places review essay

Writing the Perfect Destination Review

As a follow up to her earlier Guest Article….

“ Writing The Perfect Lodging Review “,

…well-known professional travel writer and Uptake Lodging Editor Nancy D. Brown takes a break from her perpetual traveling to share with us more of her sage advice on writing travel reviews.

Here are her tips on writing that perfect destination review :

Set the Hook – Draw the Reader In

“As the train pulled into the station, it appeared strangely quiet in Bordeaux, France. Grabbing our backpacks, we walked into town to secure lodging for the night. After numerous rejections from French pensions, we turned our attention toward food. Certainly we could find a room at an Inn serving local wine country cuisine, right?”

The above paragraph is from an article I wrote for Diablo magazine about how food relates to travel .

The introduction to the article is an example of a nut graf ; which is editorial slang for defining the news value in a story. The descriptive lede ( yes, more journalism speak ) is meant to draw the reader into the story . Ideally, your lede should paint a picture for the reader; draw them in and, set the hook, so to speak.

This is a much better approach to writing a vacation destination review than, “Our train stopped in Bordeaux, France. We went to look for lodging. We couldn’t find any restaurants that were open.”

Vacation Destination as Service Piece

Service pieces, such as “Insider Tips” or “Things to See and Do” for specific travel destinations, are meant as informational articles for the reader. Similar to writing a lodging review, it is vital to include the five Ws : Who, What, When, Where, Why ( and, whenever possible, how much ) as those are the typical questions a reader needs answered before determining their vacation destination.

“The first place I take a visitor from out of town is to the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, amazing trails right in downtown with views of mountain ranges, and the waters of Cook Inlet, and along the trail Earthquake Park.”
“When I crave a local brewpub I turn to Glacier BrewHouse, FireTap Alehouse or Snow Goose Restaurant, where I can dine on local favorites like the fresh catch of the day, a wood-fired pizza, and wash it all down with a local microbrew.”
“To escape work I head for the trails the wind through Anchorage Parks and greenbelts for a run, a bike, or a quick cross-country ski.”

The above “Insider Tips” were taken from a post I wrote on the “ Best Things to See and Do in Anchorage, Alaska “, for my “ What a Trip ” blog.

Convention & Visitor Bureaus and PR Professionals as Partners

As a public relations professional and travel writer, I work both sides of the media fence. As a PR pro, part of my job is to provide information about my clients to members of the media. As a working journalist, I LOVE working with professional PR folks.

As Lisa Gerber of Big Leap Creative says in her article Why I Fired A Travel Writer , “You have an editor and/or a readership that you answer to, and I have a client that I answer to. Mutual understanding of our respective business models gets us so much more out of life.”

Position Yourself as a Vacation Destination Review Expert

Case in point, I was asked by the Chicago Tribune to write a service piece on “ How to Watch the Iditarod Sled Dog Race ” while visiting Alaska. The travel editor found me online through one of the many vacation destination reviews I had written about Alaska.

I had successfully positioned myself as an expert in the field.

Be a Destination Review Expert in Your Backyard

If you are new to travel writing or travel blogging, I strongly suggest you toil in your own vineyard, initially. After all, who is more qualified to write a vacation destination review on your hometown? Establish yourself as a local expert , write a column for your local newspaper and then venture outside the box to wider ranging vacation destination venues.

Select Your Travel Writing Style

Your travel writing style will depend on the publication or editorial outlet where your vacation destination review will appear.

In newspapers and magazine, articles are typically written in third person. Quotes from outside sources are important to bring credibility and differing perspectives to your article.

First person perspective is more commonly found when writing for travel blogs. Entire vacation destination reviews are often written from the travel blogger’s point of view.

What type of travel writing speaks to you? Select some of your favorite travel writers and publications and craft your vacation destination reviews in a similar fashion.

Eventually, you will find your own voice and writing style that fits your personality.

Do you write destination reviews? Share your tips!

Get Published
Improve Your Writing
Nancy D. Brown
Travel Blogging
Travel Writing

Horse lovers will find her on the Writing Horseback blog. She is a BootsnAll Insider for California and has contributed to InsideBayArea, Uptake.com and Write to Travel blogs. She is a member of Bay Area Travel Writers (BATW), BlogHer , Matador and Travelwriters.com . She also owns a public relations consulting business.

10 Comments

Great tips, Nancy!

Thanks, Christy. What are your tips on writing the Perfect Destination Review?

I think you pretty much covered the main points. I like how you pointed out how the first paragraph needs to draw the reader into the story. This point is often overlooked by writers, but it’s definitely worth the time and effort.

Since it is important to me personally, I also include if a place is kid-friendly (and how), and about the disability access. Not everyone wants to know this, but many people do.

Great article!

Great points, Jessie! A lot of folks would also be interested in pet-friendly destinations.

Hi Nancy: I like this post. It is like Travel Writing 101, brief but concise.

As a journalist, I can’t emphasize the need for a nut graf – as it functions like a thesis statement. It keeps your writing focused and tight.

Thanks for tips, especially for 5 Ws.

Great tips and very useful. It sounds pretty much like writing news when providing information. Tricky part is keeping your write up lively and enticing to the readers.

Thanks for the positive feed back everyone!

Thanks for such wonderful tips! I dont have a travel site but I think this could be used in any type of copy. Wonderful post.

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A restaurant review

Learn how to write a restaurant review.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.

Preparation

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Vega, New York

Reviewed yesterday

Great mains, pity about the chips

Came for lunch with my sister. We loved our Thai-style mains which were amazing with lots of flavour, very impressive for a vegetarian restaurant.

But the service was below average and the chips were too terrible to finish.

When we arrived at 1.40, we had to wait 20 minutes while they got our table ready. OK, so we didn't have a reservation, but the restaurant was only half full. There was no reason to make us wait at all.

We ordered the chips as a side dish and they looked delicious. But, when we tasted them, they were overcooked and swimming in oil so we left most of them. We expected a lot more for $10!

When the waiter asked if everything was ok, we said we really didn't like the chips and he said 'That's funny, I love them' and that was it. He didn't offer us anything else or take them off our bill. Also, when we didn't leave a tip, he looked annoyed.

I was really excited about visiting Vega, and the mains were just fantastic, but the rest of the experience was really disappointing.

Use an informal or semi-formal style.
In the title, give the main idea or opinion.
Write about the important parts of the experience, not every detail.
Organise your ideas into paragraphs.
Write about the good and the bad.

Have you ever had a bad meal in a restaurant?

Language level

Delicious food, shame about service.

Me and my family came for dinner. We loved our Butterfly Burger mains, which were so amazing and tasted so good!

However, the service was quite slow and not the best experience.

We had to wait for the table for around thirty minutes after we got there.

The price was too expensive, costing a whooping £11.50 for just the burger, and that doesn’t include any drinks.

I would recommend if you like delicious food, I would give it 4 stars.

I loved the mains, but the side order was oily. Me and my sister, we had to wait for at least 30 minutes, we knew that we don't have a reservation, but there were just 5 costumers. The service was good, but the side order was swimming in oil.

Recently we visited an spanish restaurant where in theory offered a good meat dishes.

I asked for a ribeye medium rare, but they brought the meat rare. I ate the meat thinking that at the end the flavour would be great but it didn't.

I have one situation,when I went to the cafe and I order cheese cakes,but when waiteress put me my dish I saw that the plate has finger marks and I asked that she take me new one,replace meal.After I had new dish and I was very satisfade myself that not agree for less.

I had a bad experience with one cafe. I came with my sister and we ordered coffee, green tea and some desserts. Staff was not friendly and looked to us annoyed. When drinks arrived my sister try a green tea and it was so bad. It taste like a cheapest green tea in the world in my opinion. But price was too expensive for one cup of regular green tea. Coffe and desserts also was not very tasty. Staff saw we are not satisfied with food and they was just didnt care. I was shoked about it because its very popular mains cafe in my city. I leave a negative respond in google maps, cause i never had such a bad expirience

The last week I tried a cute coffee shop near my house. I think is my favorite place to get a coffee and peace time. First, the place was very nice with fall decorations. Second, the service was kind and fast, they explained me so clear somethings about the menu. Also, the food arrived really fast and the Chef walked to my table to give my food (I felt so special). Finally when I check the bill, I was in shock because was cheap. It was best bacon Sandwich I have ever eaten!

