One star, two star, three star, four...

I've been reviewing for a few years now- mostly reviewing books with some products thrown in, online. When I started, I found myself handing out a ton of four and five stars, but I soon found I wasn't doing anyone a favor by not risking hurting someone's feelings... that I was just as likely to draw the ire of an irritated customer who followed my reviews and my own disgust at not being honest.

I write a lot of reviews on Amazon and to a lesser extent Goodreads. I do not review here at WdC in the manner I do there. The reviews I leave on Amazon and Goodreads are not meant for the author- they are meant for fellow readers and purchasers of books. My reviews for WdC are meant for the author of the piece I read.

My personal acronym that I use for book reviewing is GSP, which stands for Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation. These are three basic building blocks to all forms of writing and they must be there, in force, with my other personal acronym, CSR- great Characters, solid Plot, and Resolution.

- Needs a lot of work.
- Good start, but needs some work.
- Good. I enjoyed this story, but it needs some more polishing to tidy up GSP or CSR issues.
- Very good, very little GSP/CSR issues.
- Perfect. No glaring GSP or CSR issues.

I do not leave star ratings for anything less than 2 and a half stars. I do one of two things- either I just move on to the next piece to review or I email the author with positive feedback about the issues I found in their piece and try to edit a few paragraphs to illustrate any issues with the GSP or CSR.

I would recommend reading

How Should I Rate Items on Writing.Com?  (E) Wondering how to approach the rating system on Writing.Com? #544855 by The StoryMistress

I would also recommend to fellow authors this piece on how to accept and give reviews-

STATIC

Reviews: Receiving and Giving  (E) ...or the 8 emotional steps of processing a review #2151825 by Lilli