For part two of the B2 First writing exam
you might decide to write a review. Wow! I love reviews! But what do you need to
do to write the best review possible? My name is Toby, this is SMASH
English and here is everything you need to know about writing the perfect
review for the B2 First Cambridge exam. Before we begin as always a review should be
between 140 and 190 words. If you write less than 140 words then you will not have included all
of the information necessary to complete the tasks and that's a terrible thing. If you write more
than 190 words then you are probably including irrelevant information and you will lose marks
for doing this and that's also a terrible thing. But please remember do not count your words! You
do not have time to count your words in the exam. If you waste your time counting words then you
will not have enough time to do the review really really well and that's also a terrible thing. But
don't worry because I will give you the structure and if you follow the structure then your word
count will be fine! Trust me! I'm a teacher.... A teacher of my own language! Wow! That makes me a
success, right dad? Dad! Are you proud of me now, daddy!? Unlike an essay a review should be
written in an informal to neutral register this means you can use phrasal verbs, you
can use idioms, you can use contractions, you can be creative! But Toby I don't know
how to be creative! Being creative is easy! I will tell you exactly how to do it
so just do everything I tell you to... Every review should have four paragraphs and
paragraphs one and four are always the same: the introduction and the conclusion. In
the introduction you must introduce the thing you are reviewing obviously but it's more
complicated than that because also you must grab the reader's attention! Yes! Grab it!
Take it! Steal it! But don't kill it! No! Keep it if you keep the reader's attention
they will say "oh wow this review is great!" and that's a fantastic thing. In the conclusion
you must make a recommendation and maybe that sounds difficult but don't worry because I will
tell you exactly what to do. Paragraphs two and three will depend on what the question asks you to
do but again don't worry! We will talk about the types of questions and the types of things that
you might need to do. And this is why you need to plan! A review can be positive, negative or mixed
and this should be clear in your introduction. This should then be explained in paragraphs
two and three and finally in paragraph four you should make your recommendation based on
everything you have said previously. It's very important that there is a logical progression
to your review and if you don't plan this is very difficult to do. This means that before
you do anything you should decide what you're going to review and then if your review
is going to be positive negative or mixed. I have seen hundreds of review questions over the
years and that is because I am a great success... that's decided to teach my own language. In my experience there are two types of questions:
the first will ask you to describe something generally and then make a recommendation and I
will call this a "general review". Brilliant name! Let's look at some examples of general review
questions! An online magazine publishes reviews written by consumers. Write a review about a phone
you have bought recently. Outline its strengths and weaknesses and value for money with reasons.
So here we just describe the phone in paragraph 2 and then evaluate it in paragraph 3 remembering
to mention money obviously. You see this notice in a local magazine. Have you visited a
new restaurant recently? Describe the food, the atmosphere and prices. Would you recommend
the restaurant to others? Here we just describe the restaurant in paragraph 2 and then
evaluate it in paragraph 3. Do not worry about recommending it to others because we do this
in every review in our final paragraph anyway. You see this advert in a travel magazine. Have
you stayed in a hotel recently? Where did you go? Describe the accommodation and the service.
Would you recommend the hotel to others? Here we just describe the hotel and the service in
paragraph 2 then evaluate it in paragraph 3. We do not need to worry about recommending it because
we will do that in our final paragraph anyway. In my opinion the general review is the easiest
review! All you need to do is introduce the item you are reviewing in paragraph 1. in paragraph
2 you should describe it, in paragraph 3 you need to evaluate it (so discuss its strengths and
weaknesses) and then in the conclusion you need to make a recommendation. This will never change!