A good recommendation doesn't become a good meal! I can't say I have had a bad meal in any restaurant but I had a bad experience in a one Michelin Star Restaurant recommended by a good friend. That day, enjoying a walk around where the restaurant were located, my husband and I decided to ask for a reservation that night, but the chef told us it where all fully booked. Well, hours later, when we where going home, we saw the restaurant almost empty and we came in to ask why he told us they were all booked. The chef, invited us very annoyingly to leave the restaurant without any explanation. Next day in restaurant's web we leave a review saying what happend. The chef answered us in the same arrogant attitude, without any acceptable explanation.

I went with my sister, my mom, and my uncle to an ice cream place; it was great inside, Mario and Luigi drew and a lot of decorations, so we sat, but we needed to wait for 30 minutes there without any attention, so we decided to left the site, the person that was working there asked us why we were leaving the place, but we didn´t say anything and we went off that place without a word.

Mexico restaurant, Fukuoka

The interior design is great, the food and service are terrible. When I visited Fukuoka city with my girlfriend for the first time, we tried Mexican food for the first time in our lives. We both thought the restaurant looked great and its dishes must be delicious. So we ordered 4 dishes, and all looked so cheap even though they were expensive. I think they use instant food, instead of cooking real dishes. They also took table fees and service fees too. I don't think it is reasonable to take such a fee.

Yes,I had a very bad meal when I and my family went to a near restaurant and we ordered pizza and fajita, unfortunately the meal was too bad ,so we couldn't complete the meal.

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ESSAY SAUCE

FOR STUDENTS : ALL THE INGREDIENTS OF A GOOD ESSAY

Guide: How to write a review essay

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A review essay examines a piece of writing, a film or some other form of art, but it differs from a literary essay in a couple of key ways. A review essay is evaluative . That means that its purpose is to tell the reader whether the work is good or not and whether the work is recommended. Also, unlike a literary essay, a review essay is not written for someone who is already familiar with the work in question. The audience for a review essay is someone who is wondering whether to spend their time and money on the work reviewed. A review essay may contain more plot summary than a literary essay , but it shouldn’t give away any of the major revelations or the ending.

Read Sample Reviews

Reviews are common in journalism, and examples of reviews of everything from movies to video games to computer software and more can be found online. Reading a few reviews of films and books from major publications such as nationally known magazines or large city newspapers can be a good way to get a sense of what is expected in a review essay.

Characteristics of a Good Review Essay

A good review essay will place the work in some sort of context. For example, a good review about a movie that tells the story of traveling circus people would briefly mention other movies about traveling circus people and how this film compares with those others or how it fits into the overall picture of traveling circus people that film has presented over the years. In a literary essay, this might be the whole point of the paper, but in a review essay, it would only be a paragraph or two. The introduction or the paragraph just after the introduction is a good place for this context.

A review essay is somewhat subjective, but it still needs to have standards and examples to demonstrate its points. It needs to give some reasons that the work is good or bad and it needs to support those reasons. This will help the audience to decide whether to follow the reviewer’s advice.

Thesis Statement

A thesis statement for a review essay should make an evaluation of the film and explain why the writer has made that evaluation. Here’s an example:

“Sideshow on the Road” is a terrible movie about traveling circus people with poor acting, an implausible plot and a boring, talky script.

The body of the review would then expand on these reasons to convince the reader to avoid the film.

The review itself should use specific examples from the work to illustrate the reviewer’s point. For example, the reviewer has complained about the poor acting in the movie. To illustrate this, the reviewer might describe a scene in which a character learns a loved one has died and seems to have no reaction at all. The boring, talky script might be illustrated by explaining that the characters spend a full ten minutes arguing about whether they took a wrong turn.

Review essays may be formal or informal and may be more or less personal. Depending on the style of the review, “I” may or may not be used. More informal reviews may use humor, sarcasm and personal stories to highlight points about the work in question. Formal reviews should avoid these devices. With tone, it’s important to stay consistent. If a formal tone is chosen, it should be maintained throughout the piece, and the same is true for an informal tone.

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22 Profile of a Place

A profile of a place will need to:

Develop a controlling idea that guides the piece.
Integrate primary research.
Provide sensory details to create a sense of connection.
Feature stories that establish a place as culturally significant.
Appeal to a specific audience.

What is this genre about? A profile of a place blends the sensory details of a narrative with primary research (e.g., interviews or observations) to reveal the rich history and cultural significance of a particular site. In a sense, a profile of a place is a report, but it also goes above and beyond the traditional parameters of a report. These profiles may weave together accounts from interviewees, community documents, or even archival information to say something grand or thoughtful about a place that has shaped a community (or been shaped by one). You’ll want to 1) choose a physical place, 2) interview at least one person about your chosen place, 3) connect this place to themes and ideas of cultural relevance or interest, and 4) share stories and details that demonstrate why this place is important.

What are the expectations? Much like an intriguing portrait, a successful profile of a place should bring into focus a controlling idea that shares a larger theme or message about the place being profiled. The controlling idea is supported through specific, insightful details, stories, and visuals (rhetorical conventions of the genre), and it revolves around an idea that is complex but understandable – rather than obvious or cliché. The writer establishes a conversational but trustworthy tone as an expert on the place, guiding the reader along almost as if the writer were a tour guide or a museum docent describing the many stories and layers informing a piece of art.

Readers also expect a profile of a place to include at least one primary source (in the form of an interview or observation) and secondary sources (articles on the history of the place) that are smoothly integrated into the piece. Well-placed and cited images should be featured in a way that enhances the controlling idea. What’s more, be sure to think about how you’ll organize the piece. You may want to approach your reporting on the place chronologically, or you may want to surprise readers by beginning in the present day, moving into the past, and then ending with an eye toward the future.

Why does this genre matter? In many sectors of industry, people are asked to define the spaces they move through. Journalists write profiles of places that are of interest to people in their community. Non-profit organizations have to write compelling accounts of places they serve. And businesses need to write descriptions of physical places that entice readers to come visit. Not to mention that oftentimes taken-for-granted meaning lies within the spaces we move through or walk by every day.

What are examples of this genre?

”The Baker Hotel”
“Curiosity Killed the Cadillacs”
“Old Main Building – TWU”

Additional Resources

“Write a Place Profile”

Share This Book

B2 Place Review Video

The main purpose is to describe and express a personal opinion about something which you have experienced and to give the reader a clear impression of what the item discussed is like.

More exercises available:

You are required to produce two pieces of writing. The first piece is compulsory and will be an essay of 140-190 words. For the second, you can choose from an article, email/letter, essay, review or report (B2 First for schools the report is replaced with a short story) of 140-190 words.

B2 Article Video
B2 Book Review Video
B2 Descriptive Email Video
B2 Short Story Video
B2 Cities of the Future
B2 Fast Food
B2 Following Fashion
B2 Live Concert
B2 Pollution Problems
B2 Taking a Gap Year
B2 A Work of Art
B2 Being a Celebrity
B2 Life Away
B2 Preventing Crime
B2 School Improvement
B2 Shopping Online
B2 Tablet or Laptop
B2 The Countryside
School Canteen
B2 A School Trip to Italy
B2 An Important Day
B2 Forgetful Girl
The Hidden Beach
The Lost Photo
B2 IMDb Website Review
B2 Jurassic Park Book Review
B2 Mountain Bike Park
B2 Romeo and Juliet Play Review
B2 Ted Film Review
Scarlett Animation Review
B2 Berlin Travel Report
B2 Shops Report
B2 Visiting Places Report
B2 Birthday Party Letter
B2 Computer Games Email
B2 Favourite Film Email
B2 Holiday in Thailand Email
B2 New Attraction Letter
B2 Place to Visit Email
B2 Spending Money Email
B2 Visiting Relative Email

You need to be able to understand a range of texts, including how they are organised and the opinions and attitudes expressed in them. The texts will be from sources familiar to you such as magazines, articles, fiction and advertisements, but targeted at the interests of students.

