Yahoo Forum Archive

Hey guys,

This week I want to talk about quotes in reviews - how to use them and how
not to use them.

When discussing a story, you may want to talk about the specific turn of
phrase that inspired you. You may also want to mention a passage from
Tolkien or somewhere else entirely that the story reminded you of. That's
fine, and quite natural. However, several years back we decided that quotes
wouldn't add any points to a review. This is because our reviews are scored
on how long they are. It really isn't fair for someone to quote a Tolkien
description, and another person to write an original review of the same
length, and for them to be worth the same number of points.

That doesn't mean you can't use quotes. You just have to tell the website
not to count them when determining how many points your review is worth.

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HOW TO MARK OFF QUOTES

When writing your review simply enclose the quote in square brackets. For
instance:

["In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit"] is the first line of the
_Hobbit_

has a quote properly marked off, and the website knows not to count it. It's
as simple as that. Simple include quotes inside square-brackets, and you can
use as many quotes as you like.

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WHAT NEEDS TO BE MARKED OFF?

You should mark off any quote you use. That includes:

--- a quote from the fanfic story being removed
--- a quote from the Tolkien source material
--- a quote from other source

You do *not* need to mark off the title of the work. Some reviewers choose
to do that if the title is long, as they don't want to artificially inflate
their review. You're allowed to do this, but don't have to

If you ever choose to include a URL for some reason, you should include that
in brackets as well. While not technically a quote, it's also characters you
didn't write yourself so to keep things fair we don't want that to give your
review more points.

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WHY QUOTE, IF IT DOESN'T COUNT?

The quote itself doesn't add points to the review, but anything you say
leading up to or following up on the quote does give the story more points.
Veteran reviewers will tell you that one tool to write longer reviews is to
get specific. Say a particular passage struck you as having wonderful
imagery. Including a specific quote lets you explain just what about the
story you found so beautiful, and if you write a sentence or two about what
the imagery reminded you of or why it appealed to you, that can easily add
points to your review.

It also serves as a nice "hook" to interest other potential readers. If they
like the quoted passage they probably are more likely to read the story
themselves, and potentially vote on it.

Finally, authors like to know what passages you liked. They'll appreciate
reading your favorite bits. And that's a good reason to include them, even
if it doesn't give them points.

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WHAT TO DO IF YOU SEE AN IMPROPERLY-MARKED QUOTE

Send an email to mefasupport(at)gmail(dot)com. Include the reviewer's name
and the story ID #. (Just copy the header above each review.) Also tell what
you think is an improperly-blocked quote. If I agree, I'll add the brackets
so the review's points will be calculated properly.

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For more information:

--- Can I include quotes?
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_10

--- How are reviews scored?
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_11

--- How do I edit a review?
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_7

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P.S. - Annmarwalk is posting reviews to the [mefa-reviews] Yahoo group and
the [mefas] LJ comm. Remember to follow those groups if you'd like to
receive reviews by email or on your LJ flist.

Marta