An arts or humanities review assesses the merits of an artistic or written work. It may be a consumer guide, or a more scholarly article. Reviews provide feedback to the creator of a work and help others to decide whether to engage with it. Some make the work more meaningful or interesting to the reader or viewer by providing some background:

Reviews can cover written material (eg a book, an article) or an artistic work (eg a production of a play, a painting, a musical recording).

Description

A useful review does not assume that the reader is familiar with the work, so should start with a summary or description that discusses the work’s main features, points and content. The brief summary or description could contain:

• physical attributes
• key content (eg experience, plot, background)
• visiting details (eg location, hours, times).

For material with a plot, such as a play, movie or book, balance how much of the story to disclose without giving away the ending or key plot points. Consumer reviews must not give much away. Reveal enough for a meaningful discussion, without spoiling the enjoyment of a reader or viewer who has not yet consumed the work. One technique is to limit discussion of plot points to the first quarter or third of the review.

Evaluation

The main substance of the review is your evaluation of the work under consideration. Your opinions should:

• be substantiated by reference to the work (providing quotations, descriptions or other references); this also gives your reader an opportunity to form their own opinion
• be contextualised (eg with respect to other comparable works, the culture in which it was created, the history it references)
• be balanced, with a discussion of how the work was successful and where it worked less well; present the negative points first if your review leans to the positive, or the positive points first if your review leans to the negative
• bear in mind the work’s context, limits and goals (consider the different target audiences for a book about Shakespeare for high school students versus a monograph for Shakespearean scholars, or the disparate budgets for a community theatre production versus a professional production); the review should consider how successful the work was in achieving its goals within its context and constraints – does it meet the needs of its intended audience?

Conclusion

Conclude with a summary of your view and recommendation, if applicable. If you used other references, list them.