B2 First Review Writing Made Simple

Writing a B2 First review is one of the options in B2 First writing Part 2. They are tricky if you don’t know what is expected of you, so here is an article to show you how to plan structure and write any review for that test.

As with any writing test, you have to know what the test expects you to do. If you get this wrong, it will seriously affect your score.

So, when you read a B2 First Review question, you have to underline three things.
what you need to describe
what you need to discuss
who is the target reader

Note – For the best students, this is the most common error because they assume they know the question without reading it carefully. Their structure, grammar, vocabulary and so on is near perfect, but they answer the wrong question.

Let’s write a review together using this question

what you need to describe – in red
what you need to discuss – in blue
who is the target reader – in green

As usual, first, you need to plan what you are going to write. If you do this, then it is easier and quicker to write, so saving you time.

You need to think of the tone you will use. This is for a school magazine, so other students, teachers and parents will read it. As a result, you should be informal and chatty, which means you write in the same tone as you speak. If you want, you can use contractions, phrasal verbs and idioms. Speak to your readers.

Now, let’s look at the structure for a review

an interesting title
a catchy introduction
a description of what it is
detail n opinion
your recommendation

Title –
A catchy fun title is great, but if you find it difficult to think of one, use one of these ways.
book name by author
restaurant name in place – a review
….. performance of play name
film name – a review
Campsite name – a review

So in this case, if the drama club performed The Sound of Music, then the title would become:
Drama Club Performance of The Sound of Music.

Remember in titles, the main words have capital letters.

Introduction
The introduction should identify what is being reviewed and provide details such as genre, location … and engage the reader.

To engage the reader, you can ask a question. For this example, you could questions, such as:
Have you ever wanted to sing along with the singers?
Do you have a favourite old musical?
Have you ever sang in a musical?
There are more examples below

So,the introduction could look like this:

Have you ever sang in a musical? It would be difficult to improve on the performance of the drama club singers in their performance of The Sound of Music last Saturday night. It was exciting, dramatic and romantic all in the same play.

Body Paragraph 1
This is where you describe the facts about what the performance was, where it was preformed, who attended and so on.

So what would we talk about in this case?
We don’t need to use the whole title again (it’s a little long)
It was performed in the school hall
It was attended by other students, parents and teachers.
The main roles were taken by the pupils who act and sing well, with a chorus of others.

So Body paragraph 1 could look something like this:
This classic musical was performed in the school hall and watched by interested pupils, proud parents and nervous teachers. The main roles were taken by the club members who could act and sing very well, with a chorus of other singers to support them.

Body Paragraph 2
This is where you should discuss the other points in the question.

What are these points?
The quality of the performances
The costumes
Whether the show should be taken to other schools or not

Body paragraph 2 could look something like this:
Although Emma Jones and John Stevens both gave exceptional performances as Maria and Captain Von Trapp, for me Lee Murray stole the show as the youngest child every time he was on stage. The set and the costumes were all made as projects for other clubs and classes and in my opinion looked so good, you could imagine you were in the Alps.

Conclusion
This should include:
a recommendation
a sentence to round off the review.

So in this example, we still need to address the part of the question about whether the show should be taken to other schools. This should go here.

Like this:
Although I couldn’t have been more proud of the cast, I don’t believe there is anything to gain by taking the show to other schools as some have suggested. It would interfere too much n their studies and I’m sure most schools are usually interested in seeing their own friends, children and students perform. However, I am truly looking forward to next year’s performance, whatever it is. Have you any suggestions?

Now write your review.

The full edited example is below. It is exactly 190 words, which is the upper limit. Practicing writing these reviews is important so you know the length of paragraphs you are expected to write. As usual, I wrote too much in each paragraph, so I needed to edit each of them to be within the word range of 40 to 190 words.

Drama Club Performance of The Sound of Music.

Have you ever sung in a musical? It would be difficult to improve on the performance of the drama club singers in their performance of The Sound of Music last Saturday night.

This classic musical was performed in the school hall and watched by interested pupils, proud parents and nervous teachers. The main roles were taken by the club members who could act and sing very well, with a chorus of other singers to support them.

Despite Emma Jones and John Stevens excelling as Maria and Captain Von Trapp, for me Sally Murray stole the show as the youngest child Gretl. The set and the costumes were all made as projects in school and in my opinion looked so good, you could imagine you were in the Alps.

Although I couldn’t have been prouder of the cast, I don’t believe there is anything to gain by taking the show to other schools as some have suggested. It would interfere too much in their studies. However, I am truly looking forward to next year’s performance, whatever it is. Have you any suggestions?

Proofreading
If you have practiced, after writing, you should still have several minutes to check your writing for errors. If you have practiced with a teacher, you will know which errors you make often and be able to check for them specifically. Doing this is good practice and can tip your score into a better band.

Body paragraph 1 –
include description n relevant details about main aspect of point 1
Stick to the question and don’t talk about unrelated things.
Give some support to your answer (related details)
Use adjectives and adverbs to make it more interesting to read.

Body paragraph 2 –
describe n give your opinion
Again, don’t write about things that are not in the task.
Use specific language to give your opinion
In my opinion/view, …
For me, …
I think/believe/feel that …
I would say that …
It seems to me that …

Conclusion –
include a recommendation and a final sentence to round off the review
Don’t mix up the recommendation with the other parts of your review.
Use specific language to give recommendations:
I recommend/suggest [title/name] to + person
I recommend/suggest + -ing
I recommend/suggest that …
You should + base verb
You might want to + base verb
Write a final sentence to conclude the review

Do not be afraid – don’t be afraid to give something a bad review.

If you don’t know –
If you don’t like books or plays – change a TV series or a film you like into a book.

If you don’t know anything about restaurants – think about a TV cooking show or even what your mum or grandma make and pretend your house is a restaurant.

If you don’t know anything about camping – think about when you were in the countryside and imagine what it would be like. Alternatively, think about a cheap hotel you have slept in and imagine it was a campsite.

Try not to use adjectives like – good or bad. It’s much more exciting to say ‘amazing’ and ‘disappointing’ or ‘terrific’ and ‘terrible’.

Linking phrases such as

Overall if you like…
I was pleasantly surprised by…
In fact…
What I disliked the most was…
The book contains…
As well as…
This well-written book…
Unbelievably…

Involving the reader:

Have you ever thought about…?
How would you feel if …?
What would you think of…?
Are you one of those people who …?
If the answer is …, you should….
What do you reckon to …?
What would live be like if…
Just think for a moment…
Just imagine…

Expressing enthusiasm

It is so exciting (that)…
It is really great (that)…
Wow, it is awesome (that)…
I am delighted (that)…
It is thrilling (that)…
I am over the moon about (gerund)
It is awesome (that)…

Making recommendations and suggestions:

It would be a good idea to…
Would it not be better to…
Why do we not…
What about… ?
How about… ?
Should we not… ?
Let us consider…
Why not… ?