Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Scores

Out of idle curiosity I decided to look at what is happening with the number grades attached to our graded reviews.  The grade distribution shows a bias towards higher marks. The average grade given to a reviewed book seems to be about 7/10. 

I think that strikes a reasonable balance between being not too fluffy and also not too bitchy? Number grades are all a bit arbitrary anyway... but I think they bring out whether the book was basically enjoyable or not.  That isn't always clear from the text of the review.

1 comment:

DED said...

I think it's reasonable.

As for the peak's location, that's easy to explain. You're not reading every book that's submitted to you. Who wants to suffer through a book that's going to rate a 3 or less? You can tell within the first few pages if the author if the quality isn't there. Why waste the time on it (life is short) if it's going to be dreadful and then embarrass the author with a negative review? That's a lose-lose situation. No one wants that.