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Section 2: Recipe No. 11 | Admit your mistakes
Both newspaper sections tell the stories of business people who sold out too quickly; hung on too long; failed to manage staff well enough; didn’t communicate with their customers; ignored their instinct; or paid the price for underestimating their competition. If you’re brave, you could write about your mistakes. Or there are other options.
Mistakes other people make
You could offer advice. If you own a web design company do you look at other people’s websites and cringe? Why? What are they doing that’s so wrong? If you are in PR, marketing or advertising, I’m sure you can think of a blunder or two to talk about, either specific industry examples, or general pointers.
Frugal Marketing
Take a look at Frugal Marketing where Keith Price, author of the ‘Copywriter ’s Dirty Little Secret’ e-book writes an article about ‘The Apprentice’, Donald Trump’s television show. Each week, he highlights contestants’ mistakes and offers marketing advice. This is a great way of piggybacking a popular television show that attract millions of viewers and press attention.
Frugal marketing creates content based on the popular television series, ‘The Apprentice’.
How can you use your knowledge and experience to show people how to avoid the oversights and failures made by others?
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Review a book
Writing a book review is a great opportunity to create a keyword rich webpage. And a chance to give an honest reaction to someone else’s work. But how do you make sure your critique is both fair and valuable for your readers?
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Question everything
A good review will contain information about the book’s content and a judgment about how successful the book is. To judge success, you need to know what the author ’s aims are. Research is essential. Find out as much as you can about the author ’s viewpoint and purpose.
I’m going to show how I constructed a review of Mark J Penn’s ‘ Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Today ’s Big Changes ’. Many of the points I make can be applied to fiction reviews, but I’m primarily concerned with non- fiction reviews.
I started by reading the blurb on the back, the
introduction and the writer’s biography. The cover of Penn’s book includes endorsements from Bill Clinton, the former US President, and Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. Both men were Penn’s former employers, and I was able to mention this pertinent fact in the review.
Make notes as you read
My next step was to read the book. However, I did so in a particular way, questioning every assumption
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and argument I found. Have your notebook open as you read and note page numbers when you find an interesting point or idea. You may want to place ‘post-it’ notes on important pages. This process makes writing the review easier.
Don’t judge a book by its title
When I saw the title, I thought ‘Microtrends’ would be a dry piece of writing, all technical language and no color. Let’s be honest, ‘Microtrends’ is hardly a sexy title, is it? In reality, I found the book to be interesting and informative. The fact that the book surprised me formed the basis of my critique, so I chose to lead on that point in my introduction.
Good structure is essential
Critiquing someone else’s work is a real responsibility. So, you should think carefully about what you want to say. Your review should combine analysis of the book’s content with a personal response to the subject matter. Reviewers will want to know:
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Section 2: Recipe No. 12 | Review a book
• What the book is about
• So what – why should they read it?
When writing a review, you should describe the content, analyze how the book tried to achieve its aims, and express your own reaction to it.
Microtrends
After reading ‘Microtrends’, I scribbled down a rough structure. It’s a great way of deciding which points you want to cover. Here’s what I wrote:
•
Introduction. You should include the title of the book in the opening paragraph.
• Look at the book’s introduction. If it is well written, it will set the tone and
context. Is there anything you can pull out of it that helps you analyze its content in a wider context?
• A description of the author. Who is he/she? What other books have they
written? Are they an expert in this field?
• What promises does the book make? What are the most appropriate criteria
for judging it?
• What questions or debates does the book raise ? How topical or important
is it?
•
Are there any problems or difficulties?
• What does the writer say that you disagree with? What has the author left
out?
• Why would anyone read it? Think about your target audience — what are they
likely to think about the book?
• Does it belong to a particular genre? Does it fit into a type - mystery,
romance, or business?
• How does it compare to other books that look at a similar issue? Does
it contain any new opinions? What are they?
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Section 2: Recipe No. 12 | Review a book
•
Has it changed your mind about anything?
Hot Tip
Try to mention the name of the author and the book title in your introduction — it is frustrating to read a review of a book but not know who wrote it and what the title is.
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• Conclusion. This is where you should make a clear recommendation to your
readers.
Use this outline to create a basic structure. It’s up to you to fill in the gaps, while maintaining logical thought and flow. Pick three or four examples from the book that back up the points you make.
Hints on writing
As a guideline you might want to dedicate the first two-thirds of the review to the author ’s main ideas. The remainder of your copy should evaluate the book.
When writing, make sure any quotes you lift from the book are put in quotation marks (“”). This avoids confusion. When you re-read your drafts, always go back to the page you have taken the quotes from and double-check for accuracy. The concluding paragraph should sum up your central argument and judgment. Never introduce a new idea at this stage.
Pros and cons
If it helps, you can make a list of pros and cons before writing. The most positive point I made about Penn’s work was that he personalized Microtrends by using his own experiences in business. I was frustrated, however, by being bombarded with statistics. I wanted more analysis and included this comment in my review.
Being critical of someone else’s work doesn’t sit comfortably with many people. But, as a writer you are providing a service. So if you disagree with the author, tell your readers how you feel. You’ll be providing great material for a debate.
Try to include a few short quotes from the book to illustrate your points. It is a way of giving your readers a sense of the author ’s style.
Once you’ve written a review, take a break. Don’t publish straight away. Have a day or two away from it. A fresh perspective will help you edit the piece more thoroughly. Revisit your notes, re-read key chapters of the text, and hone your copy, so that it’s easy to read, clear and accessible.
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Review a product
How do you choose which products you buy? Do you believe every word the salesman tells you? Or, do you ask your friends’ and colleagues’ opinions and try to get an independent assessment before you buy?
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Savvy consumers will be looking for product reviews. Provide them on your site and you are likely to attract traffic.
Decide which product you are going to review. It should be relevant to your market and appeal to a section of your target audience.
You could look at a new software package, a piece of equipment such as a cell phone, or an experience such as a museum trip — as long as that’s appropriate for your audience.
Here’s an example of a product that two writers reviewed very differently. In October 2007 Apple launched an updated operating system, Mac 0S X, dubbed ‘Leopard‘, to a worldwide audience. Apple sold over 2 million copies in the first weekend, and this created a flurry of online activity with people eager to share their experiences.
Macworld.com
Jason Snell of Macworld.com, an independent online
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magazine that provides news and reviews of Mac products, gives his thoughts on Leopard .
In his introduction he sets out the promises Apple makes in relation to the product, such as improved security. Snell discusses the major features, using headings to break up the review.
In places his language is technical and the article is long by internet standards (nearly 3,000 words). These factors matter less if his readers are technically minded and already familiar with Mac products. He splits the review into chunks to make it easier to digest.
In his closing paragraph, “Macworld’s buying advice”, Snell poses the question: are the new features worth $129? His answer is clear. Yes, the features justify the price.
Techcrunch
A review by Duncan Riley for Techcrunch.com on Mac’s Leopard takes a less technical approach. He writes in the first person, making his a much more personal review. At 740 words, the review is much shorter than Snell’s. Riley ’s approach is more practical. First, he describes the installation of the software, “The first thing that
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