis . Marissa Levis is an English Teacher in the Morris County Vocational School District. She previously worked as an English director at a tutoring center that caters to students in elementary and middle school. She is an expert in creating a curriculum that helps students advance their skills in secondary-level English, focusing on MLA formatting, reading comprehension, writing skills, editing and proofreading, literary analysis, standardized test preparation, and journalism topics. Marissa received her Master of Arts in Teaching from Fairleigh Dickinson University. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 777,516 times.

From books and movies to plumbers and hotels, reviewing a product or service can be a useful skill. Reviews allow a consumer to share their opinion of a product or service, and others can glean information from that review to make an informed decision about whether or not to try out the product or service.

Trying Out the Product or Service

Organizing Your Review

• Check the deadline too, especially if the review is for something timely, like a movie, album or book. Your review should coincide with the release of these types of items.

• This works especially well for a book or movie review, where you might pick out a particular theme and write your review around that theme.

• If you are writing for a more general audience, assume that some readers will need more explanation about certain references or terms you use.

Writing Your Review

• If it’s a movie or book, don’t spend your entire review summarizing the plot. There’s no need to give the entire story. Just a brief overview in 1-2 sentences will suffice.

• Some reviews are written in different formats, even as poems or haiku. Other reviews are tongue-in-cheek, conveying the facts in a humorous way.

Finalizing Your Review

• If you’re submitting your review to a website like Yelp or Amazon, follow their review guidelines to ensure that your review will be accepted and posted. [8] X Research source

Review Template and Examples

Expert Q&A

• Include a “spoiler alert” warning if your review gives away the plot of a movie or book. Forewarn readers so they can decide if they want to read your review or not. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Don’t write malicious or untrue things in a review. There have been cases in which businesses have sued reviewers over comments made in reviews, citing defamation. If your review is fair and truthful, then you shouldn’t have to worry about defamation claims against you. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0

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Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about writing, check out our in-depth interview with Marissa Levis .

• ↑ https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408786435090-How-to-take-photos-and-videos-for-product-reviews
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-to-write-review/
• ↑ https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/223402108--8-tips-for-writing-great-customer-reviews#be-detailed-specific-and-honest-2
• ↑ http://www.yelp.com/guidelines
• ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/business/the-art-of-the-amateur-online-review.html
• ↑ https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/223402108--8-tips-for-writing-great-customer-reviews#proofread-your-review-7

About This Article

To write a review, start by taking detailed notes while you try out the product or service so you will have specific things to comment on. Start writing your review by briefly describing or summarizing your experience. Then, use complete sentences to add in details and don't be afraid to use descriptive words like "decadent," or "astonishing." Feel free to also include pictures to your review, if you want. Make sure to be honest and fair about your experience as well so businesses will want your opinions in the future. To learn how to finalize and submit your review, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Write a 5-Star Review That's Actually Helpful (and Looks Real)

Online reviews are a huge part of how we spend money nowadays, and nothing makes people hit that “Order Now” button like a 5-star review. Unfortunately, good reviews are so easily bought and faked that they often drown out the legit ones—even if they’re equally positive.

If you’re trying to write a helpful, glowing review, the best thing you can do is stand out from the pack. Your first goal should be to write something that people can read, so The Golden Rule of Reviews— get to the point —still applies. Besides that, these four criteria will ensure your review has a purpose.

How specific should a 5-star review be?

A slew of contextless 4- and 5-star reviews doesn’t look promising; it looks scammy. If you’re leaving a great review, anyone who reads it will want to know why—so tell them.

What specifically made the food and service at a new restaurant so great? If you were pleasantly surprised by how quickly an online order arrived, how long did it take to ship? Why does this particular item work so well for you? Would it work the same for everyone, or does it depend on individual factors like shoe size, skin, hair type, or body shape? Don’t write a whole novel, but be sure to include details like these.

Write like a regular person, not a copywriter

I’m a copywriter, so I’m allowed to say this: So many online reviews are actually ad copy in a trench coat and Groucho Marx glasses. It’s not even subtle. This wouldn’t be a problem if the vast majority of these reviews didn’t also contain a line about receiving the product for free in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Wink .

Getting free stuff in exchange for a review is fine, to be clear, but whether or not you paid for the product in question is irrelevant if your review is just multiple paragraphs of regurgitated marketing buzzwords. Readers can get that on the company’s website. It’s much better to keep your language natural and specific and the overall review brief; bogus reviews never quite manage all three.

