How to Write a Critical Evaluation Essay

[Index]
I: Purpose of the Essay
Audience
The Critical Thinking Goal: Objectivity (Reasoning over Feeling)
II: What "Critical Evaluation" Means
III: Read Reviews
IV: The Difference Between Taste and Judgment
V: Determining Evaluative Criteria: Setting the Standards
Avoid Criteria that Don't Work, such as "It's Popular" or "It's funny."
Choose Fair, Accurate Criteria: Judge by the Same Standards
"Criterion" Versus "Premise"
VI: Should I use What Other Critics Have Written as Support for my Own Argument?
VII: Common Mistakes to Avoid when Writing Evaluations
Avoid Summarizing the Plot or Overviewing the Characters in films, TV shows,
books . . .
Avoid Cliches
Titles
Second-Person Pronouns
First-Person Pronouns
VIII: Sample Student Essays
IX: Professional Reviews
X: Basic Structure and Features of Reviews: Designing your Essay
I: Purpose of the Essay and Selecting a Topic
This lecture will guide you toward the draft of your Critical Evaluation Essay, and
along the way, ask you to complete two assignments. In the "Critical Evaluation"
essay, you will be writing a review -- supporting a judgment -- on a contemporary
movie. And before you select the movie to review, I'd like to think in some detail on
your tastes and preferences in movies, TV, books, etc. Thus, you'll write a mini-essay:
Accounting-for-Taste Mini-Essay during the first week of class. See the course
calendar for the due date. This short essay is for exercise credit; it's not a formal essay
that will be graded. Instead, it's a preparatory exercise to lead you toward the Critical
Evaluation Essay, which is your first major evaluated also serves as your writing
diagnostic for the course and is thus required.
Your writing purpose in a Critical Evaluation Essay is to judge the quality of a mo
movie and offer reasoned support for your judgment. You will support your judgment
(thesis) with sound, fair, thorough evidence. You will explain "reasons" for you
judgment beyond matters of personal taste (what you "like").
Audience
Your audience for the essay is the American movie-going public; thus, your audience
should reflect the diversity of the overall American public.
The Critical Thinking Goal: Objectivity (Reasoning over Feeling)
The key to the success of a critical evaluator ("reviewer") is to suppress the "fan" or
the "hater" in favor of giving the critical, objective thinker a chance to uncover the
truth about the quality of a subject. Check your feelings at the door.
For instance, I might choose to evaluate the move Nebraska, which I really liked. The

challenge for me would be to suppress the fan and instead evaluate the film by fair
criteria, to test their worth. I might find that some of the scenes were drawn out too
long, some of the acting unbelievable, and some of the dialogue contrived. And the
ending was a cliche. When I look at the film critically, I find weaknesses.
Be careful to choose a movie to review that you have not yet seen, and choose a
movie that is in your preferred genre, so that you have some understanding of the
criteria/elements that make movies i8n that genre "good." You'll also have movies that
you have already seen as benchmarks to compare and contrast the film with.
If you choose a subject that you love so much that you realize there is not chance of
being critical or objective in your evaluation, think twice about pursuing it as your
subject of evaluation.
Topic Selection Requirements
The film must be no more than one year-old (from its release date).

Write about a film that you have not yet seen in order to avoid biases. The
main goal of this essay is to put aside personal preference, or "feeling," and
instead evaluate the subject critically and objectively with good reasoning.

The film should be in your preferred genre so that you have some knowledge
of the criteria used to judge the film and can make comparisons.

If you choose a subject you're fanatic about, be prepared to challenge yourself

to be critical and objective and thus open yourself to the possibility that you've
been wrong. The same applies for a subject you hate. Unless you can prepare
yourself mentally for objective evaluation, choose a less emotional subject.
Take the challenge.

