4 Characteristics of Review Texts

4 Characteristics of Review Texts
According to the Ministry of Education and Culture website, a review text is a text that contains a review, assessment/review of a work such as a film, drama or book.

Review text contains a script that contains writing to provide comments about an object based on someone’s views. Review texts are often also called reviews.

What is a review?

A review is a type of expository-argumentative text, consisting of a critical evaluation of an object, document or research, by an expert on the subject, or even by a simple user. Reviews can be made of books, films, albums, plays, but also academic research, articles and practically anything.

Of course, depending on the author’s career and his argumentative ability, the reviews differ greatly from each other. They can be very technical texts, aimed at experts in the field, or informative texts that present a point of view for the general public to read.

In any case, the purpose of a review is usually to provide an interpretation, an evaluation or a look at the thing, according to the author’s criteria. You can even rate it or provide the public with some type of rating system that recommends it or not.

This is generally a very free-form type of publication.

Literary review

Literary reviews are part of the literary genre of the essay or criticism, in the sense that they are part of the texts written to discuss other texts (fiction or poetry, for example). That is, a literary review is anything that offers an evaluative look at a literary work, that is, a book of literature.

Literary reviews are governed by very free criteria, but they usually have an expository part, in which information about the book is provided, and then they delve into an argumentative part, where they offer the reviewer’s vision of its content, often offering textual quotes. or judgments of third parties, in order to compose a generally brief opinion about a literary work.

Critical review

Critical reviews are generally called those texts that, although intended as a review of some type, go much deeper into the argumentative content and support their opinion or criteria based on quotes, verifiable arguments and other forms of validation that they aspire to. to objectivity, or at least to the critical sense.

They are usually longer, require a more informed public and can become very specialized, such as scientific reviews or academic reviews that appear in peer-reviewed, university or technical journals.

Characteristics of Review Texts

Each type of text has its own characteristics according to the purpose for which it was created. The characteristics of the review text are as follows.

  1. Consists of orientation, interpretation, evaluation and summary.
  2. Has information that is based on the author’s opinion of a product or work.
  3. Opinions expressed are based on interpreted facts.
  4. There is another term, namely review.

Review Text Structure

 

The review text consists of several parts to become a complete written manuscript. The following is the structure of the review text.

 

1. Orientation

This section contains an introduction or general description of the object to be reviewed. In this section there is background regarding the things that will be reviewed.

2. Interpretation

Contains a more detailed description of the work being reviewed. This section discusses the work, excellence, uniqueness, quality and others.

3. Evaluation

The section that shows the author’s point of view of a work being reviewed. The author will mention parts that are the strengths and weaknesses of the work.

4. Summary

 

This section contains the conclusions of the review regarding the work being commented on. In this section, the author will write his opinion whether the work is of good quality or not to be enjoyed.

References

  • “Review” on Wikipedia.
  • “How to make a review” (video) in Didádicto.
  • “Review. Guide for its preparation” at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
  • “Guide for preparing a review” at Universidad de los Andes (Colombia).