Something that you will encounter a lot in the media is something called a “review” of a movie, cd, book, video game, etc. Basically it is a description of and opinion based on the item being covered. People want to know whether a movie/show is worth watching, whether they’d like a CD or book, etc, so they look for the opinions of others to help them decide whether to purchase or seek out something.

A review is a MIX of FACTS and OPINIONS.

For your first review, keep things simple and follow a format like this:

1. The first thing you need, and the first paragraph or part of your review should be, some background. If you’re reviewing a CD, tell me a bit of history of the band (what kind of music do they generally play, how long have they been around, how many other CDs do they have, etc.) This gives people some context and helps them to understand more about an artist that they may never have heard of before. The same goes for books, but you’d obviously talk about the author’s history (and if the book happens to be part of a series, you’d talk about the series.) For movies, you would generally talk about the director and perhaps the actors, or maybe talk about how this movie fits into a genre (so if you’re reviewing Deadpool, you could talk about other superhero movies, before going on to discussing the similarities/differences of Deadpool.)Basically, someone who has never heard of an artist/author/director/video game designer should be able to gain some understanding of who/what we’re talking about!
2. DESCRIPTION: This is where you describe the item in question WITHOUT GIVING TOO MUCH AWAY! You want people to know about the story of a book or movie, but don’t spoil any of the good surprises. You want people to know what the CD sounds like, what the video game/movie looks like, etc. Again, these are primarily FACTS.eg: when reviewing a CD, I would talk about what instruments I hear, describe the singer’s voice, talk about the tempo/speed, what other sounds & effects I might hear, etc.
3. OPINION: This is the part where you get to have fun and say what you really think of this thing. Do you like it? Hate it? WHY? (by the way, the natural tendency is to review something you like, but it can also be a lot of fun to review something that you HATE!) Whatever your opinion is, try to back it up with facts from the description. You really need to EXPLAIN WHY you like or dislike something!

For your first review, feel free to have 3 separate sections (but try to link them together, of course!)

Record this when you’re ready. Try not to sound like you’re reading from a script! This is a tough, but extremely important skill to master. If it sounds like you’re reading, people will tune out out right away every time. Try to make it sound natural, so again, consider just making yourself point form notes. DO NOT TRY TO IMPROVISE THE WHOLE THING, though! Make sure you’ve planned well and this will sound good.

There is generally not music during these, but you could mix in a bit of music at the very beginning and end to act like an intro/extro.