You should write a clear thesis statement early in the essay that states your
specific judgment about the film, and at the end of the essay; you should grade
the movie on an A-F scale. Remember, though, that the thesis should not
simply be the grade. The thesis should make a specific point about the quality
of the film.
II: What "Critical Evaluation" Means
"Critical Evaluation" is interchangeable with "Review," but more specific to the
rhetorical purpose of the review. An evaluation is meant to determine or set the
value of something, and being critical means to find fault or to judge with
severity. The terms overlap. The job of a critical evaluator is to defend a judgment
about the value, or worth, of something. Some examples of critical evaluations are
movie reviews, book reviews, political candidates, employees, musicians, agencies
and organizations, laws and policies, concepts and theories. Some judgments can be
positive and some negative, but rarely is a true critical judgment either all positive or
all negative. If a subject is examined carefully, even the most beloved work of art has
faults, and even the worst has positive attributes. The key is to examine the art closely,
understand the criterion, and to avoid adding personal taste or emotion into the
evaluation.
III: Read Reviews

After choosing the film you want to review, it's important to read other film review in
order to see how it's done. Do not, however, read reviews about the film you are going
to write about. Those reviews could compromise your judgment. Here are some film
review sites to mine for good reviews:
Roger Ebert.com Metacritic.Com RottenTomatoes New York Times
IV: The Difference Between Taste and Judgment
A judgment is a statement of value, of approval or disapproval, and people judge all
the time. The term is often viewed negatively, especially when individuals judge other
individuals. You worry too much about your lawn, Bob is a judgment that may be
offensive, whether true or not. (It's true. Bob does worry about his lawn too much).
A lot of judgments are based on taste, which means, I like something because I like
it. No reasons necessary. A taste-decision doesnt demand sound reasons to support
it. When someone says, I hate country music, they are offering a taste-based
judgment, when they may not have a solid understanding of the conventions and
criteria used to evaluate country music in a fair manner. Its simply a matter of
personal preference, an unsupported opinion. It's a matter of taste.
The purpose in this writing assignment, however, is to offer sound reasons to support
a personal preference. The judgment you make in this essay, no matter the subject you
are evaluating, must go far beyond What I like is good because what I like is good.
In this essay, you need to tell the reader why your judgment is correct by offering
strong support by analysis of the subject itself. Personal taste has no place in a critical
evaluation.
Judgments are supported, first, by establishing a base of Evaluative Criteria, which
are sets of standards used to fairly judge the merits of a particular subject.
V: Determining Evaluative Criteria: Setting the Standards
In order to defend a judgment, there must be a basis for evaluation, or MANY bases
for evaluation. If you look at the evaluation forms I use for evaluating essays, you'll
see a number of specific evaluative criteria, or standards writers are held up to for a
specific type of essay. Creating criteria creates a level playing field for all writers and
evaluators by keeping the evaluator on an objective rather than personal taste level.
The criteria do not measure what the reader personally likes in writing, but instead
reflect the generally agreed upon principles that are necessary to evaluate the subject.
Avoid Criteria that Don't Work, such as "It's Popular" or "It's funny."
Popularity is not a standard by which the quality of a subject can be judged, so don't
use it as a premise in your evaluation. For instance, if you are evaluating the band
Foo Fighters, and your main judgment is that they are one of the most influential rock
bands of the late 90's because of their popularity, you are not giving a reason to
support the thesis. Their popularity is a fact, based on album sales and so forth, but it
doesn't indicate WHY they are influential, and nor does it indicate that they are
necessarily good. Brittany Spears sells even more albums than Foo-Fighters, but does
that popularity necessarily translate into quality or influence?
Elvis Presley has sold more albums than any musician in the history of the world.

Does that mean he's a good musician or merely popular?

Also avoid stating humor or entertainment value as premises to support a judgment.
Why? In critically evaluating pop-culture subjects, entertainment is a given. We need
say nothing more about that. Entertainment is pretty much the main purpose of popculture. That's how it gets us into the theater or makes us park in front of the tube for
hours on end. We're entertained.
The same goes with humor. Say for instance a student critically evaluates the movie
Guardians of the Galaxy and makes a main judgment/thesis that it's the most
important sci-fi film of the late 20th. Century and the writer's first reason to support
the thesis is, "It's funny."
First off, to support this, Guardians of the Galaxywould have to be
compared/contrasted with every other sci-fi film of the 21st Century, but most
importantly, we know it's funny already. It's a given. Even if a reader or two doesn't
find it funny, it is.
If humor is a criterion, and it can be, especially for sitcoms or funny movies, it's up to
the writer to explain in specific detail why certain scenes are funny.
Read this negative review (with positive aspects) of Curb your Enthusiasm and this
positive review (with negative aspects) and analyze whether the criteria used for
judgment are fair, or if personal bias/taste plays a role in either evaluation.
Choose Fair, Accurate Criteria: Judge by the Same Standards
The key in establishing criteria is to choose the ones necessary to measure the quality
of the subject and that can be fairly applied to all subjects in a given category, or
genre. For instance, not all movies have the same evaluative criteria. Is American
Beauty judged by the same standards as The Matrix? Is Little Children held to the
same criteria as Spiderman III? Though the subject area is the same -- movies -- the
category, or genres, differ -- drama versus comedy, science fiction versus
action/adventure -- and should be judged by different sets of criteria, otherwise one
genre movie may be unfairly judged. Other movie genres, for example: family,
independent, horror, classics, thrillers, dark comedies, romances, etc. And you can
even break down the categories further: British comedies, cult comedies, romance
comedies, etc.
Once you identify the specific genre, you can begin establishing the criteria for that
genre.

