The Review Club Forum Formatting Reviews

Here's a question for you all. How do you all like your reviews formatted? (I'm talking about the line-edits here.) How do you go about the technical aspects of doing your reviews.

I do this thing where I cut a line from the material, paste it into a blank document, hit the equal sign then paste it again and make changes on the second sentence. It seems a quick way to do it, and I figure if any of you agree with the suggestion, you can just cut and paste my rewording back into your document.

But I love Belle and her high-falutin' lines and red marks and - holy cow that is awesome. I noticed that Anthony started doing some of this line crossing business too and it seems a great way to do it. But, I guess I'm not as tech-savvy as I thought because I don't know how to pull off all that fancy stuff. Is it time-comsuming?

So, how do you do what you all do, and what kind of review formatting do you like to see?

As far as that goes, what do you want content-wise in your reviews? Broad suggestions? Line-editing? Only congratulatory statements how yours is the next NY Times Bestseller or winner of the Pulitzer? ::smile::

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Thanks for posing the question Brent.

I personally like all of the above, line edits, broad suggestions, congratulations. The more the merrier.

Oh, Brent, you've made me blush. Hi falutin', indeed.

I spend a LOT of time preparing a review. I copy the entire work over to a Word document. As I read it the first time, I highlight in yellow the areas that jump out at me. Punctuation problems, spelling, too much passive voice, etc. etc.

Then, I read it a second time, focusing on the structural issues, inserting html code to correct and/or make suggestions. With the code in place, I delete the parts that don't have any comment, copy what is left onto my html code editor, to check that I haven't left any tags open, as well as read my comments for their own continuity.

Then, I go back to my Word document and make my comments as to the overall piece, POV, characters, etc. and copy the entire review back to the Cafe.

The codes I use most often, though it sounds like they won't be accepted anymore if I understand Anthony correctly, are: (Oh, you'll see < br /> after each line of code. The site automatically inserts it. That is NOT part of the editing code.)

[code]underlines text

strikes through text

changes text to red, bold. I use this to make corrections

puts text within indented margins, which I use for lengthy edited passages

changes text to blue, bold. I use this for my comments

And the coupe de gras is my red line, the code follows. It has no closing tag.

---

[/code]

I started using the colors in my lengthier reviews because it makes my suggestions, and those little bitty commas, easier for the author to see.

And now ya know. It's work, but I think it's worth it.

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I'll be honest to me all of them are useful. Now generally I do broad suggestions because I figure most people can do some editing on their own. And generally there are reviewers on here who are far more capable than I on finding incorrect grammar and wordy and clunky sentences.

And honestly, because while I could edit the hell out of a news story I'm not sure if I'm as qualified to edit a short story.

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Bad news, those are no longer supported on this site. At least when I tried earlier on a review for Gabe. Only underline and simple things like bold italics etc.. No more color fonts strikes etc...

Brent:

I like how you review, so for me personally, the = works well. Of course, Belle and Anthony's reviews are great too. I love any reviews really. Good, bad, just as long as they are honest. I appreciate comments on story and edits. Anything I can use to make my stuff better. So to everyone, thanks, you all rock!

Julie

FYI - I've taken a page from Belle's book and instead of cutting and pasting individual lines into a word document, I paste the whole damn text into one and work it as I go. I swear I'm moving at the speed of lightening now.

I too love all the different review styles and want to thank all of you. It is kinda cool to get a variety of styles. I think that helps reflect the variety of responses to a piece.

I don't mind one style or the other, as I find the commentary from each and every one of you helpful. Honest.

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Haha. Was THAT what I saw streaking past my window?

BTW - the first thing I do when I copy over work is to enlarge the font size. It makes reading and editing soooo much easier.

As others have stated, I too love the different types of reviews. Each person here has their own unique outlook. When combined with the others, I feel like I've gotten a 360 review. It makes all the difference in the world to me.

Thank you all for your fervent endeavor.

Since our editing html tags are back, I thought I'd bump this for anyone interested.

As a tip, instead of typing out the code for each word/phrase, I simply type it once on the top of my Word document and then cut/paste code where I want it. So much easier. Also, I highlight the code at the top, so it pastes in as color, making it easier for me to see in my review. (That way, I don't accidentally delete it before transferring over my review.)

I still do not understand how to insert those codes. I can insert codes on a Web page, but I don't know where to place the code in a document.

As for the reviews: a good line edit is worth its weight in gold. I write to be published and nothing gets a piece thrown in the rejection pile faster than grammatical errors in the opening paragraph.

Some reviewers are more interested in content. That can be helpful, too. If several readers express the same problem in a storyline, this is a good indication the piece needs a rewrite.

Tom - inserting code is easy (just time consuming).

[code]Here is your text for bold.[/code]
Here is your text for bold

[code]Here is your text for red font.[/code]
Here is your text for red font.

In essence, just surround the text you want changed with the html code (opening and closing tags).

If you wanna get fancy and have bold red font, the code would look like this.

[code]Here is your text for bold red font[/code]
Here is your text for bold red font Just remember that the tags are in palindrome form. 1-2-2-1