Level 6 Assignment 4 Critique/Review

Title & Code of Module                      Communications G30001

Assessment Technique                        Portfolio Of Coursework

Weighing                                             5% (50 divided by 10)

Title                                                     Critique/Review

Guidelines:

The critique/review may be on any topic of the candidate’s choice.

The written review should be 500-700 words long and will form the basis for an oral presentation to the candidate’s peers.

Assessment Criteria:

Choice of topic (10)

Content – research, critical thinking (10)

Correct use of grammar, spelling, punctuation etc (10)

Structure – introduction, body of text, conclusion, appropriate length (10)

Presentation and layout (10)

What are your reasons for critiquing? You are getting marked on your critical skills. Do you know what critical thinking is? Here is a video which discusses the idea of critical thinking. It's a little fast paced but if you watch it through you will have a better understanding of what being critical means.

Uploaded by QualiaSoup on 24 Dec 2009

How do you review critically? Is it enough to just say “it sucks” or “it’s brilliant” without discussing why you think so? How can your readers make an informed decision regarding why you thought something if they cannot read it. When you read a movie review, is it simply a retelling of the plot or is there more to it? Why are sites like http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ so popular? Have you ever disagreed with a reviewer or felt angry when they have written something negatively about a musician or film you liked?

The world of the critical reviewer is changing fast. Gone are the days where we solely relied on a weekly film review show on the TV to determine our cinema choices. Being a movie reviewer isn’t hard with the advent of the internet where we can post our reviews for free. Being a good critical reviewer is a little more difficult. How does a personal attack of the artist’s character or their celebrity status enhance your knowledge regarding the film? How can you criticise constructively? Can you compare the film with an actor or director’s previous work or with other movies within that genre? For example arguing that Barbie The Movie is a movie dripping with schmaltz and sugary sweet emotions which should only be viewed by children”. Well is that not the point of the movie? If you watch a brainless comedy with cheap laughs and little plot aimed at the teen market, well how does it compare with other  brainless comedies with cheap laughs and little plot aimed at the teen market? Some people like those type of movies.

What is your purpose as the reviewer? To help sell more newspapers or to attract followers to your blog? To gain notoriety for being outspoken similar to critics like Perez Hilton or can you give a more thoughtful review similar to Paul Gambaccini, Mark Kermode or Jonathon Ross? Look at issues of music and movie magazines  and read the reviews.


Look up popular reviews on the internet maybe on www.amazon.com or something similar. Is there parts of the review you are reading that you agree with? How can you reference others writing so that it will enhance the authority of your review? Do aspects of any existing reviews online conform more with your own viewpoint? Why is your review going to be more interesting?

Structure

Introduction

How are you going to structure the review? What is your introduction going to be like? You want to get the reader to keep reading, how are you going to get their attention and make them want to read more? How is the introduction going to set up the rest of the review?

Body

What are the main details you want to get across in your review? Are you spending too much or too little time on each point? How can you get what you want to say across clearly. Can you reference other people’s writing to enhance your own correctly?

Conclusion

You want to leave your audience with something to remember. Often this is the last thing they read. It is a term known as recency. This is the place where it is useful to remind your audience what your review was about. You do not want to be approaching new topics in the conclusion but rather strengthening your point.