Here's an analogy: are athletes expected to meet the same criteria if one plays football
and another baseball? Are all baseball players expected to meet the same criteria? In
baseball, what are the evaluative criteria for judging the worth of a second baseman?
Are the criteria different for evaluating the worth of an outfielder. Some would say
that a shortstop needs to field well and hit well, but those criteria are too broad and
apply to all baseball players, which may not be fair to all baseball players. A more
thorough set of criteria might be:
Foot-speed/ Lateral quickness (move side to side fast).
Fast reflexes and a good glove.

Strong, accurate thrower.

Coordinated feet (able to turn a double play).
Hit for average.
The criteria for a first baseman are different:
Fast reflexes and a good glove.
Hit for power and average.
The criteria, or standards, differ because the positions differ. Power hitters play first
base because they are not quick and wily, but are bulky and built for the long-ball and
sizeable targets for the fielders. They are expected to drive in runners and catch
throws; their offensive skills are weighed more heavily while the shortstops
defensive skills are weighed more heavily. When a player meets or exceeds both
defensive and offensive criteria, such as an Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter (I hate the
Yankees but these two players are great), then there is a quality ball player a
subject who not only meets, but exceeds the standards.
Still, with the goal being to be fair, would most coaches apply offensive and
defensive criteria both to their middle infielders? No. There would be no more middle
infielders. Christian Guzman, who hits five home runs a year, would be out of a job.
Instead, he is valued for his speed, defensive skills, and ability to get on base and steal
them.
"Criterion" Versus "Premise"
The difference between criteria and premises (main reasons) is like this: a criteria, for
instance, to judge the category of science fiction films, is "special effects." Special
effects, however, is not a "reason" to support a judgment. It's just a criteria. If it were
written as a reason to support a thesis, the thesis (underlined) might look like this:
"Star Wars Episode Four: A New Hope" is a wonderful movie because it has special
effects.
"It has special effects" is a fact, not a premise. It's not arguable. A premise needs to be
arguable. Premises are based on the criteria, but make a judgment about the
effectiveness of the criteria; thus, premises are arguable in that, just like the thesis,
they make judgments. Thus, the above criteria stated as a true premise would look like
this:
"Star Wars Episode Four: A New Hope" is a wonderful movie because it has
tremendous special effects."
Simply adding the word "tremendous" turns the criteria into a premise, which is a
main reason to support the thesis (main point of essay); thus, the criteria is being
evaluated for its worth, whether it's good or bad. And next it's the writer's job to
defend that premise with specific analysis of the scenes from the movie.
Pause now to Read some more Reviews
Positive:Roger Ebert on Fargo
Negative: Roger Ebert on Napoleon Dynamite
Questions for discussion or reflection: Does Ebert establish evaluative criteria in
both reviews? Does he have a clear thesis statement? What are his reasons to support
his overall judgment of each film? What supporting examples does he give to defend

