Your Opinion is Best Defended with Evidence—So Take Notes!
As you read your book, make a note of the sentences and phrases that best illustrate your opinion of it. If you are reviewing a film, make notes of the scenes that affect you most strongly. Study the image on the screen carefully and analyze what you see. Note any character dialogue that seems to be especially significant.
One of the most common student complaints is that their assigned work is "boring" or that they “don’t understand it." If this happens to you, think about your book or movie from these perspectives:
- When I say boring, do I mean unfamiliar? or,
- When I say boring, do I mean that this somehow makes me uncomfortable?
If you find that a book is boring, slow down. You might be missing something, and you will want your review to be as fair as possible. However, pointless books have indeed been published, and it may have been your misfortune to encounter a book that is indeed “boring.” Consider, though, how the content might line up with the author’s purpose. If the author’s purpose was to educate readers about bipolar depression, and her book is nothing but an endless parade of statistics, then she probably hasn’t educated anyone, because she hasn’t presented her material in an accessible manner. If, however, the purpose of the book was to publish the statistics of bipolar depression occurring in the US during a certain time period, then the author probably has met her goal, which was simply to provide data.
Whatever your opinion may be, the best way to back it up is to provide examples. If you provide a quote illustrating the kind of language you find dense and impossible to understand, or describe a scene that strikes you as overdone and silly, then your reader will be better equipped to judge your opinion.
Now, get specific information on writing film reviews or theater critiques.