Students’ use of English will be tested by tasks which show how well they can control their grammar and vocabulary.

Use of English Part 1
Use of English Part 2
Use of English Part 3
Use of English Part 4
Reading Part 5
Reading Part 6
Reading Part 7

For this part, you practice vocabulary by using words with similar meanings, collocations, linking phrases, phrasal verbs, etc.

B2 First Use of English Video
Becoming Famous
Cycling Scheme
Film Stars and Music Celebrities
Going on a diet
Single or Mixed Sex Schools
The History of Football
The Poor and Less Fortunate
The Special Bus
Why do we need to play?

For this part, you practice grammar and vocabulary.

Better swimming
Cardboard Bike
Dealing with waste plastic
Drinking Water
Fit for Sports
Following Your Nose
Growing Bananas
Holiday with a Friend
Making Perfume
The Farm Trip
The Jobs Market
Tree Climbing
Weather Forecasting
Young Enterprise

For this part, you practice vocabulary word-building by changing different words using a base word.

Angel of Mercy
Fast Food Industry
Life on Other Planets
Music in Schools
Mystery Weekend Break
Pollution Problems
Understanding Time
Workforce on the Move

For this part, you have to express a message in different ways showing flexibility and resource in the use of language.

B2 First Use of English Part 4
B2 Key Word Transformation 1
B2 Key Word Transformation 10
B2 Key Word Transformation 2
B2 Key Word Transformation 3
B2 Key Word Transformation 4
B2 Key Word Transformation 5
B2 Key Word Transformation 6
B2 Key Word Transformation 7
B2 Key Word Transformation 8
B2 Key Word Transformation 9

For this part, you practice how to understand the details of a text, including opinions and attitudes.

Cycling to India
Hottest Place on Earth
Living and Working in Another Country
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Wrestler who Wrote a Book

For this part, you practice how to understand the structure and follow the development of a text.

Benefits of Getting Fit
Our Polluted World

For this part, you practice how to find specific information in a text or texts.

Collecting Things
English Seaside Resorts
Teenage Summer Camps

Requires being able to follow and understand a range of familiar spoken materials, such as news programmes, public announcements and other sources, but targeted at the interests of the learners.

Speaking Part 1
Speaking Part 2
Speaking Part 3
Speaking Part 4
Listening Part 1
Listening Part 2
Listening Part 3
Listening Part 4

In this part you talk to the examiner about yourself and your life, e.g. your name, school, interests and future plans.

B2 Speaking Part 1 Exercise 1 B2 Speaking Part 1 Exercise 2 B2 Speaking Part 1 Exercise 3

In this part, you talk about two photos on your own which you have to compare for about 1 minute . After you have finished, your partner will be asked a short question about your photo. When your partner has spoken about their photos for about 1 minute , you will be asked a question about their photos.

B2 Speaking Part 2 Exercise 1

In this part you express ideas with your partner by looking at a discussion point that the examiner gives you.

This will be available soon.

In this part, you focus on general aspects of a topic with the examiner or you may involve your partner.

In this part, you will hear people talking in eight different situations.

Entertainment Short Conversations Talking about Sports

In this part, you will hear someone being interviewed.

Extreme Snowboarding Future Options Newly Published Book Sailing around the World The Talent Show

In this part, you will hear five people talking about different things.

A Good Teacher Demonstration

In this part, you will hear an interview.

Mountain Climbing Weekend

Customs and Traditions
Entertainment and Leisure
Environmental and Nature
Future Jobs and Education
Identity and Well-being
Travel and Adventure

Customs and Traditions explores how we celebrate our cultural identity across the globe.

Christmas Hard Exercises
Story of Halloween
Valentine Message

Entertainment and Leisure explores how we spent our free time.

Going Shopping

Environment and Nature explores the way humans and animals live, adapt and change on our planet.

Global Changes

Exploring how different societies create roles for people to develop their skills and knowledge.

Future Schools
Sport at School
School Rules
Fashion Design

Exploring how we learn and adjust to the world around us. .

Taking Risks
Natural Disasters

Exploring how we experience the world through our life journeys

Travelling around the World

Cambridge English exams are designed for learners at all levels from the pre-intermediate level Cambridge English: Key (KET) to the very advanced level Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE). These exams give candidates proof of their ability to use English in a wide variety of contexts, relevant to work, study and leisure activities.

A2 Key | B1 Preliminary | B2 First

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The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Book Reviews

What this handout is about.

This handout will help you write a book review, a report or essay that offers a critical perspective on a text. It offers a process and suggests some strategies for writing book reviews.

What is a review?

A review is a critical evaluation of a text, event, object, or phenomenon. Reviews can consider books, articles, entire genres or fields of literature, architecture, art, fashion, restaurants, policies, exhibitions, performances, and many other forms. This handout will focus on book reviews. For a similar assignment, see our handout on literature reviews .

Above all, a review makes an argument. The most important element of a review is that it is a commentary, not merely a summary. It allows you to enter into dialogue and discussion with the work’s creator and with other audiences. You can offer agreement or disagreement and identify where you find the work exemplary or deficient in its knowledge, judgments, or organization. You should clearly state your opinion of the work in question, and that statement will probably resemble other types of academic writing, with a thesis statement, supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Typically, reviews are brief. In newspapers and academic journals, they rarely exceed 1000 words, although you may encounter lengthier assignments and extended commentaries. In either case, reviews need to be succinct. While they vary in tone, subject, and style, they share some common features:

First, a review gives the reader a concise summary of the content. This includes a relevant description of the topic as well as its overall perspective, argument, or purpose.
Second, and more importantly, a review offers a critical assessment of the content. This involves your reactions to the work under review: what strikes you as noteworthy, whether or not it was effective or persuasive, and how it enhanced your understanding of the issues at hand.
Finally, in addition to analyzing the work, a review often suggests whether or not the audience would appreciate it.

Becoming an expert reviewer: three short examples

Reviewing can be a daunting task. Someone has asked for your opinion about something that you may feel unqualified to evaluate. Who are you to criticize Toni Morrison’s new book if you’ve never written a novel yourself, much less won a Nobel Prize? The point is that someone—a professor, a journal editor, peers in a study group—wants to know what you think about a particular work. You may not be (or feel like) an expert, but you need to pretend to be one for your particular audience. Nobody expects you to be the intellectual equal of the work’s creator, but your careful observations can provide you with the raw material to make reasoned judgments. Tactfully voicing agreement and disagreement, praise and criticism, is a valuable, challenging skill, and like many forms of writing, reviews require you to provide concrete evidence for your assertions.

Consider the following brief book review written for a history course on medieval Europe by a student who is fascinated with beer:

Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600, investigates how women used to brew and sell the majority of ale drunk in England. Historically, ale and beer (not milk, wine, or water) were important elements of the English diet. Ale brewing was low-skill and low status labor that was complimentary to women’s domestic responsibilities. In the early fifteenth century, brewers began to make ale with hops, and they called this new drink “beer.” This technique allowed brewers to produce their beverages at a lower cost and to sell it more easily, although women generally stopped brewing once the business became more profitable.

The student describes the subject of the book and provides an accurate summary of its contents. But the reader does not learn some key information expected from a review: the author’s argument, the student’s appraisal of the book and its argument, and whether or not the student would recommend the book. As a critical assessment, a book review should focus on opinions, not facts and details. Summary should be kept to a minimum, and specific details should serve to illustrate arguments.

Now consider a review of the same book written by a slightly more opinionated student:

Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 was a colossal disappointment. I wanted to know about the rituals surrounding drinking in medieval England: the songs, the games, the parties. Bennett provided none of that information. I liked how the book showed ale and beer brewing as an economic activity, but the reader gets lost in the details of prices and wages. I was more interested in the private lives of the women brewsters. The book was divided into eight long chapters, and I can’t imagine why anyone would ever want to read it.

