Hello all, I had my reveiw for "Hanging In The Balance" by Metal Church rejected a few weeks ago and the moderator who was assigned to it said that they tend to steer away from "Shopping List- style reveiws". It is no huge deal, I just organized it into paragraphs and it was approved, but I was wondering why people stter away from those types of reveiws. (If you check, come of my reveiws have the song name than my thoughts on it. I think that is what is meant by Shopping list style ) Thanks, Kevin

Why don't you post the review here and someone will take a look at it?

I dont have the original draft of it handy but I will attempt to find it. Thanks.

I agree with the above poster, we can give a better answer after we've read your review.

Still, shopping list reviews are generally rejected because they are just not very pleasant to read. When you think of it, a review (and really any type of article) is basically a collection of thoughts and arguments put to paper. For these thoughts and arguments to be convincing, there has to be some sort of logical order, so that it is easier for the reader to understand where you're coming from. Shopping list reviews tend to be too concise in that arguments are not elaborated upon very often, and the lack of a flow whilst reading makes it hard to maintain concentration while reading, which also compromises the value of the arguments.

You're right when you say that, in the end, the shopping list review and the more essay-like review will say roughly the same thing, but that doesn't change that the latter is just a whole lot more functional for the reader. You can compare it to spelling something correctly or incorrectly. If you were to post in SMS-style, I'd still understand you, but I'd have to try harder and your thoughts would not come across as well.

Hope that made sense.

I see. I was typing the reveiw on the fly during my last hour class for 2 days (well... I take the on the fly part back). I think that the shopping list style is simpler to write, but now I do agree, it is not as fun to read as the SMS style. I posted my original reveiw in that thread that oneyoudontknow gave me the link for. Thanks for the help. Kevin

Dude, it's spelled review. At first I thought it was a typo, but you persist in misspelling the word several times in the thread... no wonder your review gets rejected.

As for the original draft, it should still be there under "My reviews", unless you deleted it yourself...

Actually, I happened to catch the rampant mispelling of review a few days before you posted this. I felt a bit stupid for mispelling a simple word such as that. Sorry for that.

I read the original review when it was in the queue. The problem with the 'ol shopper's list is that it tends to discuss every song, which usually isn't necessary, meanwhile more esoteric ingredients of the album can be glanced over or ignored completely. These are sometimes the most important aspects of a release. In addition and simply put, a review not only looks better, but flows better in essay format.

Thanks gutterscream. I resubmitted it in an essay format a while back, and that is how I am doing reviews now. Thanks again, K.G