Unlike other forms of essay, literary reviews don’t require you to do primary research in the field. Instead, your job is to compose a critique based on your impressions of a piece of work, as filtered through your knowledge of the topic at hand.
So how is your essay going to be graded? Mostly, by how capably you write it and how well you reason out your critiques. Obviously, you’d have to read the work in question, too, so dropping the wrong facts (as many students who don’t really read the material) is likely to be a major avenue to bad marks.
Writing Quality. While spotless writing is rare, you’d have to reasonably polish your piece. Give it a good, logical structure and compose clear, easy-to-read sentences – that’s all most instructors ask for. Make sure to use your favorite writing software to help you out.
Reasoning. Reviews require you to give an opinion. You can’t stop there, though. Every personal idea you express will need to be backed up by a sufficient amount of reasoning. Why do you feel that way? Explain or perish.
What about evidence? Sure, you can throw some in. Drop in a quote from a famous writer in the same field that support your opinions, compare it to similar works and mention similar critiques of other works – if they help you argue your opinions, use them. They will help your cause.
