Like me I’m sure you already know the difference between a Review and a Critique, but we went through them both on class on Wednesday and I thought it’d be an interesting thing to present to the community.
Review
- Usually brief
- Can be highly opionated
- Often aim to be entertaining
- Doesn’t give away major plot details e.g. ending or spoilers
- Function of a review is ‘try before you buy’
- Find reviews in the entertainment section of newspaper/Blogs/Internet/Green Guide (television guide)
- May be reader-authored
Critique
- The person engaged in the act of evaluation is a critic/What is written is the critique
- Often extended
- Takes on a more subtle argument
- Looks at it in more detail sometimes getting into the characters
- Often claims academic/scholarly status
- Slightly more measured tone
- More balance
- Frequently adopts a formal tone
- Can discuss all aspects of the text including full plot
- Found in Literary journals/Weekend papers/Supplements to newspapers
- More likely to be expert-authored
Basically, a review can be written by a peer or someone like me, with no qualifications, while a critique will be written by someone with qualifications and will be published in a literary journal. A review will generally be short, maybe a few hundred words, while a critique could extend to several pages.