This is always the same! And that is why it's easy! The general review! The other type
of question is more specific. Instead of asking you to describe something generally it
will ask you to describe and evaluate something more particular. And so I will call
this the "Particular Review". Great! Yes all right it's a terrible name! I know! What
do you want from me!? We say those that cannot do, teach! And I'm an english teacher so
this means I cannot even speak english so what do you want? God! Yes so here are some
examples of particular review questions... You see this announcement in an english-speaking
magazine for students. Have you seen a film about a hero recently? What was interesting about
the hero and how did they influence the story? See this is different! Now we are not describing
something in general but we are being more specific. We don't describe the film, we only
describe the hero while answering two questions: what was interesting about them and
how did they influence the story? We need to give a recommendation here too because
this is still a review remember. We will include that in our final paragraph. You see this advert
on a history website. Write a review about a book you found educational. You should say what you
learned from the book and how the book made it easy to learn. Again this question does not
require us to describe the book in general but only in relation to the questions so we
need to state what we learned from the book and how the book made it easy to learn and of course
in our conclusion we must make a recommendation. Oh yeah and students always tell me "But Toby!
I don't read books! Books are for losers!". Okay, okay, good for you! Books are for
losers! So if you are asked to review a book what do you do? You invent a book! And yes that
may sound difficult: you have to invent a book and then write a review about your invented book!
That's hard! So instead take a tv series you like, take a film you like and transform them into
books. That's simple so come on! Stop complaining! The important thing to remember
for a particular review question is that all the information you
include must be related to the tasks! Do not include irrelevant information! You are
not giving a general description of something, you are describing very particular elements
of something! Make sure you do that yes? Yes! So we know our structure, we know what
type of question we are answering general or particular, we know what
information we need to include, we know what we are going to review and we
know what type of review we will write positive negative or mixed. This means we are ready to
write our introduction! Brilliant! As I said before we need to introduce what we are reviewing
and we need to grab the reader's attention. How do we do that? Well I'm going to give you
the key! And the key is "the target reader"! Okay okay... So many teachers will say "ah you have to
identify the target reader so you know what tone to write your review in". Okay but this is simple,
obvious and not very helpful because every single review should be written in an informal to neutral
register. So if your teacher tells you this then slap.... No! Don't do that! Don't slap them!
That's violent and sometimes english B2 First preparation books will tell you this as well so
slap the book instead! Books don't have feelings! Identifying the target reader is very important
because it allows you to address the target reader directly in your introduction and
this will make the target reader say: "oh wow this review is for me! I'm going to keep
reading it!". And that is the effect that we want! Now there are two ways that we can do this!
The first is to ask a question that the target reader can relate to. The second is to introduce
a problem that the product that we are reviewing might solve for the target reader. And yes I know
this might sound confusing so let's look at some examples! Here is a sample question. Our target
readers are consumers, people who buy things, people who have money to buy things. We need
to review a phone so we can assume that the people reading the review wants to buy a new
phone. Some potential questions we can ask are: Searching for a new phone? Are you in the
market for a new mobile? Or maybe we want to introduce a problem: Deciding which phone
to buy can be a difficult decision to make? As consumers we understand how difficult
it can be to choose the right phone for us? The second one here is especially good because
we are including ourselves in the group. We relate to the target reader. We are
friends! We are both consumers! Yes capitalism! We can ask a question or introduce a
problem both are fine. The important thing is that the question or the problem relate to the product
and the target reader. This is the key! After that we should introduce the object or experience that
we are reviewing and this introduction should be personal! It should be related to our experiences
with the product or the experience! This is not an essay remember! A review is a personal text,
we are talking about our experiences and our opinions and our review should reflect this! Let's
look at some examples: Searching for a new phone? So was I then I bought my new iphone 13 pro
extra great max and it changed my life. Are you in the market for a new mobile? Well have you
considered the new iphone 13 pro extra great max? I bought it last week and I am amazed! Deciding
which phone to buy can be a difficult decision to make! I ended up buying an iphone 13 pro extra
great max and I don't want you to make the same mistake! As consumers we understand how difficult
it can be to choose the right phone for us. Indeed mistakes can be costly as I experienced
after buying the new iphone 13 extra pro grade max. One thing you will notice about these
introductions is that two are introductions for a positive review and two are introductions
for a negative review. This is important! A review is not an essay. We can reveal and we
should reveal our opinion in the introduction. This will link our introduction and conclusion
together. Notice also how these introductions encourage the reader to read more! They grab
the reader's attention! How did the phone change my life? Why am I amazed? Why was it a
mistake? Why was it a costly mistake? Fantastic! Look, I cannot help you here. I'm really sorry but
the grammar and vocabulary that you need depend heavily on the type of question you get and that's
a terrible thing. One thing you can do though is make sure your grammar and vocabulary are related
to the tasks. So for example if you are writing a review about a film make sure your vocabulary is
related to films. So include words like scripts, director, cast, plot, setting, special effects,
stunts. You get the idea! If you want to mention who directed the film or who played the part
of a certain character then make sure you use the passive! "The film was directed by Y". "The
protagonist was played by X". This is important because the emphasis is not on the director or
the actor but the film or the character. If you are talking about an experience and you need to
describe the experience then make sure you use narrative tenses because obviously this experience
happened in the past. This means you need to use the past simple, the past continuous and the past
perfect. For example "I checked into the hotel at 10 am. I had been traveling all night and was
feeling exhausted. The hotel staff were very welcoming and made me feel at home". Again
the grammar and vocabulary that you need for paragraphs two and three are very much dependent
on what you are reviewing and what you need to describe. I'm sorry, I cannot do the exam for you!