Add the right context to your review

With highly personal things like clothes, shoes, and cosmetics, “good” is relative. If you’re at all able to do so, include some relevant, non-identifying information about yourself to explain why you like something so much. Shoes are the perfect example: A 5-star review that says a size 9 1/2 fit perfectly is fine; one that also mentions the reviewer normally wears a size 10 in Nike women’s sneakers is gold . It gives the reader some basis for comparison, which makes their choices easier.

Not all comparisons are useful, however. Complimenting one thing by trashing another is never a good look. You’re not reviewing that other bar across town, so why bring it up at all—let alone for the express purpose of talking shit. It makes you look petty and mean, but more importantly, it’s useless.

Never identify workers by name

At some point, people decided that the best way to reward a service worker for a job well done is to tattle on them to their boss, but like, in a positive way. Although this can work in some scenarios, a public, online review is definitely not one of them. If you absolutely must compliment a specific person, contact the business directly or save it for an online customer satisfaction survey. The right people will still hear about your great interaction with Tina, but the rest of the internet won’t.

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• Writing Tips

5 Tips on How to Write a Review

4-minute read

• 30th December 2019

While there is plenty of interesting feedback online, writing a review is a skill. But what goes into a good review? And how can you write one? In this post, we offer five tips for writing reviews like a professional .

1. Immerse Yourself

First impressions are important, but a good review will not stop there. Whatever you’re reviewing, make sure you have experienced it fully before writing anything. And this usually means giving it a bit of time!

Listening to an album or reading a novel once, for example, will give you a sense of what it is like. But doing it two or three times will help you gain more depth of insight, giving you time to notice small details and think about what you’re reviewing from different angles. If you don’t have time for that, though, you can at least pay close attention and take notes .

2. Consider Your Audience

As well as knowing what you’re writing about, you should think about who you’re writing for. This may include the following:

• Whether you’re writing for a specialist audience or the general public
• How much your assumed reader is likely to know already
• What kind of information your assumed reader would want to know

If reviewing an electronic device, for example, a specialist audience may want all the technical details. But a general audience will just want an easy-to-understand overview of the product.

3. Examples and Evidence

Having opinions is good. But you need to back them up with examples and evidence. For instance, in a restaurant review, it’s not enough to say that the food was “bad.” Your reader would want to know why it was bad. Were the ingredients fresh? Was it served cold? How was the overall experience? Did you raise the issue with staff at the restaurant?

Make sure to go into detail on a few points so your reader can understand why you’ve formed your opinion. Another tip is to compare whatever you’re reviewing with something similar, as this will give readers useful context.

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4. Short Is Good (Usually)

As a rule, most people won’t want to read a 20,000-word treatise before deciding whether they’ll see the most recent Adam Sandler movie . In fact, many publications require reviews to be under 300 words! Keeping your reviews focused and concise is therefore a good idea.

That said, longer reviews let you go into much more depth, so they can be more interesting and informative. But in an in-depth review, you should:

• Briefly outline what you are reviewing in the first paragraph
• Use the main body of the text to go into detail about your opinions
• Finish with a short summary of your evaluation

The opening and closing passages will give the reader a quick overview of the review as a whole. You may even want to include a separate summary.

5. Score Systems

Many reviews come with a score out of 5, 10, or 100. This offers a quick way for readers to get a sense of how good (or bad) the thing you’ve reviewed may be. We’re tempted to say not to worry about this (review scores have been causing controversy lately). But many people find a score helpful.

Which system to use depends on the situation. If you’re writing for a website or magazine, they may give you guidelines on how to score reviews. But if you’re self-publishing or blogging, consider creating an explainer so readers know how your rating system works.

And if you have written a review of anything, why not have one of our expert proofreaders check it to make sure your writing is the best it can be?

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How to Write a Great Customer Review

Cassie Sneed

One of the most powerful tools that businesses have at their disposal is online reviews. In fact, 91% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase decision. Moreover, businesses with more than 82 total reviews earn 54% more in annual revenue than businesses with fewer than 82 reviews. And businesses with a 4-star rating or higher on Google receive 76% of clicks from local searchers.

Writing a meaningful review can help other customers make informed decisions and give businesses direct feedback to improve their services. But where and how customers post reviews can have a significant impact on a business’s success.

