Yahoo Forum Archive

Hey guys,

This week I'd like to talk about how to handle quotes in reviews. There
comes a time when most reveiwers want to include the words of someone
else in one of their reviews. It could be a quote from the piece you're
reviewing, or maybe you want to quote some other source, like one of
Tolkien's writing or a famous quote that the piece you're reviewing
reminded you about. This post will tell you why we handle quotes the way
we do, and what you as a reviewer need to do when including quotes.

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WHY AREN'T QUOTES COUNTED?

At the MEFAs, the amount of points a review is worth is determined by
its length. We score the reviews this way because it takes more time to
write a longer review than a shorter one. By writing a long review, a
reviewer is saying that they liked a story enough to really think about
it and then write out their reactions.

This presents a problem for quotes, because (if quotes counted toward a
piece's length) some reviewers may feel that reviews with a lot of
quotes are worth more than they should be. After all, it's probably more
difficult for most people to write a 600-character review than it is to
write a 300-character review and then quote 300 characters from the
story. If quotes counted the same as what the reviewer actually wrote
themselves, this could seem a bit unfair.

However, the MEFA admins are well aware that sometimes it is very
difficult to write a good review without quoting, either from the story
or from Tolkien. And so we came up with a solution: you may quote
however much you want to, from Tolkien or any other source, but whatever
you quote won't be counted when determining how many points your review
earns the story it was written for.

This gives you the best of both worlds: you can quote as much as you'd
like, without it being seen by anyone as inflating your review score.

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HOW TO MARK A QUOTE IN A REVIEW

Because MEFA reviews are scored by our website, you have to tell the
website that what you are typing is a quote, so it knows to skip over it
when calculating how many points to give that review.

To tell the website that a certain phrase is a quote, you just need to
include it in "square brackets" - just put [ at the beginning of what
you are quoting and ] at the end, and the website will not count
anything between [ and ].

For instance, say you wanted to write the following review:

/// This was a very intriguing piece of writing. I particularly liked
the way the author repeated "as sure as news from Bree" throughout the
vignette; it gave the piece a very nice cadence. Brava! ///

In this review, "as sure as news from Bree" is a quote from the story,
and so must not be counted when determining how many points this review
is worth. Therefore, you should put [square brackets] around that part
of the review. It would look like this:

/// This was a very intriguing piece of writing. I particularly liked
the way the author repeated ["as sure as news from Bree"] throughout the
vignette; it gave the piece a very nice cadence. Brava! ///

The first review is 159 characters long, and so is worth three points;
the second is 137 characters long, and so is worth two points. You can
see why it is important to properly put blockquotes around your reviews.

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HOW TO REPORT IMPROPERLY-MARKED QUOTES

If you see a quote that you think needs to be included in [square
brackets], please email mefasupport(.at.)mefawards(.dot.)net with this
information. You should copy the "header" for the review - the text
displayed above the review giving the story ID and the reviewer's name.

I will edit the review and add the appropriate [square brackets] so the
website will score the review correctly.

I will also reset the review to "hidden" status, so the reviewer can add
to the review to bring it up to its previous score, if they'd like to do
so. If the reviewer does nothing, hidden reviews will be displayed and
counted at the end of the awards.

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OTHER USES OF SQUARE-BRACKETS

Square-brackets are used for other various reasons. Most often, it is to
mark text that the reviewer feels is adding to the review's length
unfairly. For instance, some people choose to mark a story's titles in
[square brackets] (though this is not necessary).

Reviews that for some reason include web addresses should put the URL in
[square brackets] so it is not counted.

Also, square brackets may be added by administrators when text should
not be counted - for instance, where the same reviewer repeats the same
text in more than one review.

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HELPFUL FAQS

--- Can I include quotes?
http://mefawards.net/MEFA2008/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_10
--- Can I use HTML in my review?
http://mefawards.net/MEFA2008/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_21
--- Can I use the same review more than once?
http://mefawards.net/MEFA2008/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_9
--- How are reviews scored?
http://mefawards.net/MEFA2008/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_11

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Thanks,

Marta
(MEFA Admin.)