his judgments.
VI: Should I use What Other Critics Have Written as Support for my Own
Argument
The answer to this question is both yes and no. Since you are essentially writing your
own review and supporting your own judgments by giving your thoughts and
reasoning about the book, there may then be no reason to offer up other reviewers
judgments on the book. Reader can read those people's reviews on their own.
The most likely case where you might bring another person's review into your own
writing is if one or many of those reviewer's points are in opposition to your. It can be
really interesting to present what you think is an unsound point made by another
review, and refute it with your own analysis of the book.
VII: Common Mistakes to Avoid when Writing Reviews
Avoid Summarizing the Plot or Overviewing the Characters
(for films, TV shows, books)
In an evaluation, a two sentence overview of the story, if a movie or a book is plenty.
A reader can always find this basic information on a website like IMDB.com or
Wikipedia or any number of places. The last thing an evaluator should do is repeat
that information. It serves no purpose to critical evaluation. What you do not want to
do is spend more than a paragraph either summarizing the story or summarizing the
characters and who plays them. Your job as an evaluator is not to tell the reader what
the story is about, but instead to explore the reasons why the story is good or not;
thus, the body of the essay should deliver focused examples that support your
premises/ reasons why you think the movie or book or CD is quality, or not.
Avoid Cliches
Cliches are words or phrases, and sometimes images, that are so overused they they
become either meaningless or irritating, or both. Here are some common moviereview cliches to avoid:
A triumph of the human spirit
Keeps viewers on the edges of their seats.
A Must-See.
A tour-de-force.
An instant hit/classic
The feel-good movie of the year.
The best film of the year/ever. (Avoid overstatement, too.)
Inspiring.
A masterpiece.
A film the whole family can enjoy.
This movie doesn't know what it wants to be.
Titles
Your essay title should not simply be the title of the subject, as in Avatar. In the first
place, thats technically plagiarism, titling the essay the same as an already-titled
movie. More importantly, theres no focus in the title. Make sure to add your point of
view to the title. Use a colon, as in Subject: Its Good. That will give the reader the
purpose of the essay, what is being written ABOUT the subject. Example: Ferris

Buellers Day Off: the most excellent skipping school movie of the 20 th Century! The
title should give the reader an indication of the purpose of the article, in this case, that
you are evaluating the subject.
Second-Person Pronouns
Avoid using the pronoun You, which directly refers to the reader. This pronoun
sometimes serves a purpose in essays of instruction (how-to essays), but not in
persuasive forms. In any persuasive essay especially, it can seem heavy-handed and
preachy, trying to force the reader aggressively to believe in something rather than
allowing the reader to make his or her determination based upon the logic and support
you provide. Instead, use terms like audiences or viewers or readers, depending
on the subject. This at least makes the argument seem more objective rather than
telling the reader to think a certain way. Oftentimes, this telling with the word
you is a mask for a lack of developed reasoning. Make your reasons do the
persuasive work.
First-Person Pronouns
Be sparing in using first-person pronouns, though they sometimes work. First of all,
there is no need to use first-person announcements such as I think or I feel or I
believe or variants because its implicit to the essay form that these are your
thoughts; thus, the use of "I" is redundant and unneeded. The reader knows that you
are writing the essay. Its implicit that your main judgment and premises are yours.
Also, using too much self-reference may make the essay seem less objective, based
more on "feelings" rather than "reasons" that are based on evidence and example. The
purpose of this essay is to avoid evaluating the subject based on personal taste and
instead to evaluate the subject from a critical, objective, emotionally detached
perspective. Self-reference works against this objective, or at least appears so from the
reader's perspective.
Finally, you can more forcefully advance your ideas, and much more concisely, by
avoiding self-reference and instead using third-person pronouns, which makes your
ideas universal rather than personal. Instead of announcing your idea, just state the
idea. Instead of, Avatar is the best movie I have seen this year, simply state, Avatar
is the best movie of the year and then support the idea with reasons.
With all this said, reviewers sometimes use the first-person "I" when describing their
actual viewing or reading experience. Here is an example of perfect, sparing use of "I"
in a Roger Ebert Review on The Life of Oharu. The first line of the review reads,
"Here is the saddest film I have ever seen about the life of a woman." And then he
only refers to himself twice more in the review, once in the middle, incosequentally,
"the movie I have outlined," and then once more as the last line of the review: "No
woman in a Japanese film that I have seen is more tragic and unforgettable than
Oharu." He uses "I" for emphasis alone, in his first and final point. He uses it
perfectly, for effect. If it's used too much, it loses its power.