There’s no shortage of judgments in this review! But the student does not display a working knowledge of the book’s argument. The reader has a sense of what the student expected of the book, but no sense of what the author herself set out to prove. Although the student gives several reasons for the negative review, those examples do not clearly relate to each other as part of an overall evaluation—in other words, in support of a specific thesis. This review is indeed an assessment, but not a critical one.

Here is one final review of the same book:

One of feminism’s paradoxes—one that challenges many of its optimistic histories—is how patriarchy remains persistent over time. While Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 recognizes medieval women as historical actors through their ale brewing, it also shows that female agency had its limits with the advent of beer. I had assumed that those limits were religious and political, but Bennett shows how a “patriarchal equilibrium” shut women out of economic life as well. Her analysis of women’s wages in ale and beer production proves that a change in women’s work does not equate to a change in working women’s status. Contemporary feminists and historians alike should read Bennett’s book and think twice when they crack open their next brewsky.

This student’s review avoids the problems of the previous two examples. It combines balanced opinion and concrete example, a critical assessment based on an explicitly stated rationale, and a recommendation to a potential audience. The reader gets a sense of what the book’s author intended to demonstrate. Moreover, the student refers to an argument about feminist history in general that places the book in a specific genre and that reaches out to a general audience. The example of analyzing wages illustrates an argument, the analysis engages significant intellectual debates, and the reasons for the overall positive review are plainly visible. The review offers criteria, opinions, and support with which the reader can agree or disagree.

Developing an assessment: before you write

There is no definitive method to writing a review, although some critical thinking about the work at hand is necessary before you actually begin writing. Thus, writing a review is a two-step process: developing an argument about the work under consideration, and making that argument as you write an organized and well-supported draft. See our handout on argument .

What follows is a series of questions to focus your thinking as you dig into the work at hand. While the questions specifically consider book reviews, you can easily transpose them to an analysis of performances, exhibitions, and other review subjects. Don’t feel obligated to address each of the questions; some will be more relevant than others to the book in question.

What is the thesis—or main argument—of the book? If the author wanted you to get one idea from the book, what would it be? How does it compare or contrast to the world you know? What has the book accomplished?
What exactly is the subject or topic of the book? Does the author cover the subject adequately? Does the author cover all aspects of the subject in a balanced fashion? What is the approach to the subject (topical, analytical, chronological, descriptive)?
How does the author support their argument? What evidence do they use to prove their point? Do you find that evidence convincing? Why or why not? Does any of the author’s information (or conclusions) conflict with other books you’ve read, courses you’ve taken or just previous assumptions you had of the subject?
How does the author structure their argument? What are the parts that make up the whole? Does the argument make sense? Does it persuade you? Why or why not?
How has this book helped you understand the subject? Would you recommend the book to your reader?

Beyond the internal workings of the book, you may also consider some information about the author and the circumstances of the text’s production:

Who is the author? Nationality, political persuasion, training, intellectual interests, personal history, and historical context may provide crucial details about how a work takes shape. Does it matter, for example, that the biographer was the subject’s best friend? What difference would it make if the author participated in the events they write about?
What is the book’s genre? Out of what field does it emerge? Does it conform to or depart from the conventions of its genre? These questions can provide a historical or literary standard on which to base your evaluations. If you are reviewing the first book ever written on the subject, it will be important for your readers to know. Keep in mind, though, that naming “firsts”—alongside naming “bests” and “onlys”—can be a risky business unless you’re absolutely certain.

Writing the review

Once you have made your observations and assessments of the work under review, carefully survey your notes and attempt to unify your impressions into a statement that will describe the purpose or thesis of your review. Check out our handout on thesis statements . Then, outline the arguments that support your thesis.

Your arguments should develop the thesis in a logical manner. That logic, unlike more standard academic writing, may initially emphasize the author’s argument while you develop your own in the course of the review. The relative emphasis depends on the nature of the review: if readers may be more interested in the work itself, you may want to make the work and the author more prominent; if you want the review to be about your perspective and opinions, then you may structure the review to privilege your observations over (but never separate from) those of the work under review. What follows is just one of many ways to organize a review.

Introduction

Since most reviews are brief, many writers begin with a catchy quip or anecdote that succinctly delivers their argument. But you can introduce your review differently depending on the argument and audience. The Writing Center’s handout on introductions can help you find an approach that works. In general, you should include:

The name of the author and the book title and the main theme.
Relevant details about who the author is and where they stand in the genre or field of inquiry. You could also link the title to the subject to show how the title explains the subject matter.
The context of the book and/or your review. Placing your review in a framework that makes sense to your audience alerts readers to your “take” on the book. Perhaps you want to situate a book about the Cuban revolution in the context of Cold War rivalries between the United States and the Soviet Union. Another reviewer might want to consider the book in the framework of Latin American social movements. Your choice of context informs your argument.
The thesis of the book. If you are reviewing fiction, this may be difficult since novels, plays, and short stories rarely have explicit arguments. But identifying the book’s particular novelty, angle, or originality allows you to show what specific contribution the piece is trying to make.
Your thesis about the book.

Summary of content

This should be brief, as analysis takes priority. In the course of making your assessment, you’ll hopefully be backing up your assertions with concrete evidence from the book, so some summary will be dispersed throughout other parts of the review.

The necessary amount of summary also depends on your audience. Graduate students, beware! If you are writing book reviews for colleagues—to prepare for comprehensive exams, for example—you may want to devote more attention to summarizing the book’s contents. If, on the other hand, your audience has already read the book—such as a class assignment on the same work—you may have more liberty to explore more subtle points and to emphasize your own argument. See our handout on summary for more tips.

Analysis and evaluation of the book

Your analysis and evaluation should be organized into paragraphs that deal with single aspects of your argument. This arrangement can be challenging when your purpose is to consider the book as a whole, but it can help you differentiate elements of your criticism and pair assertions with evidence more clearly. You do not necessarily need to work chronologically through the book as you discuss it. Given the argument you want to make, you can organize your paragraphs more usefully by themes, methods, or other elements of the book. If you find it useful to include comparisons to other books, keep them brief so that the book under review remains in the spotlight. Avoid excessive quotation and give a specific page reference in parentheses when you do quote. Remember that you can state many of the author’s points in your own words.

Sum up or restate your thesis or make the final judgment regarding the book. You should not introduce new evidence for your argument in the conclusion. You can, however, introduce new ideas that go beyond the book if they extend the logic of your own thesis. This paragraph needs to balance the book’s strengths and weaknesses in order to unify your evaluation. Did the body of your review have three negative paragraphs and one favorable one? What do they all add up to? The Writing Center’s handout on conclusions can help you make a final assessment.

Finally, a few general considerations:

Review the book in front of you, not the book you wish the author had written. You can and should point out shortcomings or failures, but don’t criticize the book for not being something it was never intended to be.
With any luck, the author of the book worked hard to find the right words to express her ideas. You should attempt to do the same. Precise language allows you to control the tone of your review.
Never hesitate to challenge an assumption, approach, or argument. Be sure, however, to cite specific examples to back up your assertions carefully.
Try to present a balanced argument about the value of the book for its audience. You’re entitled—and sometimes obligated—to voice strong agreement or disagreement. But keep in mind that a bad book takes as long to write as a good one, and every author deserves fair treatment. Harsh judgments are difficult to prove and can give readers the sense that you were unfair in your assessment.
A great place to learn about book reviews is to look at examples. The New York Times Sunday Book Review and The New York Review of Books can show you how professional writers review books.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Drewry, John. 1974. Writing Book Reviews. Boston: Greenwood Press.

Hoge, James. 1987. Literary Reviewing. Charlottesville: University Virginia of Press.

Sova, Dawn, and Harry Teitelbaum. 2002. How to Write Book Reports , 4th ed. Lawrenceville, NY: Thomson/Arco.

