Writing performance reviews can be an excellent way to earn a living. Who wouldn’t want to go from place to place watching actors, singers, and chefs perform at their best (and maybe their worst)? Getting paid to do something like this just seems like fun, doesn’t it? But, in reality, these jobs are not easy to come by nor are they easy to do. A writer will need to have many qualifications and have to write very well in order to establish themselves as worthy candidates of this type of work. Writing reviews is a little more complicated than just telling what you thought of the show.

For example, writing play reviews can be a challenge. Sure, the overall show may be interesting and exciting, but what about the individual characters? In writing the reviews, the writer must have strong understanding of how the play works, who is who, and why certain things are done in certain ways. They must be fluent in the arts and understand what is good and what is bad. It is not simply their opinions that matter but their opinions will in fact determine how well the play does. Who will come see a poorly reviewed play? But, if the writer’s ideas are wrong and misguided, who will look to them again for advice on whether or not to see that play?