IX: Sample Student Essays

Book
CD
Movie
IX: Professional Reviews
TV: Single episode: Louie
Single Season: Orange is the New Black
Film: See rogerebert.com and RottenTomatoes
Books: See New York Times
Music (album reviews): Anthrax Anthems; Rush's Clockwork Angels; Katy Perry's
Prism
X: Basic Structure and Features of a Review: Designing your Essay
I: Introduction (See Drafting in Section C2 of A Writers Reference)
In good reviews, the introduction should be no more than one or two paragraphs
introducing the subject to the reader. The main purpose of the introduction is to lead
the reader logically into the thesis, which is your main judgment, and which is usually
at the end of the first paragraph.
In the intro, you can give readers since its assumed that your audience has not seen
the film or read the book or watched the TV show, etc. a brief overview of the
subject by presenting the readers with important questions or concerns about the
subject that lead naturally into the thesis at the end of the first paragraph. Here is an
example of a review that does this perfectly, for the film Happiness by Roger Ebert.
But dont over-do it. Notice how Ebert gives only enough plot-overview information
in the first paragraph to keep the reader moving:
Happiness is a movie about closed doors--apartment doors, bedroom doors and
the doors of the unconscious. It moves back and forth between several stories, which
often link up. It shows us people who want
to be loved and who never will be-because of their emotional incompetence and arrested development.
Avoid over-explaining the plot for the whole movie, or arc of a whole TV series,
and/or overviewing all of the characters. Readers dont want a report. They want a
review, which is an argument. Instead, a brief description of the basic premise of the
show or movie that leads well into your thesis is all that is needed.
Stronger reviews start with a declarative statement about the subject, but dont
directly repeat the thesis. If the statements sounds authoritative (without being too
praising or too mean), it can hook a reader quickly. Example from a previous student:
I never thought Id be able to sit through a whole chick-flick without falling
asleep, but it finally happened. Here is a review that begins with a declarative
statement before moving into a brief plot overview: American Beauty by, again, Roger
Ebert.
Even stronger reviews begin by jumping right into a key scene or passage from the
subject being reviewed -- whether a movie or TV or book, or in an album review,

lyrics from a key song -- that illustrates the purpose of the work of art (or doesnt, if a
negative review). See this review on the movie Fargo by Roger Ebert.
[Note: I use Robert Eberts reviews as examples disproportionately to others because
without question he was the best film-review in the world. Im not even sure that
assertion is debatable. He was that good.]
The strongest reviews set the subject in the context of other similar subjects. Context
means the surrounding cultural environment and also the historical surroundings
of a subject. What other similar works of art have influenced the creation of this one,
and what current works of art are also out there currently that are competing with it?
Setting context could entail explaining what other specific movies or books
influenced this one (historical context) or what other important similar movies or
books are currently en-vogue and how they are reacting to one another (contemporary
content). For instance, if you were writing a review on Guardians of the Galaxy, it
might be important to note what other recent sci-fi blockbusters are competing with it
(contemporary context), and/or some if its historical influences and background such
as other classic superhero tales or even a little of the historical background of the
subject itself, how it began as a comic book, etc.
Placing the subject into the broader cultural and artistic context, with specific
examples, can really help the evaluation take on serious depth and meaning. Take a
look at how the first two paragraphs in this review briefly, but in a detailed way, set
the context of the review of the movie Platoon, by, guess who: Roger Ebert.
Your complete thesis should then follow naturally from the introduction. It should be
the final sentence of the first paragraph, and no later than the second, because the
main purpose of the essay is to defend your judgment, and thats what the rest of the
essay will entail
II: Body of the Essay: Defending Your Premises
You should begin the first paragraph of the body of the essay (the core of the essay)
by introducing your first main premise from your complete thesis statement as a topic
sentence. To support your first premise, use specific examples from the movie or book
or TV show to illustrate your point. It is important to choose relevant examples that
support a specific point rather than, in-general, overviewing the main storyline or
characters. Instead, make smart, careful choices about the example you will choose to
use. Example from the above Platoon review:
There are no false heroics in this movie, and no standard heroes [topic
sentence]; the narrator is quickly at the point of physical collapse, bedeviled by long
marches, no sleep, ants, snakes, cuts, bruises and
constant, gnawing fear. In a
scene near the beginning of the film, he is on guard duty when he clearly sees enemy
troops approaching his position, and he freezes. He will only gradually, unknowingly,
become an
adequate soldier.
Do this for all three of your premises, and note that 3 is simply a place to begin/.
You may add more premises to your argument, or fewer. What matters is the quality
of support for the thesis, not necessarily the numbers of the premises.