Walford, A.J. 1986. Reviews and Reviewing: A Guide. Phoenix: Oryx Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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How To Write A Review: Cambridge B2 First

How to Write a Review - Cambridge B2 First | Oxford House Barcelona

Posted on 24/07/2019
Categories: Blog
Tags: B2 First , Cambridge Exams , FCE , First Certificate , Resources to learn English , Writing

Students who are taking their B2 First Certificate exam (FCE) will be asked to do two pieces of writing within an 80 minute time limit. Part 1 is always an essay . Part 2 is where you can get a bit more creative. You might, for example, be asked to write a letter, a report or a review, all of which have their own style and set guidelines.

When writing a review it can be difficult to know where to start. But don’t be afraid! We are here to help you every step of the way.

Remember a review could be for a book, a film, a magazine, a restaurant or even a product .

Three steps to writing a great review

Let’s start with something simple. Imagine. You turn over the page to your writing part 2 and you see this question:

Question taken from Cambridge Assessment English website . (Feb 2018)

Step One: Make a plan

The first thing to do is to make a plan, just like we did in our B2 First essay guidelines .

Think of a book you read in which the main character behaved in a surprising way. This could be surprising in a good way, where the character does something amazing and helps somebody. Or maybe there’s a twist at the end and the character does something really shocking. Either way take some time to really think about your choice.

E.g. I’m going to choose The Great Gatsby, because I had to read the book 3 times when I was at school and I’ve seen the film so I feel like I know it really well .

The structure

Next, think of the structure. Consider all the parts of the question and use that to help organise your review. Make notes about the following:

An interesting title
A catchy introduction
A summary of the plot
A surprising moment
Your recommendation

Remember you’re going to want to separate these with clear paragraphs that are going to help the examiner read to the end without getting a headache.

You also need to consider the tone and how the review should sound to the reader. Remember this is for a magazine. Think about all the magazines you like to read. You want to sound chatty and grab the reader’s attention, but not bore them to sleep. Think semi-formal but friendly!

Useful Vocabulary

Now brainstorm some useful vocabulary for your chosen book, including lots of adjectives. Avoid using boring adjectives like good or bad . It’s much more exciting to say ‘amazing’ and ‘disappointing’ or ‘ terrific ’ and ‘terrible’ .

Here’s some more useful vocabulary to get you started:

superficial / deceptive / fascinating / unbelievable / rich / lonely / kind / reserved/ to be set in / to be written by / prosperity / characters / jazz age / protagonist / atmosphere / author / chapter / ending / fictional towns / prohibition / novel / on the outskirts / sad story.

Your next step is to think of some linking phrases. These are going to help tie together your thoughts and bring your review to life!

Overall if you like…
I was pleasantly surprised by…
In fact…
What I disliked the most was…
The book contains…
As well as…
This well-written book…
Unbelievably…

Step Two: Write it

Once you have a solid plan, writing your review should be easy!

First start with an interesting title. E.g. The Unexpected Anti-Hero. It relates to both the book that’s being reviewed and the question. It’s also short and snappy .

Next write an engaging introduction. Maybe start with a rhetorical question, for example:

Are you a fan of the Jazz Age? Then this is the book for you!

Or a general statement about the book that will hook the reader:

The Great Gatsby is a classic, with many twists and turns.

You could also give some background information. Here we use the past simple:

The Great Gatsby was written by F.S.Fitzgerald and is set in prosperous Long Island in 1922.

The second paragraph should summarise the plot (note – we usually describe a story in present tense ):

Gatsby is a mysterious character, he has big extravagant parties, and we never know if we can trust him.

The third paragraph is where we introduce the surprising moment and reveal what the main character did and why it was surprising:

The most shocking part is when…
I couldn’t believe it when…
It was so surprising when…

In the fourth paragraph, give a recommendation! Here the examiner wants to hear your overall opinion. It can be something simple:

I strongly recommend..

Or something more inventive:

I wouldn’t read the novel again because…
Everyone should read this immediately!

But don’t forget to say why!

Step Three: Check it

Now you have your winning book review it’s time to check for all those little (and big) mistakes.

Make sure you check:

You’ve answered all parts of the question.
It is easy to read.
Your spelling is correct.
You’ve used the 3rd person(s).
You have used punctuation.
There’s a variety of nouns and adjectives.
Pick a book you know quite well! Whether it’s Harry Potter or The Hunger Games , make sure you have lots to say about it!
Don’t be afraid to give both negative and positive opinions!
Experiment with using first person and try addressing the reader with ‘you’.
Read lots of real authentic reviews online, anything from holidays to music concerts, exhibitions to video games!
Remember to put some of your own personality into your review. Have some fun with it and good luck!

Follow the links for some excellent phrases and vocabulary for other types of reviews.

Restaurant Reviews

Film Reviews

TV / Theatre Reviews

Exhibition & Concert Reviews

Here are some more sample questions for you to practice on your own:

How to write a review - Example I - Cambridge B2 First | Oxford House Barcelona

Choose one and post your reviews in the comments section.

Glossary for Language Learners

Find the following words in the article and then write down any new ones you didn’t know.

Twist (n): : a sudden change in a story that you do not expect..

Chatty (adj): having a friendly style.

Avoid doing something (v): to intentionally not do something.

Terrific (adj): excellent.

Snappy (adj): concise.

Hook (v): to catch.

adj = adjective

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Descriptive Essay

Descriptive Essay About A Place

Writing a Descriptive Essay About A Place - Guide With Examples

Understanding Descriptive Essays

A descriptive essay is a type of writing that aims to describe and portray an object, person, or place. The essay typically includes sensory details to help the reader imagine its contents more vividly. Descriptive essays can be written about a person , place, or other themes like nature , autumn , food , or even yourself .

A descriptive essay about a place should provide enough details for the reader to build a mental image of it. To do this, you need to include vivid descriptions and relevant information that could paint a picture in their minds.

Let's read some examples to see what a good descriptive essay looks like.

Examples of Descriptive Essay About Any Place

Here are some descriptive writing about a place examples:

Example of a Descriptive Essay About a Place

Descriptive Essay About a Place You Visited

Descriptive Essay About a Place Called Home

Descriptive Essay About a Place You Loved as a Child

Descriptive Essay About a Place of Interest I Visited

Descriptive Essay About a Favorite Place

Do you need more sample essays? Check out more descriptive essay examples t o get inspired.

Tips for Writing an Excellent Descriptive Essay About A Place

Now that you've read some examples of descriptive essays about places, it's time to learn how to write one yourself. Here are some tips on writing a great essay:

Choose The Right Topic

The topic of your essay should be something that you have a strong connection to or feeling about. It could be a place you've visited recently or a place from your childhood. Moreover, make sure that it's something that you can write about in enough detail to make your essay interesting.

Check out this blog with 100+ descriptive essay topics to get your creative juices flowing.

Gather Information

Gather as much information as possible about the topic of your essay. This will help you craft vivid descriptions and portray an accurate picture for your readers. Gather your observations, research online, and talk to people who have visited the place you're writing about.

Make sure to research the topic thoroughly so you can provide accurate and detailed descriptions. Read up as much as you can about the history of the place, and any interesting facts or stories about it.

Structure Your Essay

Outline your descriptive essay before beginning to write so all points flow logically from one to another throughout the entire piece.

Make sure to include a strong introduction and conclusion, as well as several body paragraphs that help support your main points.

Include Sensory Details

Use sensory language by including details such as sights, smells, tastes, sounds, etc. This helps to engage readers and transport them into the setting of your essay.

When writing a descriptive essay, make sure to include vivid descriptions that involve all five senses. This will help create a more engaging and immersive experience for your readers.

Use Vivid Language

Make sure to use strong and powerful words when describing the place you're writing about. Use metaphors and similes to bring your descriptions to life and make them more interesting for readers.

Proofread Your Essay

Proofreading is an important step in any writing process, especially when it comes to descriptive essays. Make sure to check for any typos or spelling errors that may have slipped through in your writing.

