In our last lesson, you learned how to use descriptive, sensory language to make your reviews more immersive and persuasive. We focused on translating the experience of art for your reader. Today, we'll build on that by exploring how to create more nuanced and credible arguments.
Your learning outcome for this lesson is to revise a one-sided review to incorporate a balanced perspective, acknowledging both strengths and weaknesses. Moving beyond simple praise or condemnation is a hallmark of sophisticated criticism. It shows your reader that you have engaged with the work fairly and thoughtfully, which ultimately makes your final judgment more powerful.
1. The Critic's Stance: Beyond "Good" or "Bad"
In entertainment journalism, it's tempting to write a fiery takedown or a glowing rave. While passionate opinions are engaging, the most respected critics build their credibility by demonstrating fairness and a comprehensive understanding of the work. This means acknowledging what works, even in a piece you dislike, and spotting flaws in a piece you admire.
Several professional journalists emphasize this need for balance. Consider these insights from a few industry veterans.
Pro Reviewing Tips: How To Write A Review For TV, Film Or ...
This article from Wine Ninjas compiles advice from experienced writers. Their thoughts get to the heart of why a balanced perspective is essential for professional credibility.
Read the section "The Thoughts Of Other Journalists." Focus on the advice from: Andrew Collins: Note his comment, "There is no shame in giving a film three stars." This speaks to resisting the urge for extreme ratings. David Butcher: He highlights the core task of finding "a balance between description... and comment." Jack Seale: Pay close attention to his warning against two types of reviews: "'good/bad' reviews" and "'me me me' reviews." This is the central challenge we're tackling today.
As Jack Seale points out, asserting that something is "good" or "bad" without explaining why by the standards of its genre is a common pitfall. A balanced review avoids this by grounding its opinions in specific criteria.
2. From Reporter to Judge: Using Criteria for Evaluation
So, how do you move from personal taste to structured evaluation? You act less like a spectator and more like a judge with a clear set of criteria. While these criteria can vary depending on the art form, they help you organize your thoughts and assess a work from multiple angles.
This video, though geared toward academic critiques, offers a fantastic analogy for this process.
How to Write a Critique Essay (An Evaluation Essay_
In "How to Write a Critique Essay," David Taylor explains the transition from summarizing a work to evaluating it.
Watch the section from the evaluation. The key idea is judging the "weak parts and its strong parts" using a "scorecard full of criteria." While he lists academic criteria, we can easily adapt them for entertainment journalism: Craft/Execution: How effective is the direction, cinematography, acting, or music production? Clarity/Coherence: Is the story's plot logical? Are the album's themes consistent? Originality/Innovation: Does the work bring something new to its genre? Emotional Impact: Does the comedy land its jokes? Does the drama create a compelling emotional journey?
By evaluating against specific criteria like these, you can identify both strengths and weaknesses, forming the foundation of a balanced review.
3. Structuring and Phrasing a Balanced Argument
Once you've identified a work's strengths and weaknesses, you need to weave them into a cohesive argument. This involves both structure and language.
Structuring Your Evaluation
A common approach is to dedicate a significant portion of your review to this balanced evaluation. You might dedicate one paragraph to the work's successes and another to its failures, or you might integrate them more closely.
How to write a critical review / Academic Writing
This video, "How to write a critical review," provides a simple structure and, crucially, the language to express your evaluation.
First, watch the section on structure. Notice the suggestion that the 'evaluation' section should be a large part of the review and "should include the strengths and the limitations." Next, jump to the segment on language. This part offers a toolkit of phrases for introducing strengths and limitations. You don't need to memorize them all, but get a feel for the language of balanced critique.
Some useful phrases for introducing strengths and weaknesses include:
- Strengths: "One of the film's key strengths is...", "The author rightly points out...", "The performance is particularly effective in its..."
- Limitations: "However, the argument is less convincing when...", "A significant weakness is...", "The film falls short of its goal to..."
The Concession Technique
One of the most powerful ways to present a balanced view is through concession: acknowledging a valid point from the "other side" before presenting your main point. This shows you're not arguing from a biased position.
Here’s how this might look in an entertainment review:
"The visual effects are, without a doubt, spectacular, creating a world that feels both vast and lived-in. However, this stunning craftsmanship is in service of a story that feels disappointingly familiar."
This approach is much more credible than simply stating, "The story is unoriginal."
4. Your Turn: Revising a One-Sided Review
Let's put this into practice. Below is a paragraph from a purely negative review of a new TV fantasy series, Chronicles of the Sunstone.
Original (One-Sided) Paragraph:
Chronicles of the Sunstone is a tedious slog from start to finish. The plot is a tangled mess of tired fantasy tropes, from a "chosen one" farm boy to a wise old mentor who speaks only in riddles. The dialogue is so stilted and unnatural that it pulls you out of every scene, making it impossible to care about the characters or their supposedly epic quest. It’s a derivative and lifeless addition to an already oversaturated genre.
Your task is to revise this paragraph to be more balanced. Assume that while the plot and dialogue are weak, the show's costume and set design are exceptionally beautiful and detailed.
Rewrite the paragraph (around 4-5 sentences) to incorporate this strength using the concession technique. Acknowledge the impressive design work before making your critique about the plot and dialogue.
Click here to see a sample revision.
Here is one possible way to revise the paragraph:
Visually, Chronicles of the Sunstone is an undeniable triumph. The costume and set design are breathtaking, with a level of intricate detail that makes the world feel ancient and real. Unfortunately, this stunning visual artistry is wasted on a plot that feels like a checklist of tired fantasy tropes, from a "chosen one" farm boy to a wise old mentor who speaks only in riddles. The stilted dialogue further breaks the spell, making it impossible for the show's beauty to mask its derivative and lifeless core.
Notice how this version:
- Starts by acknowledging a clear strength (the design).
- Uses a transition word ("Unfortunately,") to pivot to the critique.
- Connects the two sides, arguing that the strength (visuals) is "wasted on" or "can't mask" the weakness (writing).
- Retains the core criticism but presents it in a more credible, authoritative way.
Conclusion
Today, we've moved from simply stating an opinion to building a sophisticated critical argument. By learning to see and articulate both the strengths and weaknesses of a work, you equip yourself to write reviews that are not only more persuasive but also more fair and insightful.
Key Takeaways:
- Balanced reviews enhance your credibility as a critic. Avoid writing simple "good/bad" or purely personal takes.
- Evaluate a work against clear criteria (e.g., craft, coherence, originality) to identify both its successes and failures.
- Use the concession technique—acknowledging a strength before critiquing a weakness, or vice-versa—to structure a balanced argument.
- Employ transitional words and phrases to guide your reader smoothly between praise and criticism.
In our final lesson of this module, we will explore how to write a compelling closing that reinforces your review's central argument. A well-balanced review sets the stage perfectly for a powerful conclusion, allowing you to deliver your final verdict with authority and nuance.