Story Review

Each story reviewed is rated on a scale of one to five for each of the three criteria: originality, presentation and journalistic value. Here is what the ratings mean:

1 Poor

2 Meh

3 Passable

4 Impressive

5 Outstanding

There is also a final rating, which is calculated as a weighted average of the three sub-grades. Weightings are assigned by the reviewer and vary for different stories.

Since this blog has set out to collect examples of fine storytelling, poor reviews are likely to be a rarity. There is no real competition. The ratings serve as a means to quantify the reviewer’s assessment of a particular story and possibly showcase areas for improvement. For example, an otherwise great effort could be rated lower for presentation, meaning the reviewer feels there is room for improvement there. This will not necessarily affect the overall rating, though, as presentation can be given less of a weight in calculating the average.

One of the great things about new media and web 2.0 is that improvements can be made immediately. The ratings thus only reflect what the story looked like when we reviewed it.