OBC Review Editing
Moderator: Official Reviewer Representatives
- MsMartha
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Re: OBC Review Editing
Since some good books have been mentioned for reference, I'd like to add Garner's Modern American Usage, by Bryan A. Garner. Much as I love to write, I haven't had a writing class of any kind in something like a million years, so I do try to look things up if I'm not sure what I should be doing.
- bookowlie
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Keep in mind that, as per the guidelines, the editors have the right to consider the overall quality of the review when scoring. A review may have the minimum word count and number of paragraphs, as well as a summary and opinions which relate to the rating given. However, there are other things that are taken into account - for example, the opinion section might be two or three quick sentences or overly general; the review might not be written well or be in a school book report style (the book is about x, this was a good book, I couldn't put it down, the end). I am just throwing out a few thoughts just to give you an idea. I am certainly not saying this happened in your case or anyone else that previously commented here. I just wanted to point out that, as per the guidelines, reviewers don't automatically get the highest score just because they wrote a 400+ word count, 5 paragraph review with a summary, critique, and no grammatical errors.MsMartha wrote:Hey, as a newbie I just want to thank all of you for these posts. I got my first Official Review edited this past weekend. The editor made some good points and I found that very helpful. There was one thing mentioned that I don't agree with. I didn't find that annoying--all in all, this process has been very interesting.
Since some good books have been mentioned for reference, I'd like to add Garner's Modern American Usage, by Bryan A. Garner. Much as I love to write, I haven't had a writing class of any kind in something like a million years, so I do try to look things up if I'm not sure what I should be doing.
- kandscreeley
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—Neil Gaiman
- Jennifer Allsbrook
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Rubric/Criterion Met/Points
Length - Minimum 5 paragraphs (400 words) /Yes ________ No ________/ 10
Paragraph separation - two-line breaks/ Yes ________ No ________/ 5
Spelling / Yes ________ No ________/ 10
Grammar/ Yes ________ No ________ / 10
Brief Book Summary / Yes ________ No ________ / 10
No Spoilers / Yes ________ No ________ / 10
Likes / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Dislikes / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Liked the most/why / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Liked the least/why / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Rating format (X out of 4 stars and in bold print) / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Why this rating / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Audience for book (most/least) / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Title italicized / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Original / Yes ________ No ________ 5
Note: for spelling and grammar there should be point deductions based on numbers of errors
Ex) error free (taking into account multiple styles) – 0 deductions
1-2 errors – 5 point deduction
3 or more – 10 point deduction
- kandscreeley
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Exactly, my last two reviews have been rated as 46s when my first two were both much, much higher. Nothing changed in my writing style, and according to the editors there were only a few mistakes. So, how can I get a higher rating when I don't know why they are rating low?Jennifer Allsbrook wrote:One thing I would like to suggest is a scoring rubric so that reviewers and editors of reviews have a guideline that is easily followed. I have used the guidelines for all of my reviews thus far and have meticulously read and re-read my reviews before submitting them in an attempt to raise my score. I also employ a website called paperrater.com to "grade" my paper based on spelling, grammar, word choice, use of transitional phrases, sentence length, use of passive voice, and use of simple sentence beginnings. I always try to make sure my review is graded above a 90%/A level before submitting it. My latest reviews rated a 92% and a 93% on this site but were given 65% and 77% by the editors. Out of curiosity, I copied and pasted one of today's "featured" reviews into the site and it was graded an 85%/B. I have also been asking an English teacher friend to check my reviews for grammatical and other errors. A sample rubric is below:
Rubric/Criterion Met/Points
Length - Minimum 5 paragraphs (400 words) /Yes ________ No ________/ 10
Paragraph separation - two-line breaks/ Yes ________ No ________/ 5
Spelling / Yes ________ No ________/ 10
Grammar/ Yes ________ No ________ / 10
Brief Book Summary / Yes ________ No ________ / 10
No Spoilers / Yes ________ No ________ / 10
Likes / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Dislikes / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Liked the most/why / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Liked the least/why / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Rating format (X out of 4 stars and in bold print) / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Why this rating / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Audience for book (most/least) / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Title italicized / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Original / Yes ________ No ________ 5
Note: for spelling and grammar there should be point deductions based on numbers of errors
Ex) error free (taking into account multiple styles) – 0 deductions
1-2 errors – 5 point deduction
3 or more – 10 point deduction
-- 09 Feb 2017, 12:24 --
Jennifer Allsbrook: Thanks for that paperrater.com website! I love tips like that. I think that will be useful going forward.