You also need to make sure that the flow of your essay is logical and coherent. Check if you've used a consistent point of view throughout, and make sure that all ideas are well-supported with evidence.

Follow these tips and examples, and you'll be well on your way to writing a great descriptive essay.

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MyPerfectWords.com offers the best custom essay writing service to help you write a great descriptive essay. Our experienced writers are here to provide high-quality and error-free work to help you get the grade you deserve. With our essay writing service, you are guaranteed a 100% original essay.

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Poetry of place: A review essay

Abstract Our Terry Hermsen's Poetry of Place: Helping Students Write Their Worlds is a remarkable book—one of the most engaging and hopeful books about teaching poetry that I know. Hermsen offers: thoughtful discussions of practice informed by theory as well as theory informed by practice; a well-conceived and carefully conducted research project; creative lessons for enthusing lively encounters in classrooms; and, engaging poetry by both well-known writers and student writers. He offers an abundance of gifts, all in one book.

Related Papers

International Journal of Welsh Writing in English 2 (2014)

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Marthe Reed

An analysis of the poetics of place for four contemporary poets, extending Foucault’s notion of the heterotopia of crisis to the poem of place, reading it as a means of recuperating relationship and connection to place.

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What does it mean to be home? We began asking this provocative question well before COVID-19, well before the collective crisis the world experienced which sent both of us back into our current homes. Exploring such a question through poetry writing may provide insights about individuals’ lived experiences, and, therefore, we contend it is worthwhile for scholars, artists and educators to widen possibilities for poetic method and craft related to writing about home. In this paper, we, two poets, arts-based education scholars, and Pittsburgh natives, offer pathways into exploring notions of home through the writing of poetry grounded in the ideas of Gaston Bachelard’s (1958/1964) seminal text, The Poetics of Space. To do so, we each offer and discuss two original poems on the topic of home to illustrate a number of compelling avenues scholars and research participants; educators and students might explore as they write poems evoking their own unique conceptions of home.

Alison Scott

Utilising a range of psychogeographic practices, this project comprises a hybrid creative response to the natural landscape of West Wales, using the River Towy as a focal point. It is concerned with an exploration of the importance of identity, and with themes of the spiritual, land, gender, culture and history. The work’s originality results from the application of predominantly male urban writing practices in a rural Welsh environment from a woman’s standpoint. The journey recounted in the creative piece is understood essentially as a transformative, personal process of a transcendental nature, whilst also exploring and depicting the nature of the differing stages of the river and those who live in or come to the specific locations, including Carmarthen, the Cambrian Mountains, Llandeilo, Llandovery, and Llansteffan. It is informed by the belief that some places are imbued with energies that may cause specific types of human interaction and responses. The project was developed thr...

Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature

Meg Mundell

This paper examines the how of literary wheres. As makers of literary works, creative writers are tasked with evoking place on the page. While the nexus of place and literature is increasingly recognised as fertile scholarly ground, the specifics of how writers actually “make” literary places remain opaque and under-researched. I seek to address this gap by exploring how literary place is constituted through creative practice. Focusing on the work of Australian writer Tony Birch, I document a range of generative tools creative writers may use to produce what I call “literary sense of place”. Drawing on interview-based case studies and key concepts from human geography, I analyse how these practitioners harness various “off-page” modes of enquiry to evoke place compellingly in textual form. While my main focus is creative practice, I also examine the resultant literary texts to help illuminate how process manifests in content. By profiling a range of “place-oriented experiential techniques (POETs)” – including site visits, memory, direct encounters, sensory attentiveness, “vicarious emplacement”, socio-cultural understandings, and happenstance – I present a fine-grained account of literary place-making from a practitioners’ perspective. I conclude that producing literary place is a generative, cumulative and associative process, in which writers mobilise a rich array of lived sensations, emotions, memories, understandings and actions. In foregrounding these “backstage” modes of creative labour, this paper helps clarify how writers deploy both personal and shared experiences to render literary place in resonant ways.

Irish Studies Review

Isobel Ní Riain

Cahiers de littérature orale

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A Small Place review – Jamaica Kincaid's polemic staged with rage and humour

Gate theatre, London This inventive performance of Kincaid’s celebrated 1988 essay has the barbed satire and bold message of the original

‘T he thing you have always suspected about yourself the minute you become a tourist is true: a tourist is an ugly human being.” So wrote the Antiguan-American writer Jamaica Kincaid in her 1988 polemical essay A Small Place. Her target was the wealthy western consumer travelling to the Caribbean island of her birth but she also took in former British colonial rule and corruption inside the Antiguan government.

This staging of Kincaid’s book is so faithful an adaptation that it performs the text in its original and entire form, spoken to the audience with no dialogue between actors. Director Anna Himali Howard underlines, rather than hides, the fact: the opening scene features an unnamed actor (Cherrelle Skeete) reading from the essay by torchlight. She puts the book away when a second actor (Nicola Alexis) joins her, but they narrate every word of the essay together.

Some of the best, most barbed parts satirise the spoiled tourists, who, like the sun-burned Americans travelling to Haiti in Roxane Gay ’s short story collection, Ayiti, turn a blind eye to the realities of islander life and suck up the five-star luxury: “You emerge from customs into the hot, clean air: immediately you feel cleansed … When you sit down to eat your delicious meal, it’s better that you don’t know that most of what you are eating came off a plane from Miami.”

What might have felt like a lecture is animated by the actors’ delivery, which bring out the script’s spiked humour and its eloquent rage. Skeete speaks with a fierce energy and occasional impishness, while Alexis projects controlled anger.

Camilla Clarke’s set is designed as a travel centre or waiting room, incorporating – and implicating – the audience as the tourists to whom Kincaid’s diatribe is addressed.

Seating is divided into several sections with props strewn in between – hotel room TV sets, an office cabinet and footstool, clocks showing different time zones, a glass display of a museum bust and a mobile shelving unit for books that symbolises the island’s battered library.

It is all inventively done, with glints of humour (at one point, Skeete’s head appears inside the museum’s display cabinet, as if to suggest that the “exotic” indigenous islander has become part of the tourist’s experience). But the back-to-back seating arrangements for the audience and the lack of a focal point are occasionally discombobulating.

Johanne Jensen’s lighting dips occasionally to total darkness, until a lamp or a torch is suddenly switched on. It is atmospheric and hints at electricity blackouts for local islanders, though this is never spelled out.

The actors switch on an overhead projector and encourage us to imagine on its blank screen the scenes they describe. These include air-conditioned hotel rooms and perfect sea views alongside the island’s grubbier side – the library in disrepair since an earthquake, the broken hospital system and the exclusive members of the Mill Reef Club, where the only local, non-white faces are those of waiting staff.

Skeete and Alexis are almost constantly moving, but the circling and weaving comes to seem churning and repetitive. They walk around the audience, turn on lamps, stand behind a desk, carry books. Where the intention might have been to avoid a static performance, the physical drama could have gained power and coherence from more moments of stillness.

A Small Place is bold and enlivening polemical theatre nonetheless, and it is passionately performed, with political resonances around race, colonial legacy and blind consumerism that run deep.

At the Gate theatre, London , until 1 December.

Antigua and Barbuda
Jamaica Kincaid

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Why Some Companies Grow Amid Uncertainty — and Others Don’t

Simon Freakley
David Garfield

A survey of 3,000 global executives suggests that it’s not strategic thinking that sets them apart. It’s their inclination to move quickly.

When you cannot base strategy on reasonably certain premises — or when those reasonable premises are undone by unforeseeable events — what is a company to do? You still have to make plans, allocate capital, and invest for the future. Some argue that agility is the key to thriving in disruptive times, but if all you do is pivot, you are just going around in circles. The annual AlixPartners Disruption Index surveys 3,000 global executives about what is knocking them sideways. Among other things, it shows that three out of five say that it is increasingly challenging to know which disruptive forces to prioritize. Amid all this, there is a group of companies doing very well: about one in five said their companies lead their industry in revenue growth. In this article, the authors dig into that 2024 data to find out what sets these companies apart, and what other companies can learn from them about setting growth strategy in an uncertain world.

