Writing a Film or TV Show Review with Topic Transitions vs. Separate Sections with Titles
When writing a film review or a TV show review, especially one of significant length, there comes a point during the editing process where you have to decide how you are going to transition between major topic.
There are two methods. The first is to blend the beginning of a new review topic into the ending of the proceeding topic. The second method is to insert into your review a separate section header for each major topic within the review.
I have used both methods over the last ten years, only recently shifting over to the latter method. This experience enables me to give you the pros and cons of both from an avid user’s perspective.
The Blend Transition
The blended transition is the harder of the two topic transition methods because it requires more creativity and it lengthens the time you will be writing and editing your review. Outside of the normal writing and editing process, when you use the blend method, you then have to go through (if you hadn’t done so while you were writing) the entire review and blend the ending of one review topic (one paragraph, one thought process, one section of review) into the beginning of the next paragraph and/or review topic.
Using keywords and phrases from the last sentence in a proceeding paragraph (or topic) in the first sentence of the following paragraph is the easiest way to smoothly transition from one paragraph to another, from one topic to another.
A film review example of the blend transition method is this Halloween (2018) review:
A TV show review example of the blend transition method is this Outlander: Season 4, Episode 8: Wilmington review:
It is painstaking work, often causing the writer to change the beginning (or ending) of his or her paragraph just so that it flows better with the paragraph that came before it or the one that comes after it.
What blended transitions produce is a smooth and striking reading experience for the reader of your review, one in which they are effortlessly transported from one paragraph to the next.
Section Title Transition
The section title transition is the easiest of the two topic transition methods because the blending of two paragraphs on two different topics is not necessary. Instead, you can place a title above all the paragraphs that deal with that single idea or ideas. When that section of your review comes to its conclusion, all that is necessary is the insertion of the next section title.
A film review example of the section title transition method is this Alita: Battle Angel review:
A TV show review example of the section title transition method is this Game of Thrones: Season 8, Episode 6: The Iron Throne review:
Moving around paragraphs within a review to make them fit a particular thought-process occurs with both transition methods but it is easier with the section title transition method. Less paragraph modification is necessary to make paragraphs work within a given review section. Under one banner, you can talk about all the topics and sub-topics of a particular subject. The reader knows what they are in for when they read that section of your review because the review section topic is clearly labeled.
Within the section title transition method, like with any paragraph transition method, you should establish a good flow between paragraphs. I don’t want to give you the impression that you can just type paragraph-after-paragraph under a section title and leave them as is without any after-thought. There should be a singular flow, a progression through all of the paragraphs, as you make your point and crystallize it, backed up with facts (examples) from the film, TV show, other movies, or other television shows.
The review section, prefaced by the section title, is simply the container for a subgroup of thoughts within a larger group of thoughts (i.e. the entire review). It’s your outline weaponized, pushed out into the forefront of the visible, publicized version of your review. It should not be mistaken as a copy-editing escape hatch. It’s a shortcut, one the reader can use to find exactly what they are looking for when reading your review, provided you word the section titles in an informative yet enticing way.
Pro-tip 1: If you are using Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. for the different section titles of your reviews, use them in descending order. In the examples, Heading 2 is used first, then Heading 3 is used for each of the sub-section headers.
Pro-tip 2: If possible, use keywords in your section titles, especially if you are using Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. It helps with search engine optimization (SEO) when your article is spidered by search engines (they’ll find a well-laid out article and the keywords you are trying to rank for in the Headings).
Pro-tip 3: If your review has length (over 1500 words), create a hyper-linked table of contents containing all sections titles at the beginning of your review so that the reader can click one and be taken to a specific section of your review. Example:
Conclusion
For the foreseeable future, I will be using the section title transition method when writing a film review or a TV show review. It’s quicker and I’m able to say exactly what I would have said using the blend method just with less editing work. Which method do you currently use?
Leave your thoughts on this article below in the comments section. Want up-to-the-minute notification of newly published articles? ProMovieBlogger publishes articles by Email, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.
