Sunday, November 13, 2011

Review: Backrubs


Author: topismybitch


Title: 5/5
-          Creative, original, short and sweet. Need I say more?(:

Poster/Background/Design: 5/5
-          The background was plain and simple. This is good as the readers would take note of your content more than the fact that the story is written about their stars.
-          The picture shows clearly who the main character is.

Description/Foreword: 4/10
-          Perhaps you could omit the line saying that the title says it all. Readers wouldn’t understand how the title says it all unless they read the story, so it’ll be better if you just left that line out.
-          Another thing you could have added was a simple profile about your character under the description section. For example, how old he and the female character in your story is, what’s his profession, etc. It provides the readers with a mental image of how the girl looks like to you.
-          I didn’t understand the Foreword, but I presume you were dedicating this story to someone?

Plot: 28/30
-          The plot was very creative. No one thought of writing such a storyline.
-          There weren’t any breaks or missing parts in the story. However, the female character’s characteristics remain unknown throughout. This is both good and bad. Readers would each have their own images of the female character, but they wouldn’t know what kind of character she is to you – the writer. It’ll be nice to know what basic traits you’d like in your character.
-          You were able to bring out the story and let it leave a lasting impression on the reader even though it was simply helping T.O.P dress his wounds and giving him a massage.
-          It showed intimacy between T.O.P and the female character without having them go all the way. Few fan-fiction writers manage to do this, and I’m glad to say you’re one of the few(:

Flow/Pace: 5/5
-          The story flowed smoothly. You were able to bring the readers along without losing them. I could understand everything without having to re-read anything.
-          The pace was neither too fast nor too slow.

Writing Style: 9/10
-          You have a writing style that leaves a lasting impression on the readers.
-          However, you have to learn to separate unrelated sentences. Don’t join them all into a single sentence.
-          Everything else seemed to click into place. It seemed as if you enjoyed writing it, and it also seemed to flow out easily. You are good with words(:

Originality/Creativity: 5/5
-          Everything was original. The story was not copied/adapted from other sources.
-          You successfully wrote a very captivating story despite it being only one scene. Simply E-X-C-E-L-L-E-N-T! ^^

Punctuation/Spelling/Tenses/Grammar/Vocabulary: 12/15
-          You do have a good grasp in vocabulary, but try to avoid using the same words over and over again (you used the word ‘giggle’ quite a lot). Expand your vocabulary through reading. Novels are highly recommended.
-          There were typographical errors, but I won’t mark you down for them as there were really few.
-          Take note of your tenses. Keep it in the past tense if it’s a narrative, instead of switching between the past and the present tense.

Personal Enjoyment: 14/15
-          I removed the ‘Characters’ category and changed it into this as the story was too short for characterization, etc.
-          You’re a skilled writer; don’t lose marks because of your tenses. Tenses are really basic, that’s why I couldn’t award you full marks for this category.
-          On a whole, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story was simple, but it was really sweet. It showed the close relationship T.O.P has with the female character in just one scene, and it was a different storyline from the usual ones I see in fan-fictions.

Marks Achieved: 87/100
Grade: A

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Corrections

-          Sentence: I wince, shaking my knuckle, clutching it to my chest.
-          Why it’s wrong: (1) Tenses. (2) You don’t just shake one knuckle (should be plural). (3) Don’t put so many commas or it’ll make the sentence choppy.
-          Correction: I winced, shaking my knuckles and clutching them to my chest.

-          Sentence: "What the hell did you do?" She hisses, dragging me by the collar inside.
-          Why it’s wrong: (1) Tenses. (2) Sentence structure: You have to separate the word ‘inside’ from the word ‘collar’.
-          Correction: "What the hell did you do?" She hissed. Grabbing my collar, she dragged me into the room.

-          Sentence: Once I am in the entrance, she slams the door, leaning against it.
-          Why it’s wrong: (1) Tenses. (2) ‘Entrance’ refers to the gate/door. You can’t go into the door; you go into the room. If you want to say she immediately shut the door after he stepped in, use ‘The minute I was in’.
-          Correction: The minute I was in the house, she slammed the door and leaned against it.

-          Sentence: A smirk appears on my lips, as I yell up the stairs to her, sitting back into the couch.
-          Why it’s wrong: (1) Tenses. (2) Omit excess and unnecessary words as much as possible, unless you’re using it to slow the story’s pace. (3) You don’t sit into a couch, but onto.
-          Correction: Smirking, I yelled up the stairs to her and sat back onto the couch.

-          Sentence: I hear her mutter a string of curses, and more slamming.
-          Why it’s wrong: (1) Tenses. (2) Separate the sentence clearly. Muttering is muttering; slamming is slamming. What you can do to check for such errors is to think of them separately. In this case, what I read when I thought of them separately was: “I hear her mutter a string of curses.” and “I hear her mutter more slamming.”
-          Correction: I heard her mutter a string of curses. More sounds of the cupboard door being slammed echoed through the room.

-          Sentence: "Thats what you get, you dumbass."
-          Why it’s wrong: Missing apostrophe. [I wasn’t sure if you knew how to differentiate words like ‘Your’ and ‘You’re’, ‘Its’ and ‘It’s’ so I just added this in.]
-          Correction: "That’s what you get, you dumbass."

-          Sentence: They roll playfully, as she leans in, placing a chaste kiss on my lips.
-          Why it’s wrong: (1) Tenses. (2) State that ‘They’ refers to her eyes, or it’ll be read as T.O.P and the female character rolling.
-          Correction: She playfully rolled her eyes back as she leaned in, placing a chaste kiss on my lips.

-          Sentence: She points to my left, her palm doing to cover her mouth in deep thought.
-          Why it’s wrong: (1) Tenses. (2) Doing? (3) You don’t cover your mouth when you’re deep in though. You cover your mouth when you’re shocked, you’re laughing, etc.
-          Correction: She pointed to my left, as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

-          Sentence: I fight back the urge to exhale, maybe too loudly.
-          Why it’s wrong: (1) Tenses. (2) If you fought back the urge to exhale, there’ll be no sound. You can’t make ‘no sound’ ‘loudly’.
-          Correction: I fought back the urge to exhale. [it’s already sufficient like that]

-          Sentence: "Hyunnie." She counters, her breath hitting my back, sending ripples of bliss up my body. … I let the bliss inside me hit my exhaustion, pulling me half into sleep.
-          Why it’s wrong: (1) Tenses. (2) The words ‘counters’ and ‘hitting’ are not very appropriate expressions in such a situation. (3) Wrong expressions.
-          Correction: "Hyunnie." She whispered. Her breath stroked my back teasingly, the hot air sending ripples of bliss throughout my body. … Her gentle touches soothed, lulling me into sleep.

-          Sentence: In the back of my mind, I plan another way to pull another muscle in my back.
-          Why it’s wrong: (1) Tenses. (2) Sentence structure is incorrect.
-          Correction: In the back of my mind, I started to plot. I intended to pull another muscle in my back – very soon.

Side Note:

This is the highest mark I’ve awarded so far. Keep working at your mistakes and don’t repeat them. You’re only three marks away from an A*. I enjoyed your story very much! ^^ Will be reading all your stories from now on~ Keep up the good work!

cheonsa

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1 comment :

  1. That background almost killed me but I made through the post. Nice one. It's been a long long time since I did composition. Brings back a lot of memories.

    ReplyDelete