Customers have many options for sharing their feedback about businesses they interact with in today’s digital age. Here are some of the most popular platforms where consumers can post reviews:

Where Should You Post Reviews?

• Google: Google My Business allows customers to leave reviews about a business directly on their Google listing. This platform is particularly useful for local businesses, as it can improve their visibility on Google Maps and in local search results.
• Facebook : Facebook business pages also have a review feature that allows customers to leave feedback and rate their experience with the business.
• Social Media: Customers can share their experiences with businesses on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. This can include tagging the business in a post or using relevant hashtags to get their attention.
• TripAdvisor: TripAdvisor is a platform specifically designed for travel-related businesses, including hotels, restaurants, and attractions. Customers can leave reviews and ratings based on their experiences.
• Apple Maps: Apple Maps allows users to search for businesses and leave reviews and ratings directly from the app.
• Yelp: Yelp is one of the most popular review platforms, with over 200 million reviews posted to date. Customers can leave reviews and ratings about all kinds of businesses, from restaurants to hair salons.

How to Write a Meaningful Review

When leaving reviews, here are some best practices to keep in mind:

• Be specific: When leaving a review, be as specific as possible about your experience. Mention specific products or services you used, what you liked or didn’t like about them, and any problems you encountered. This helps other potential customers better understand what to expect and helps the business address any issues.
• Be honest: Don’t exaggerate your experience, whether positive or negative. Be truthful about your experience, and give an accurate portrayal of your experience. This will help other customers make informed decisions and will also help the business improve its services.
• Provide constructive criticism: If you had a negative experience, don’t just complain – provide specific, actionable feedback that the business can use to improve. For example, if you had a bad experience at a restaurant, don’t just say the food was terrible – explain why it wasn’t to your liking, and suggest ways the restaurant could improve.
• Keep it professional: Remember that your review is a reflection of you as well as the business you’re reviewing. Be respectful and professional in your tone, even if you had a negative experience. This will help your review carry more weight and be taken more seriously by other potential customers.

Customer Review Examples

Now that we’ve covered the best practices for leaving reviews let’s look at some examples of reviews that provide helpful feedback to business owners. 

Good/Quality Review:

“I recently had a great experience at XYZ restaurant. The food was absolutely delicious and the service was top-notch. Our server, Sarah, was incredibly friendly and attentive throughout our meal. I particularly enjoyed the grilled salmon dish, which was cooked to perfection and had a delicious flavor. The restaurant had a great atmosphere, and I appreciated the attention to detail in the decor. Overall, I highly recommend XYZ restaurant and look forward to visiting again!”

Poorly Written Review:

“I went to XYZ restaurant and it was terrible. The food sucked and the service was bad. I will never go there again.”

As you can see, the well-written review provides specific details about the experience, highlights particular aspects of the restaurant that the reviewer enjoyed, and offers a recommendation. On the other hand, the poorly written review is very vague and doesn’t provide any specific information or constructive feedback.

Here’s another example:

“I recently purchased a new vehicle from ABC Dealership, and I’m extremely happy with my purchase. The staff at the store were incredibly helpful and knowledgeable and were able to help me find a vehicle that met all of my needs within my budget. The car itself is safe and reliable and has all of the features that I was looking for. I’ve been driving it for a few weeks now and haven’t had any issues. I highly recommend ABC Dealership for anyone in the market for a new computer.”

“I bought a vehicle from ABC Dealership and it was okay. Nothing special.”

In this case, the well-written review offers specific details about the purchasing process, highlights the helpfulness of the staff, and offers a recommendation. The poorly written review, once again, is very vague and doesn’t provide any specific information or feedback.

Related: How to Respond to Positive Reviews

Online reviews have become an incredibly powerful tool for businesses and consumers alike. By following best practices when leaving reviews, you can provide valuable business feedback while helping other customers make informed decisions. And with statistics showing just how impactful reviews can be on a business’s bottom line, it’s clear that taking the time to leave a thoughtful, well-written review can make a significant difference. So, next time you have a positive or negative experience with a business, take a few minutes to write a specific, honest, constructive, and professional review – you just might be helping that business improve its services and attract more customers in the process.

Ready to make an impact and help businesses thrive? Head to National Leave a Review Day to learn how your feedback can drive positive change and success.

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