Often, students may feel shy about expressing their opinions because they’re afraid they’re not educated or sophisticated enough to “know what they’re talking about.” If this is the case for you, remember the point of a review or critique is to discover and examine your thoughts on the subject you are reviewing. In other words, the point of a review is to learn "what you're talking about."
The best way to have confidence in your opinion and convince others to take your opinion seriously is to develop principles. You probably already have principles—you just don’t call them by that name. A good way to discover your principles is to ask yourself relentlessly, why?
For example, let’s say you read a book (or watch a movie) and don’t enjoy it very much. Someone asks you, "Why?" You say you "don’t like stories with happy endings." I don’t like stories with happy endings is a principle. Perhaps you genuinely do not like any stories with happy endings.
However, if you ask yourself why again, you might come up with a more specific principle. Why didn’t I like the happy ending in this story? Because it was cheesy and unrealistic. I don’t like stories with sentimental and unrealistic endings is a more specific and more interesting principle than the first. If you can figure out what your principles are, then you will “know what you’re talking about" any time you give your opinion.
The next time someone asks you why you don’t care for a particular movie, you can say, “I don’t really like movies with unrealistic endings. But if you like love stories where lovers always wind up together in the end, you might like it.”
By articulating your principles fully, you are saying to another person, “This isn’t really my cup of tea, but you have the right to feel differently.” You are giving an intelligent, well-reasoned opinion and at the same time treating other opinions with respect. This is the cornerstone of intelligent discussion and a key component in effective writing.
Next, learn how to read or watch for an opinion.