Do you have strong opinions? Of course you do. You like this pasta sauce. You’ve found a particular note pad that you find extremely useful. Or this brand and type of pliers is just right for the task.
And there are other things that miss the mark. This canned soup is awful. You can’t get your new gadget to work at all. Those new shoes fell apart on the first wearing.
All of this is fodder for exercising your writing skills.
Product reviews can be measured and tempered, or they can be soaring with praise or filled with hatred and invective. They can be fun. And they are a moment where you, not some faceless corporation, are in control. In today’s online world, the trusted product reviewer can be extremely powerful. Think of yourself as a Broadway theater critic in the 1930′s, able to kill a show, or make it a blockbuster, with your review alone. You may not become that omnipotent, but trust, opinion, and influence are major factors in today’s online world.
For today’s assignment, pick an item that you’ve purchased recently and write a short review of it. Be specific about what is good, what isn’t, and why others should or shouldn’t purchase the item. Try to remain factual and specific and do NOT make it personal. The last thing you want is to get sued!
Here’s an excerpt from an upcoming product review I’ve written:
These are terrific shoes. The Newports, the ones that I’m wearing now, are exactly what I wanted. They are very light and airy. They have a toe cap to keep me from stubbing mine (or having to look at them). And they are easy to slip on and adjust so that they move with your foot with no sliding or flopping about.
They are waterproof, but I haven’t waded into any streams yet, although I did wear them on one very wet day walking through some English countryside and small towns. I never felt a slip walking over the wet cobblestones or soggy pasture grass (and dodging the sheep dung). And my feet remained cool throughout.
These are very well made. I don’t feel like they’ll come apart any time soon. And I’m wearing the heck out of them this summer. Once you get the hang of pulling them on using the loops at the heel and tongue and tightening the shock-cord lacing, they’re simplicity itself to get on and off, but completely snug and stable while you’re wearing them.
And as an aside: fashion rules to the contrary, you can wear these with socks. Not the knee-high dress sock and sandal thing, but a short athletic sock. Here’s your rule of thumb: if you’re hiking through water or just bumming about, no socks. If you’re covering a lot of ground, but staying dry, wear socks.
You may leave your completed assignment in the comments section below.
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Randy MurrayWriting Assignment: Write A Product Review by Randy Murray, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
