How I Rate

Notes on how I rate work.

If a piece has not been spell checked I will always rate it lower than I normally would. I can understand typos or misspellings that slip past spell check but can see no excuse for not performing such a simple task on a piece you put enough effort into to post.

One of my pet peeves is when people put spaces between the end of a word and a punctuation mark. On occasion we slip and it happens, but I find that, for the most part, if it happens once in a piece it tends to happen multiple times. It strikes me as sloppy.

If I have to really wrack my brain to find anything good and anything bad about the piece I’ll likely give the piece a 3 or 3.5

I rarely find anything on this site worthy of less than a 3 but if I do you can be sure I will list things to help improve it or if I don’t feel I can do that I’ll at least tell you where I think you went wrong.

I will only give a 5 if something absolutely blows me away in some way I totally didn’t expect. If a piece has this effect on me, I’ll give it a 5 even if it has a couple minor errors. (if there is anything that can be caught by spell checker it will get a 4.5 with the note “fix the spelling errors and I’ll re-rate this piece a 5”)

If you’re looking for a highly rated review from me I look favorably upon…

Spell checked work.
Descriptiveness - if it paints a picture in my head.
Creativity - I like reading things with a twist or things that feel to me like the author just let loose.
Daring work – I respect work that crosses boundaries:
Things that are written despite the consequences.
Items that touch on taboo topics but are still able to remain tasteful.
The author is clearly thinking outside the box and going against what we are trained to believe.
Anything that manages to strike up emotion within me.
If it makes me laugh I probably like it at least a little bit.

Final notes:

Some people believe rating and reviewing should be objective, others subjective. I believe in a balance of each. If something is well written and I don’t like it I will rate it less than it may deserve but I’ll tell you what I don’t like about it so you can decide if you think it’s something that needs to be fixed or if it’s just my opinion and the piece is not meant to be liked by me. If something is poorly written but I really like it I may rate it slightly higher (.5 max) than it deserves with notes on what needs to be fixed to make it read better.
I’m not a big fan of poetry. I’ll review it on request but rarely seek it out. Most poetry will not likely get higher than a 3.5 from me unless it has enough length that I feel it has told a good story or made a good point. If it’s buried in symbolism or extremely short I’d suggest not requesting me to rate and review that piece though I am plenty willing to do an R&R on a poetry folder. I find it easier to give an over all review of a batch of poetry than just a single piece.

If you don’t like the way I rate or review and would like me to stay out of your port feel free to email me and I’ll put you on my “do not raid” list.

P.S. – My review structure for those interested… Feel free to use it as a template for your own reviews if you’d like.

Likes:
If I like all or part what are they and why?

Dislikes:
If I don’t like all or part what are they and why?

The Feel:
What feel the piece had and if I think it was supposed/trying to convey something else.
If it inspired any great feeling in me, what was it and why?
If it didn’t inspire any feeling, and it seemed like it should, what could be done to make it better.

Grammatical/Spelling:
If there was a lot let them know.
If only a couple then tell them what they were so they can get that much closer to a perfect works.

Characters:
If there are characters and or character interactions then what did I like/dislike about them.

More or Less/Where:
If I feel the piece needs more or would expand into something larger well then let the writer know.
If I think it’s too long tell them what parts I felt to be a waste of the reader’s time or where some of the length could be taken out.

Why I rated as I did and how to get me to raise my rating:
What I rated it and Why.
What will make me re rate it more positively.

I recommend this to…(types of people)