Dear Students

Your next assignment is to explore the array of products that can be used on a building site to ensure that it complies with sustainability criteria.

Task: Research any innovative products used in the field of building practice.

1. Choose any product that will contribute to making the building ‘green’ and should ideally be readily available commercially in South Africa.

2. It should be suitable for use on the building site you have been researching.  

How to write your review:

 Choose an effective title.

 Write an introduction, containing a purpose statement and a preview of the structure the main parts of the review.

 Now describe the product or products (if you compare different products you may want to use two paragraphs) in detail in terms of salient characteristics, such as size, weight, price, installation, instructions, ease/difficulty of use, packaging, longevity, and any other information that the reader would want to know.

 A good review will compare and contrast both the positives and the negatives of the/each product. In addition you should include comparisons on the pricing, ordering process and delivery.

Help your readers to weigh the pros and cons so they can make their own informed decisions on whether or not to acquire the product.

You can also compare the product to a similar one made by a competitor.

Finally, advise your company on whether to purchase the product or indicate which product you recommend.  Summarise the reasons for your recommendation.

Important requirements:

Take pictures of the product. Images greatly enhance product reviews by making them more appealing and setting the scene. You could have photos of the product itself, before and after photos showing results of use, or visuals demonstrating how to use the product.

Incorporate proof/evidence that you actually used the product in your review. This can be accomplished by including photos of using the product, or also by writing a detailed description of the process of using it and your experiences.

Incorporate a few keyword phrases into your review. These  are important because they are used to rank your review in search engines. Keywords should mimic the words or phrases the average person would type into search engines.

Include hyperlinks to the company website where relevant

Your review should include in-text references to other sources you consulted, such as other expert reviews, consumer reviews, blog postings, etc. Ensure that you use the abridged Harvard method.
Your completed review should be between 500-750 words.