Strategic planning plays a key role in helping companies anticipate and manage business cycles. But forces like emerging digital technologies, climate change, and deglobalization — not to mention “black swan” events like the Covid-19 pandemic and wars — have turned a rolling sea into a choppy one, where companies are beset by currents, crosscurrents, riptides, and squalls. This multiplicity of related, unrelated, and inter-related difficulties have one thing in common: They are unpredictable.

SF Simon Freakley is the Chief Executive Officer of AlixPartners, a post he has held since 2015. He is based in New York.
David Garfield is a Chicago-based partner and managing director of AlixPartners, and the global leader for the firm’s industry practices.

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A Critic’s Plea for Maximalism: ‘Crack Us Open Like Eggs’

In her first essay collection, Becca Rothfeld demonstrates that sometimes, more really is more.

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The brightly-colored illustration portrays a giant seated at a table and eating food carried to him by relatively miniature people. The text reads, “Gargantua a son petit soupe.”

By David Gates

David Gates teaches in the M.F.A. program at St. Joseph’s University.

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ALL THINGS ARE TOO SMALL: Essays in Praise of Excess , by Becca Rothfeld

The essays I love favor abundance over economy, performance over persuasion. Zadie Smith’s exemplary “Speaking in Tongues” juggles Barack Obama, Shakespeare, Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” Pauline Kael on Cary Grant, Thomas Macaulay on the Marquess of Halifax and her own “silly posh” speaking voice. Its modest argument, that “flexibility of voice leads to a flexibility in all things,” disappears into the spectacle of a nimble mind reveling in its omnivorous erudition.

The critic Becca Rothfeld’s first collection, “All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess,” is splendidly immodest in its neo-Romantic agenda — to tear down minimalism and puritanism in its many current varieties — but, like Smith, she makes her strongest case in her essays’ very form, a carnival of high-low allusion and analysis. Macaulay, Cary Grant, Obama and a posh accent? Rothfeld will see you and raise you: How about Simone Weil, Aristotle, “Troll 2,” Lionel Trilling, Hadewijch of Brabant (from whom she takes her title), serial killer procedurals, Proust and the Talmud? Not that she neglects Cary Grant; in an essay on love and equality, she filters a smart reading of “His Girl Friday” through the philosopher Stanley Cavell.

Cynthia Ozick (who ought to know) has favorably — and justly — compared Rothfeld to “the legendary New York intellectuals,” though Rothfeld lives in D.C., where she’s the nonfiction book critic for The Washington Post. She’s also an editor at The Point, a contributing editor at The Boston Review, and has published in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The Atlantic, The Baffler and The British Journal of Aesthetics. Of course she also has a Substack, and she declares on her website — which links to many splendid pieces not collected in this book — that she’s “perhaps delusionally convinced” she’ll eventually finish her Harvard Ph.D. dissertation in philosophy.

The costive and the envious might wonder if she’s spreading herself too thin, but Rothfeld’s rigor and eloquence suggest that in her case, as the title of one essay has it, “More Is More.” That piece begins in dispraise of “professional declutterers” such as Marie Kondo, whose aesthetic amounts to “solipsism spatialized,” and from whose dream houses “evidence of habitation — and, in particular, evidence of the body, with its many leaky indecencies — has been eliminated.”

But it soon morphs into dispraise of minimalist prose and the “impoverished non-novels” of fashionable writers including Jenny Offill, Ottessa Moshfegh and Kate Zambreno, whose “anti-narratives are soothingly tractable, made up of sentences so short that they are often left to complete themselves.”

Rothfeld, by contrast, leaves no phrase unturned. Her maximalist prose abounds in alliteration — “I recommend bingeing to bursting,” she writes, exhorting us to “savor the slivers of salvation hidden in all that hideous hunger” — as well as such old-school locutions as “pray tell” and “cannot but be offensive.” If these mannerisms sit uneasily next to her f-worded celebrations of sexuality, the dissonance is deliberate, and the unease is a matter of principle.

In “Wherever You Go, You Could Leave,” a takedown of “mindfulness,” Rothfeld reports that when she “decided to live” after a suicide attempt in her first year of college, she rejected the soothing blankness of meditation and concluded that “perturbation is a small price to pay for the privilege of a point of view.”

Despite her disdain for “professional opinion-havers” — among them the columnist Christine Emba, lately also of The Washington Post — she doesn’t mind laying down the law. In the book’s longest essay, “Only Mercy: Sex After Consent,” Rothfeld taxes Emba, author of the best-selling “Rethinking Sex,” with an “appalling incomprehension of what good sex is like.”

So, pray tell. “We should choke, crawl, spank, spew, and above all, surrender furiously, until the sheer smack of sex becomes its own profuse excuse for being.” Some sexual encounters, she continues, “crack us open like eggs” and “we should not be willing to live without them.”

We-shoulding is an occupational hazard of opinion-having, but we need take these pronouncements no more — and no less — to heart than Rothfeld’s paradoxical admiration for both the “beatifically stylized” films of Éric Rohmer and the “magnificently demented” oeuvre of David Cronenberg. Do we agree or disagree with her that Sally Rooney’s novels are overpraised, and that Norman Rush’s “Mating” is really “one of the most perfect novels of the past half century”?

More to the point, do we agree that “the aesthetic resides in excess and aimlessness,” and that extravagance is “our human due”? I’d say no to the former and yes to the latter, but who cares? What counts in these essays is the exhilarating ride, not the sometimes-dodgy destination. William Blake wrote that the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom; Rothfeld might say that they’re one and the same. No argument there.

ALL THINGS ARE TOO SMALL : Essays in Praise of Excess | By Becca Rothfeld | Metropolitan Books | 287 pp. | $27.99

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Should college essays touch on race? Some feel affirmative action ruling leaves them no choice

A group of teenagers of color sit together on a floor

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When she started writing her college essay, Hillary Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. About being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana and growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. About hardship and struggle.

Then she deleted it all.

“I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18-year-old senior at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.”

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education , it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. For many students of color, instantly more was riding on the already high-stakes writing assignment. Some say they felt pressure to exploit their hardships as they competed for a spot on campus.

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 29: Kashish Bastola, a rising sophomore at Harvard University, hugs Nahla Owens, also a Harvard University student, outside of the Supreme Court of the United States on Thursday, June 29, 2023 in Washington, DC. In a 6-3 vote, Supreme Court Justices ruled that race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional, setting precedent for affirmative action in other universities and colleges. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Supreme Court strikes down race-based affirmative action in college admissions

In another major reversal, the Supreme Court forbids the use of race as an admissions factor at colleges and universities.

June 29, 2023

Amofa was just starting to think about her essay when the court issued its decision, and it left her with a wave of questions. Could she still write about her race? Could she be penalized for it? She wanted to tell colleges about her heritage but she didn’t want to be defined by it.

In English class, Amofa and her classmates read sample essays that all seemed to focus on some trauma or hardship. It left her with the impression she had to write about her life’s hardest moments to show how far she’d come. But she and some classmates wondered if their lives had been hard enough to catch the attention of admissions offices.

This year’s senior class is the first in decades to navigate college admissions without affirmative action. The Supreme Court upheld the practice in decisions going back to the 1970s, but this court’s conservative supermajority found it is unconstitutional for colleges to give students extra weight because of their race alone.

Still, the decision left room for race to play an indirect role: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that universities can still consider how an applicant’s life was shaped by their race, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability.”

Scores of colleges responded with new essay prompts asking about students’ backgrounds.

EL SEGUNDO, CA - OCTOBER 27, 2023: High school senior Sam Srikanth, 17, has applied to elite east coast schools like Cornell and Duke but feels anxious since the competition to be accepted at these elite colleges has intensified in the aftermath of affirmative action on October 27, 2023 in El Segundo, California.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Post-affirmative action, Asian American families are more stressed than ever about college admissions

Parents who didn’t grow up in the American system, and who may have moved to the U.S. in large part for their children’s education, feel desperate and in-the-dark. Some shell out tens of thousands of dollars for consultants as early as junior high.