—Neil Gaiman
- bookowlie
- Special Discussion Leader
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Having such a detailed checklist can certainly be a double-edged sword. It would likely make the editors look at every little thing in a review, and I suspect some members' scores would suffer. A checklist like this doesn't allow for the flexibility there is now to adjust a score if the review is particularly interesting or insightful. I fear a checklist would result in less interesting reviews because the reviewers, especially the newbies, would start churning out cookie-cutter, boring reviews. I don't think we want to become a site like that. On a related note, it might be helpful to read Pasharu's recent post in the "Update after Editorial Analysis" topic.Jennifer Allsbrook wrote:One thing I would like to suggest is a scoring rubric so that reviewers and editors of reviews have a guideline that is easily followed. I have used the guidelines for all of my reviews thus far and have meticulously read and re-read my reviews before submitting them in an attempt to raise my score. I also employ a website called paperrater.com to "grade" my paper based on spelling, grammar, word choice, use of transitional phrases, sentence length, use of passive voice, and use of simple sentence beginnings. I always try to make sure my review is graded above a 90%/A level before submitting it. My latest reviews rated a 92% and a 93% on this site but were given 65% and 77% by the editors. Out of curiosity, I copied and pasted one of today's "featured" reviews into the site and it was graded an 85%/B. I have also been asking an English teacher friend to check my reviews for grammatical and other errors. A sample rubric is below:
Rubric/Criterion Met/Points
Length - Minimum 5 paragraphs (400 words) /Yes ________ No ________/ 10
Paragraph separation - two-line breaks/ Yes ________ No ________/ 5
Spelling / Yes ________ No ________/ 10
Grammar/ Yes ________ No ________ / 10
Brief Book Summary / Yes ________ No ________ / 10
No Spoilers / Yes ________ No ________ / 10
Likes / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Dislikes / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Liked the most/why / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Liked the least/why / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Rating format (X out of 4 stars and in bold print) / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Why this rating / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Audience for book (most/least) / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Title italicized / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Original / Yes ________ No ________ 5
Note: for spelling and grammar there should be point deductions based on numbers of errors
Ex) error free (taking into account multiple styles) – 0 deductions
1-2 errors – 5 point deduction
3 or more – 10 point deduction
- Jennifer Allsbrook
- Posts: 921
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- Latest Review: Audible Book of your Choice by Amazon
I agree that a check list may not allow for flexibility but it provides a level playing field for all reviewers because they would know how they are being scored. The subjectivity seems extreme to me. I am not an editor but I assume you are given "guidelines" for providing editorial scores just like all reviewers are given the guidelines set out for the review team. I used these guidelines to develop the rubric. Point totals could be lowered for objective and technical parts of the review, and a category called writing style/insight could be included which carried a significant point total. This way reviewers could check off the required components and leave the editors their flexibility. If a reviewer has followed the RT Review Guidelines exactly for a review, their score would be no lower than a 60% unless there were spelling or grammatical errors. The additional 40 points would be added for overall review quality, writing style, insight, etc. as you stated above. I am a teacher and rubrics usually increase the quality of work not the opposite. The modified rubric is shown below:bookowlie wrote: Having such a detailed checklist can certainly be a double-edged sword. It would likely make the editors look at every little thing in a review, and I suspect some members' scores would suffer. A checklist like this doesn't allow for the flexibility there is now to adjust a score if the review is particularly interesting or insightful. I fear a checklist would result in less interesting reviews because the reviewers, especially the newbies, would start churning out cookie-cutter, boring reviews. I don't think we want to become a site like that. On a related note, it might be helpful to read Pasharu's recent post in the "Update after Editorial Analysis" topic.
Rubric/Criterion Met/Points
Writing style/insight / Yes ________ No ________/ 40
Length - Minimum 5 paragraphs (400 words) /Yes ________ No ________/ 5
Paragraph separation - two-line breaks/ Yes ________ No ________/ 1
Spelling / Yes ________ No ________/ 10
Grammar/ Yes ________ No ________ / 10
Brief Book Summary / Yes ________ No ________ / 10
No Spoilers / Yes ________ No ________ / 5
Likes / Yes ________ No ________ / 2
Dislikes / Yes ________ No ________ / 2
Liked the most/why / Yes ________ No ________ / 2
Liked the least/why / Yes ________ No ________ / 2
Rating format (X out of 4 stars and in bold print) / Yes ________ No ________ / 1
Why this rating / Yes ________ No ________ / 2
Audience for book (most/least) / Yes ________ No ________ / 2
Title italicized / Yes ________ No ________ / 1
Original / Yes ________ No ________ 5
Note: for spelling and grammar there should be point deductions based on numbers of errors
Ex) error free (taking into account multiple styles) – 0 deductions
1-2 errors – 5 point deduction
3 or more – 10 point deduction
- gali
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