A review
- 1. A review The basic plan for the review of a book or film should be: Introduction/background Plot General comments Recommendation To start the introduction we could use something like: The book/film shows/concerns/deals with/describes/tells the story of /is based on…You can also give “technical” information: The film is directed/produced by…, It stars…, It is set in…, The book has been written by…, It is illustrated/published by… To tell the plot, you give all the details of the story in chronological order so you will have to use connectors .As for the tenses, it is common to use the present simple: It tells the story of a woman who lives in the South of the USA. In the general comments you may want to give your opinion. Remember to use a good variety of adjectives, not just “good”, “bad”, “beautiful”, “interesting” or “boring”: extraordinary, fantastic, fascinating, amazing, superb, thrilling, brilliant, original, amusing, entertaining, exciting, unimaginative, humourless, awful, predictable, disappointing, unconvincing, etc. You may want to mention the good and bad aspects in one sentence, so you will have to use words to make contrasting points: On the one hand…on the other hand…, Although…, Despite/in spite of…, Whereas …, However…, Nevertheless… Finally, you give your “verdict”: “All in all/In the last analysis/ In conclusion I can thoroughly recommend this book/film because…” , or “I find this book/film rather… so I would not recommend it”.