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RHE 310

Fall 2007

Noah Mass

 

            How do we convey to someone else what a piece of music, a live performance, a movie, or a video game sounds like or feels like?  How do we take the pleasure or excitement that something musical or visual gives to us and render it in words alone?  How do we convince a reader to accept our judgment of the value of that media? 

For this assignment, you will write a review of some form of media that interests you:  music (a recording or a live performance), a movie, a television show, or a video game.  Although you will have to have certain specific elements in this essay (only some of which are normally part of a professional review) you should think of this as something that could conceivably be published, either in a national magazine, a weekly paper like the Austin Chronicle, or a website.  Consider, above all, how to use style, word-choice, and tone to keep a reader reading your work, as well as to convince your reader to accept your evaluation of your chosen subject. 

Most importantly, you will have to evaluate your subject in such a way that your essay convinces someone to adopt your evaluation of it: a positive one, a negative one, or an in-between one.  However, you should also consider this essay as something that your chosen audience will read—they are looking to your essay to convince them to see or not see, listen to or not listen to, buy or not buy, the media example you have chosen to focus on.

Regardless of what media you choose, writing your paper will involve these steps, all before you even begin writing:

 

*Identify a subject and a category in which to analyze it.   Based on what a “good” song, performance, movie, or game is, you will be deciding how this one rates. 

 

*Define the qualities, also called the “criteria,” by which members of the category should be evaluated, and weighh and defend the criteria, if necessary.  What makes for a good song, performance, movie, or game?  What are the qualities that let you know which is a “good” and which is a “not good” one of these pieces of media?  What are the most important of those qualities?

 

*Consider the extent to which your chosen subject meets or fails to meet the criteria you’ve defined.  Just how good or bad is the thing you’ve chosen?

 

Some tips:  A good evaluation argument should be controversial; if no one is likely to disagree with you, then there’s little point in arguing!   One way to consider this is to frame your evaluation as an overturning of common beliefs or expectations: most people think something is lousy, but you think it’s actually really fantastic.  Or: most people think something is great, but you think it’s awful. 

 

Also, good evaluations generally have some stakes to them—readers should perceive why the evaluation is important.  When evaluating a media example, consider why music, movies, TV shows, or video games are important, and why it should matter to an audience that one is better than the other.  

 

Incidentally, it’s perfectly fine to write a negative review—don’t think you have to be affirmative about your chosen subject (personally, I’ve found critical reviews to be the most fun to write).  You can also say that something is just O.K.—neither great nor awful.

Once you start actually writing this essay, there are a number of things that I’ll be looking for (aside from the introduction, they don’t necessarily have to be in this order):

 

·   an introductory paragraph which sets up a “tone” for the essay to come, but that also explains what it is you plan to write about and just what your argument about your subject is going to be—in this case, whether you loved, hated, or felt a little bit of both about the subject (and, by implication, how we should feel about the subject, too)

·   a description of the band, performer, T.V. series, or game that you intend to discuss, and what is so great about it (or, in the case of a negative review, what is so awful about it)

·   an extended analysis of a particular album, performance, episode, or game environment that is especially noteworthy.  Here, you would focus on a particular song or two, certain particular moments in the performance, a selection of scenes or moments of dialogue within an episode, or certain aspects of gameplay—all of which will serve as “evidence” for your main argument about the subject in question.

·   references (through quotations or paraphrases) to at least two outside sources to help you prove your point.  These could be other writers’ reviews of the same subject that you either agree or disagree with; they could be interviews with performers, actors, or creators that you found through research; or they could be sources that are about music, movies, television, or video games in general, and that help you to frame your argument or flesh-out your criteria.  Exactly how and where you use these outside sources in the course of your essay is up to you, but remember that you must use at least two of them.  In the body of the essay, cite the name of the author of the review in question in parentheses after the sentence that contains the quote, or at the end of the paraphrase (see more information on this below)

·   a conclusion that sums it all up

·   at the end of your paper, on a separate page, cite where you got your source material from.  This page is called the Works Cited page.  Format this page using Noodlebib on-line (there is a link below). 

 

Information about creating a Works Cited Page

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/noodlebib/

To create MLA style Works Cited page information, go to the above URL and click on “Create A New Account” (to create a login profile) and then “Create A New List.”  NoodleBib will allow you to use MLA Advanced or Starter (use either—it really makes no difference to me).  Once you’ve logged-in with your password and username, NoodleBib will walk you through all the steps you need to create a proper Works Cited page.

 

Information about Citing Sources in your essay (also called in-text citations):

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/research/mlaparen.html

You’ll find information about citing electronic resources at the bottom.

 

Length:

 

4-5 pages

12 point Times Roman font, double-spaced

 
Due Dates:

 

Proposals: by Midnight on 10/8, post to the wiki site answers to the following questions:

What am I reviewing?

What criteria should this subject, and other examples of this type of media, be judged by?

Which criteria are the most important?

Why is this topic important—and to whom? (Who’s your audience? What are their values and interests?)

 

Student Showcase 1: 10/11 (send drafts to me by Midnight, 10/10)

Student Showcase 2: 10/16 (send drafts to me by Midnight, 10/15)

First Draft Due: 10/18

Final Draft Due: 10/30