What Does Review Mean
We explain what a review is, its purpose and what topics or objects it can address. Also, literary reviews and critical reviews.
What is a review?
A review is a type of expository-argumentative text , consisting of a critical evaluation of an object, document or research , by an expert in the field, or even a simple user . Reviews can be made of books, films, records, plays, but also academic research, articles and practically anything.
Of course, depending on the author's journey and his argumentative ability, the reviews differ greatly from each other. They can be very technical texts, aimed at experts in the field, or informative texts that expose a point of view for the general public to read.
However, the purpose of a review is usually to provide an interpretation, an evaluation, or a look at the thing, at the discretion of the author. You can even score it or provide the public with some kind of rating system that recommends it, or not.
This is generally a very free-form type of publication.
See also: Opinion article
Literary review
Literary reviews are part of the literary genre of the essay or criticism, in the sense that they are part of the texts written to discuss other texts (fiction or poetry , for example). That is to say, a literary review is all one that offers an evaluative look on a literary work , that is, on a book of literature .
Literary reviews are governed by very free criteria, but they usually have an expository part, in which information about the book is provided , and then go into an argumentative one, where they offer the reviewer's vision of its content, often offering verbatim quotes or third-party judgments, in order to compose a generally brief opinion on a literary work.
More in: Literary Review
Critical review
They generally receive the name of critical reviews those texts that, although thought as a review of some kind, go much further into the argumentative content and support their opinion or their criteria based on quotes, verifiable arguments and other forms of validation that aspire to objectivity, or at least to the critical sense.
They are usually more extensive, require a more informed public, and can become highly specialized, such as scientific reviews or academic reviews that appear in peer-reviewed, university, or technical journals.
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