Nov. 26, 2023

When Darrian Merritt started writing his essay, his first instinct was to write about events that led to him going to live with his grandmother as a child. Those were painful memories, but he thought they might play well at schools like Yale, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

“I feel like the admissions committee might expect a sob story or a tragic story,” said Merritt, a senior in Cleveland. “I wrestled with that a lot.”

Eventually he abandoned the idea and aimed for an essay that would stand out for its positivity.

Merritt wrote about a summer camp where he started to feel more comfortable in his own skin. He described embracing his personality and defying his tendency to please others. But the essay also reflects on his feelings of not being “Black enough” and being made fun of for listening to “white people music.”

Like many students, Max Decker of Portland, Ore., had drafted a college essay on one topic, only to change direction after the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Decker initially wrote about his love for video games. In a childhood surrounded by constant change, navigating his parents’ divorce, the games he took from place to place on his Nintendo DS were a source of comfort.

Los Angeles, CA - February 08: Scenes around the leafy campus of Occidental College Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

‘We’re really worried’: What do colleges do now after affirmative action ruling?

The Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action has triggered angst on campuses about how to promote diversity without considering race in admissions decisions.

But the essay he submitted to colleges focused on the community he found through Word Is Bond, a leadership group for young Black men in Portland.

As the only biracial, Jewish kid with divorced parents in a predominantly white, Christian community, Decker wrote he felt like the odd one out. On a trip with Word Is Bond to Capitol Hill, he and friends who looked just like him shook hands with lawmakers. The experience, he wrote, changed how he saw himself.

“It’s because I’m different that I provide something precious to the world, not the other way around,” wrote Decker, whose top college choice is Tulane in New Orleans because of the region’s diversity.

Amofa used to think affirmative action was only a factor at schools like Harvard and Yale. After the court’s ruling, she was surprised to find that race was taken into account even at public universities she was applying to.

Now, without affirmative action, she wondered if mostly white schools will become even whiter.

LOS ANGELES-CA-MARCH 11, 2020: Classes have moved to online only at UCLA on Wednesday, March 11, 2020. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

A lot of what you’ve heard about affirmative action is wrong

Debate leading up to the Supreme Court’s decision has stirred up plenty of misconceptions. We break down the myths and explain the reality.

It’s been on her mind as she chooses between Indiana University and the University of Dayton, both of which have relatively few Black students. When she was one of the only Black students in her grade school, she could fall back on her family and Ghanaian friends at church. At college, she worries about loneliness.

“That’s what I’m nervous about,” she said. “Going and just feeling so isolated, even though I’m constantly around people.”

The first drafts of her essay didn’t tell colleges about who she is now, she said.

Her final essay describes how she came to embrace her natural hair. She wrote about going to a mostly white grade school where classmates made jokes about her afro.

Over time, she ignored their insults and found beauty in the styles worn by women in her life. She now runs a business doing braids and other hairstyles in her neighborhood.

“Criticism will persist,” she wrote “but it loses its power when you know there’s a crown on your head!”

Collin Binkley, Annie Ma and Noreen Nasir write for the Associated Press. Binkley and Nasir reported from Chicago and Ma from Portland, Ore.

Editorial: Early decision admissions for college unfairly favor wealthy students

Jan. 4, 2024

LYNWOOD, CA-SEPTEMBER 7, 2023: Ozze Mathis, 17, a senior at Lynwood High School, is photographed on campus. College presidents and admission experts are expecting a big boost at historically Black colleges and universities as application portals begin to open up for enrollment next year. It would be the first application cycle since the conservative-majority Supreme Court outlawed racism-based affirmative action admission policies. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

HBCUs brace for flood of applications after Supreme Court affirmative action decision

Sept. 22, 2023

LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 17: Royce Hall on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as UCLA lecturers and students celebrate after a strike was averted Wednesday morning. Lecturers across the UC system were planning to strike Wednesday and Thursday over unfair labor practices. UCLA on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021 in Los Angeles, CA. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times).

Opinion: In a post-affirmative action world, employers should learn from California’s experience

Sept. 16, 2023

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Review: There's no resisting new series, 'A Gentleman in Moscow'

The series is based on Amor Towles' bestselling novel.

It sounds like heavy-going. But it's just the opposite. "A Gentleman in Moscow," the eight-part series streaming on Paramount+/Showtime revels in laughter and tears, flying high on the buoyant brilliance of Ewan McGregor as a Russian Count stripped of his title and forced to live in a hotel attic while 30 years of tumultuous, totalitarian history pass outside.

Based on the beloved 2016 bestseller by Amor Towles, the series stars McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov, an aristocrat who's been imprisoned since 1922 as an enemy of the state.

Some prison. Despite his cramped quarters in Moscow's plush Metropol Hotel, the Count is allowed the highborn pleasures of fine wine, gourmet dining, pampered barbering, sexual intimacies and lobby gossip about political unrest that stems from Lenin to Stalin and Khrushchev.

MORE: Review: New coat of paint with 'Road House' remake, still nothing under the hood

The catch? If the Count sets one foot outside, he will face a firing squad.

PHOTO: Ewan McGregor as Count Rostov in a scene from "A Gentleman in Moscow."

Only a poem the Count wrote in praise of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution stalled his execution. The irony is he didn't write it. The poet is his former university friend Mishka (Fehinti Balogun), who attributed his work to the Count to save him from execution.

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Over the years, the Count goes from a prisoner in a gilded cage to a waiter who glories in the opulent past as Moscow erases every trace of cultural superiority. To level the playing field, labels are removed from bottles in the famed Metropol wine cellar. And yet the Count remains loyal to Mother Russia, until he sees patriotic ideals corrupted by a criminal mindset.

PHOTO: Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Anna, Ewan McGregor as Count Rostov and Alexa Goodall as Nina in a scene for "A Gentleman in Moscow."

The book, which is fiction set against real events, has been criticized for romanticizing the horrors of the Soviet regime by confining the action to the swank environs of the Metropol. Look closer. Like the Oscar-winning film "The Zone of Interest," which kept Nazi crimes at a remove, "A Gentleman in Moscow" only intensifies the unseen terror that's just outside.

How does the Count maintain his cool composure in the face of such pressure? "If I take it seriously," he says, "I could fall into a dark despair." Cheers to McGregor for showing the conflict roiling inside this smiling fugitive from another era.

Still, in its early stages, the series seems more merry than menacing as the Count befriends Nina (Alexa Goodall), a precocious young hotel guest who mischievously slips him a skeleton key for every door in the hotel, including a rooftop where he gulps at the forbidden fresh air.

PHOTO: Alexa Goodall as Nina in a scene from "A Gentleman in Moscow."

Later, the Count flirts outrageously with the willowy Russian screen star Anna Urbanova, sensationally played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, McGregor's real wife -- they met on Season 3 of "Fargo." Their acting teamwork brings depth to their characters and to the series.

When the adult Nina shows up at the Metropol, announcing she's about to follow her husband to the prison camps in Siberia, she leaves the Count in charge of her only child, Sofia (Billie Gadsdon), who becomes the Count's daughter by default.

It's here where showrunner Ben Vanstone skips padding things to reflect McGregor's world-class charm (an understandable temptation) and zeroes in on the Count's education in humanity.

There's irony in the Count forging close bonds with the working class, from seamstress Marina (Leah Harvey) to head waiter Andrey (Lyes Salem). He even tries to understand Osip (Johnny Harris), an officer of the secret police who enlists the Count as a spy.

PHOTO: Lyes Salem as Andrey and Ewan McGregor as Count Rostov in a scene from "In a Gentleman in Moscow," in episode 4.

How does this gentleman in Moscow champion the proletariat without betraying his passion for taste, refinement and intellectual challenge?

That's the crux of the tale.

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The final two episodes, alive with suspense, lead to a bittersweet ending. Sentimental? Maybe. But there's no resisting a series that honors a man who forgoes ideology to follow the dictates of his heart.

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