Writing a review

Writing a review


Dr. Krisztina Szőcs
Eötvös József College
Hungary, Baja

Open Ended

What is the aim of a review?

Word Cloud

What are the characteristics of a good review?

Multiple Select

Which of these should a good review include?

• mix of information and opinion

• full details of what is being reviewed

• name/ title of what is being reviewed

• mix of negative and positive points

• relevant comparisons

Multiple Select

Which of these should a good review include?

• examples to illustrate points

• evaluation and recommendation

• personal anecdotes and hearsay

• wide range of vocabulary, including specialist terms

• variety of linkers and grammatical structures

​Is either of these a good review?Why/ Why not?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxh14ed6CkM 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-yiB9APPag 

Watch the trailers of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land 

 

​Choose the best alternative in italics to complete this review introduction: 

Harold Pinter's No Man's Land is enough to give the reader a panic attack. The literary 1 allusions/mentions are so 2 dense/thick, the dislocation of 3 character/personality so 4 mysterious/odd that pinning down what's going on is 5 impossible/ like chasing a drop of water through a fountain. But 6 directed/managed by the 7  author/playwright, this most 8 abstract/metaphysical of Pinter's plays is 9 direct/immediate, fully fleshed, 10 filled/packed with social detail.

Draw

Give the completed paragraph more impact by inserting these phrases where they best fit. Use them in order and change the punctuation if needed. 

1. on the page

2. striking how little this matters in performance

3. at London Lyttleton Theatre

4. it is also very funny

Draw

Match the adjectives (1-12) and nouns (a-l) to make 12 collocations

​​Complete this paragraph with the previous collocations

The two ______________________________________are ____________________________. They are together by a __________________________. Hirst is a successful_____________________. He lives in an_________________________________ in Hampstead. Hirst invites Spooner home. Spooner is a seedy pub worker from Chalk Farm. The spaciousness of Hirst's life, and the achievements, represent everything that Spooner has dreamed of. For Hirst, Spooner is what he might have become. We are not dealing with a ______________________________between success and failure. Hirst's success has turned to ashes. He is a _________________________________ essentially isolated (apart from the presence of two dubious servants), living in a state of.__________________________. Spooner only outwardly embodies what he has escaped. The well-dressed host's sense of is an emanation of the _______________________________ . There is a in the play, of things left undone and of unappeased ghosts. There is some fine comedy. The new production does ____________________________to both apects.

​Use these structures and linkers in the order given to improve the style of the complete previous paragraph. You may need to delete some words and/or change the punctuation/ word order.
who
-ing
whom
on the other hand
if things had gone wrong for him
not that
it is only (adverb) that
also
at the same time it is the occasion for
and

Open Ended

Complete this paragraph in two different ways- one positive and one negative- by choosing an appropriate pair of words for each gap from the list below:

bleary- eyed/ amateurish

entertainingly/tediously

flat/inspiring

frosty/woodden

ingratiating/uninteresting

superlative/mediocre

terrific/disappointing

threatening/improbable

unsettingly/unconvincingly

Open Ended

10. Complete these sentences in your own words to arrive at an appropriate conclusion. 

 

I must confess I find that the temperature of the play drops when_______________. To me _____________________but a powerful and satisfying evening. 

combine your paragrapghs from the previous tasks, adding breaks as appropriate, to arrive at a complete review.

​

Finally,