Another great method of support is compare/contrast (see pages 36-7, A Writers

Reference), to compare elements of your subject with other works of art in the same
genre. This could really build on your introduction of you talk about influences on
your work of art and contemporary subjects in the same genre. You could write about
your movie, for example, shows how a previous important movie in its genre has
influenced it, for better or for worse. Does the movie merely try to copy the previous
great movie, or does it add unique and creative elements to build on the previous
movies? How does the movie stack up against current movies that are competing with
it? Thus, you could build on the historical and contemporary context you previewed
in the introduction. Note this passage in a review of Guardians of the Galaxy and its
comparative references to the standards of the Sci-Fi genre. This is the perfect
example of establishing context in an interesting and fun way:
In many respects, Guardians, directed and co-written by indie wit James Gunn, and
starring buffed-up former schlub Chris Pratt and Really Big Sci-Fi Blockbuster vet
Zoe Saldana (here dyed green as opposed to her Avatar blue), is a fun and relatively
fresh space Western. Think Firefly pitched at 15-year-olds, with a lot of overt Star
Wars nods. And super-irreverentdialogue that is, more often than not, genuinely
funny. The wisecracking by the characters played by Pratt (a kind of junior Han Solo)
and voiced by Bradley Cooper (whose Rocket Raccoon, who is, yes, a genetically
altered raccoon) is so incessant viewers of a certain age might wonder whether this
movie has been put through the Whats Up Tiger Lily dialogue-replacement treatment
before release.
Here is the URL for the complete review by
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/guardians-of-the-galaxy-2014

Glenn

Kenny:

III: Conclusion
The purpose of the conclusion is to drive your argument home, by restating your key
points, but without directly repeating your complete thesis statement. You may want
to offer a recommendation or course of action or offer a final conclusion on how the
subject fits into its historical or contemporary context, or even end with a question to
further provoke the reader. (See Draft a Conclusion in section C2 of A Writers
Reference). Here is a conclusion that does all of the above, from Eberts Happiness
review:
Why see the film? Happiness is about its unhappy characters, in a way that helps us
see them a little more clearly, to feel sorry for them, and at the same time to see how
closely tragedy and farce come together in the messiness of sexuality. Does
"Happiness" exploit its controversial subjects? Finally, no: It sees them as symptoms
of desperation and sadness. It is more exploitative to create a child molester as a
convenient villain, as many movies do; by disregarding his humanity and seeing him
as an object, such movies do the same thing that a molester does.
These are the kinds of thoughts "Happiness" inspires. It is not a film for most people.
It is certainly for adults only. But it shows Todd Solondz as a filmmaker who deserves
attention, who hears the unhappiness in the air and seeks its sources.
General Tips

Choose a Good Topic

Choose a subject that you are passionate about, maybe a film that you like some parts
of but hate other parts of. That could make for an interesting review instead of
reviewing something you like too much or hate too much, which leads to being
uncritical or biased.
Being critical means identifying and recognizing strengths as well as weakness, not
only weaknesses.
Avoid Coming Across the Reader as Merely a Fan or a Troll.
Avoid expressing bias, either as a lover or hater of the subject. Your review, even if
generally positive, should not simply declare fan-like love for the subject. That shows
bias. There should also be an attempt to point out flaws and weaknesses in the subject,
even if the review is positive overall. The opposite is also true. If any subject is
appropriately scrutinized, there will be found both positive and negative elements.
Avoid Preaching
Write clearly and simply, but avoid speaking directly to the reader with the secondperson pronoun you, as in, This movie will keep you glued to your seat. You can
see there how you is a dictatorial word that directs the reader how to think. Instead,
the reasons and examples should do the work of convincing the reader how to think
about the subject, not direct orders.
Be Sparing with the I
Be sparing in using first-person pronouns, though they sometimes work. First of all,
there is no need to use first-person announcements such as I think or I feel or I
believe or variants because its implicit to the essay form that these are your
thoughts; thus, the use of "I" is redundant and unneeded. The reader knows that you
are writing the essay. Its implicit that your main judgment and premises are yours.
Also, using too much self-reference may make the essay seem less objective, based
more on "feelings" rather than "reasons" that are based on evidence and example.
Avoid Cliches
Also, avoid movie cliches like the one used in the previous example. Glued to your
seat is an expression that has been so overused in reviews that it had rendered itself
meaningless. Try to offer unique languages and phrases instead of the standard stuff.
There are also book-cliches (A must-read) and music cliches (a feast for the ears)
to be aware of.