What's The Difference Between A Description, Review And An Overview?

Are you a freelancer? Are you ready to start earning money online? Here is a very important writing lesson that you will need to make it online. Do you know the difference between a description, a review and an overview? At times clients will request you do any of the three. Many writers get confused with things like this so it's no shame. It's a learning process for all of us. In this article I will tell you the difference between a description, review and an overview so you wont make mistakes that could cost you potential earnings.

The idea for this hub came to me while I worked on a project for writing descriptions, a lot of descriptions. While making corrections to those descriptions written by my colleagues I came to realize that maybe the way the descriptions were written was because descriptions are similar to reviews and they just got their ideas crossed.

My former colleague’s descriptions were very drastic and often reflected poorly on the items we were describing. Today the thought hit me “Wow, they are getting descriptions and reviews mixed up, I wonder how many people get them mixed up?”

A description is a representation of the subject whether it be a person, object or event, even a place. A description is void of opinion and must tell as you see. A description must state what is and NOT what it isn't. So when describing a product for example a phone, that description must state the look, feel and features of the phone. A description does not compare or criticize, it's neither negative nor positive.

Sample description of my Samsung BlackJack1

“It comes with a qwerty keyboard, windows mobile 6 and internet access features. There is a built in camera with camcorder and sound recording.”

According to dictionary.com, a review is an examination or assessment of a subject. That subject could be a person, place, thing or event. A review can be objective but it is usually written from the author's perspective. The same product can have two different reviews based on two different outcomes from the assessments. However, when writing reviews, authors should be careful to base their reviews on the facts. Thoroughly examine the facts before giving your review. A review can be negative, positive or anywhere in between.

A sample review of my blackjack smart phone using the description above

“The qwerty keyboard is pretty easy to use and the windows mobile 6 is easy to navigate. Internet is not easily accessible through my home wireless device but I am not sure if I am doing it right. The camera and camcorder takes great pictures and videos but the sound recorder could do with a bit of tweaking for clearer recording.”

An overview comes in two formats. It can be a review or a summary. According to dictionary.com a summary is: “A brief statement or account of the main points of something”, or “Dispensing with needless details or formalities; brief: eg."summary financial statements"

Because we are differentiating between each point, we will be elaborating on overview as a summary. The overview or summary is, as the above definition states, the key points of the review. So after examining the fact and putting them together, one can write a summary and that is where you point out the negatives and positives of the subject. An example of a summary of a product review is below.

This is a simple summary of my Samsung BlackJack 1

“While the blackjack 1 comes with most modern features of a smart phone, the blackjack 2 might be a better option. The features are okay but need to be updated for better functionality”

Now that you understand the difference between a description, a review and an overview you are now better equipped to service clients in the freelancing world. Take care to remember these points because they are very important. contractors can lose potential income from simple mistakes so do your research well and you will be fine.