I wish I could but I can't right! But I can make things easier for you! Let's look at my example
about the iphone 13 pro extra great max! This will help! Here we have used vocabulary specific to
phones: user interface, camera, battery, charger, headphones and case. We have also used some more
colloquial expressions like "get to grips with" and ungradable adjectives like "fantastic".
We've used linking expressions like in fact, lastly and all in all. Finally we have used an
inversion with a negative adverb of frequency. Notice how we have completed every task. We
discussed the phone's strengths in paragraph 2 and then the weaknesses in paragraph 3 which
are related to the phone's value for money. Now we just need to make a recommendation in
our conclusion. So let's get recommending! As I have said before in the conclusion we need
to make a recommendation and most students will write something like "the iphone 13 pro extra
great max is a fantastic phone and I strongly recommend consumers to buy one" or "the iphone
13 pro extra great max is a terrible phone and I do not recommend consumers to buy one"
and okay, these are not terrible but I think we can do better! Instead of making a general
recommendation to everyone we should make two recommendations to two different groups
of people. Think about your target reader! Can you think of a type of target reader that
would like the product or like the experience? Can you think of another type of target reader
that wouldn't like the product and would not like the experience? If you can (which you definitely
can because nothing is perfect for everyone) then make sure you state it in your recommendation,
in your conclusion. Let's look at my example: If you already have experience with iphones
and do not feel like switching to a new brand then the iphone 13 pro extra great max may be for
you. However I now realize I could have purchased something similar for a much cheaper price. I
therefore cannot recommend the phone to everyone. Seriously! In my opinion every single conclusion
for a review should take one group of people and recommend them to watch that film, read that
book, buy that product or have that experience but it should also recommend another group of
people to not buy that book, watch that film, buy that product or have that experience. Very
important! Not only does it expand the grammar that you can use but it also demonstrates to
the examiner that you know your target reader, you know the types of people that are going
to be reading the review and this will make the examiner say "Wow! This person's a genius!
They have obviously been watching SMASH English!" And because I'm an amazing guy here are three
conclusions that I have prepared for you that you can use when you write a review
in the exam! Brilliant! For people who X I absolutely recommend Y. On the other hand if you
Z I definitely would not suggest Y. If you are one of those people who X I cannot recommend Y highly
enough. That being said if you Z it may not be the Y for you. So who should Y? If I were an X this
Y would have been fantastic! However considering that I am Z this Y was not for me. That's
three conclusions pre-written, pre-prepared, ready for you! Gosh! Thank you so much, Toby!
I think I love you! I'm going to subscribe! I'm going to leave a comment! I'm going to SMASH
that like button! Great! Thank you very much! And with that we are finished! Now you know everything
you need to know about writing the perfect review for the B2 First Cambridge exam! If you liked
the video don't forget to SMASH that like button, subscribe if you haven't already, leave a comment
down below! My name is Toby and this was SMASH English...
