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C2 Proficiency review writing practice and phrases

C2Writing40 questionsUpdated

A C2 Proficiency review describes something, judges it, and tells a specific readership whether it is worth their time. The commonest failure is not weak language but weak judgement: a review that summarises the plot of a book or lists the features of a venue and never commits to a verdict cannot reach the higher bands.

What this task tests

  • Balancing description and evaluation, with evaluation dominant.
  • Writing for a named readership and adapting the recommendation to them.
  • Precise evaluative vocabulary in place of good, bad and interesting.
  • Qualified praise and qualified criticism, which are harder than either extreme.
  • Giving reasons and evidence for a judgement rather than asserting it.
  • A confident personal voice that stays within the register the publication implies.
  • Comparison with a reference point the reader already knows.
  • Avoiding spoilers or excessive plot summary where the subject is a narrative.
  • A clear verdict, including who would and would not enjoy it.
  • Range of language used deliberately: inversion, fronting, emphatic structures.

How to do it

  1. Step 1:

    Decide your verdict before you write a word

    A review with no thesis rambles. Write your one-sentence judgement on the plan first, then choose only the details that support or complicate it.

  2. Step 2:

    Name the reader in your head

    Worth the ticket for anyone who already knows the novel, and bewildering for anyone who does not: that sentence is only possible if you have fixed who you are writing for. The prompt tells you.

  3. Step 3:

    Describe briefly and early

    Two or three sentences establish what the thing is. Anything more turns a review into a summary, and summary earns almost nothing under content at this level.

  4. Step 4:

    Support each judgement with one specific

    Do not say the acting was uneven; say that the two leads shared four scenes and only one of them worked, and name why. Specificity is the difference between a review and a rating.

  5. Step 5:

    Qualify at least once

    Uniformly positive or uniformly negative reviews read as unconsidered. One well-placed concession makes the rest of the verdict credible, which is exactly the effect the mark scheme calls a confident critical voice.

  6. Step 6:

    Use a comparison the reader can use

    Compare with something in the same category and say how it differs. It is a faster way to convey a judgement than three sentences of adjectives.

  7. Step 7:

    Reach for one deliberate structure

    Rarely has a debut been so confidently paced. Not once does the second half lose its grip. One fronted or inverted sentence, well placed, demonstrates range without sounding like a grammar exercise.

  8. Step 8:

    End with a recommendation that discriminates

    Say who should go and who should not. A recommendation that everyone will love it is worthless to a reader and tells the examiner you have not thought about audience.

Mistakes that cost marks

  • Not thisRetelling the whole plot in four paragraphs and adding 'I liked it' at the end.

    ThisTwo sentences of description, then three paragraphs of evaluation.

    Content marks in the review come from evaluation. Plot summary occupies the space where the marks are.

  • Not thisIt was very good and very interesting and I really enjoyed it.

    ThisIt is a patient, unshowy film that trusts the audience to wait, and the waiting pays off.

    Very good and interesting carry no information. Precise evaluative vocabulary is the single fastest way to raise a review.

  • Not thisEveryone will love this restaurant.

    ThisWorth the detour for anyone who likes to eat slowly; a poor choice for a quick lunch before a train.

    A recommendation that excludes nobody helps nobody, and the discriminating version demonstrates audience awareness directly.

  • Not thisWriting a review of a novel that gives away the ending.

    ThisIndicating that the ending divides opinion without revealing it.

    A reviewer who spoils the work has misunderstood the genre, and the communicative achievement mark reflects that.

  • Not thisThe book was wrote by an author who is very famous.

    ThisThe book is the work of an author already well known for her essays.

    A basic verb-form error in a high-register answer is disproportionately damaging because it interrupts an otherwise confident voice.

  • Not thisIn my opinion I think that personally I believe the film is good.

    ThisThe film succeeds, though not in the way its trailer promised.

    Stacked opinion markers are padding. At C2 the judgement itself carries the voice and the hedging should be doing real work.

  • Not thisListing five things you liked with no order or priority.

    ThisBuilding from the least to the most important, with the strongest point last.

    An unordered list reads as notes. Ordering is an organisation mark that costs nothing to earn.

Language this task keeps reusing

a triumph of
an outstanding success in a particular respect
fall flat
fail to have the intended effect
understated
deliberately restrained, without display
self-indulgent
pleasing the maker at the audience’s expense
uneven
good in parts and weak in others
derivative
too obviously copied from earlier work
compelling
holding the attention irresistibly
contrived
artificially arranged and therefore unconvincing
pedestrian
competent but dull
sumptuous
richly and expensively beautiful
worth the detour
good enough to justify going out of your way
does not quite come off
nearly succeeds but fails
a slow burn
something that rewards patience
grating
irritating through repetition
a misstep
one poor decision in otherwise good work
stand up to a second viewing
remain rewarding when experienced again

Practice: review

40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.

Which sentence is the strongest evaluative opening for a film review?

2Complete the sentence.

The second actflat, and the film never quite recovers from it.
Which word best describes a restaurant that is competent but dull?

4Complete the sentence.

The score isthroughout, which is precisely why the final scene lands.
Decide whether each statement about the review task is true.
  • Evaluation should occupy more of the review than description.
  • A review should recommend the subject to every possible reader.
  • The prompt names the readership, and the recommendation should reflect it.
3 to go

6Complete the sentence.

Rarelya debut been paced with so much confidence.
Which recommendation discriminates usefully between readers?

8Complete the sentence.

The dialogue isin places, as though the characters had read the plot.

9Write two sentences of evaluation about an imagined exhibition, each supported by one specific detail.

10Complete the sentence.

It is aburn, and readers who want incident in the first fifty pages will not last.

Keep going

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Frequently asked questions

Can I review something that does not exist?

Yes. Invented subjects are normal in exam writing and often easier to judge confidently, because you control the details you need for your evidence. Keep the invention plausible and consistent.

How much plot or description should I include?

Enough that a reader who knows nothing can follow your judgements, which is usually two or three sentences. Everything after that should be doing evaluative work.

Is the first person allowed in a review?

Yes, and a review is the one Part 2 task where a personal voice is expected. Keep it to judgements rather than anecdote, and drop the stacked hedges.

Must my verdict be positive?

No. A well-argued negative review scores exactly as well as a positive one, and a mixed verdict is often the easiest to support. What is penalised is having no verdict at all.

How do I show range in a review without sounding forced?

Choose two or three places where a structure does real work: a fronted comparison, an inversion after a negative adverbial, a cleft sentence for emphasis. Placed at the start of a paragraph or in the final line, they read as style rather than display.