Comp I Chapter 17 Reviews

Chapter 17
"Two Thumbs Up"
Writing a Review

Composition I

Writing a Review

Restaurants, cell phones, books, movies, TV shows, cars, toaster ovens, employees--just about anything can be reviewed. Many people don't buy a new product or try a new restaurant without first checking to see what others have said about it online--and even posting their own thoughts on it afterward. This is especially true in the internet age. For example, Dr. Seat won't book a vacation or work conference without checking the accomodation reviews on hotels.com or AirBNB first, and she rarely watches a film without sifting through the reviews on Letterboxd.

Here are some Letterboxd reviews for Dr. Seat's all-time favorite film, The Evil Dead (1981).

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Example #1

Example #2, on the next slide, is from famed critic Roger Ebert.

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Okay, let's get serious.

Joe Dirt movie review & film summary (2001) | Roger Ebert

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Open Ended

Think about reviews you've read. All reviews evaluate something, and they do so using relevant criteria. Someone reviewing a movie, for instance, would generally consider such factors as the quality of the script, acting, directing, and cinematography. Think about a product you are familiar with or a performance you have recently seen. Develop a list of 4-5 criteria for evaluating it, and then explain why these criteria are well suited to your subject.

Atlanta's New Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit: Everything You Need to Know - Thrillist

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Open Ended

This brief review includes several photos. How else could a review published online take advantage of the online medium?

Characteristic Features of a Review

• Relevant background information about the subject

• Criteria for evaluating

• A well-supported evaluation

• Attention to the audience's needs and expectations

• An authoritative tone

• Awareness of the ethics of reviewing

Relevant Background Information About the Subject

"In 1955, Childress's play Trouble in Mind premiered off Broadway and was well-received critically. The play was optioned for Broadway with a caveat: Childress had to tone down her play about racism in the American theatre and make it more comfortable for the ostensibly white audience that would be seeing it. Childress refused, and Trouble in Mind was relegated to the footnotes of American theatre history, never achieving the kind of mainstream success that it deserved. Until now, when it has been given its much-delayed Broadway debut 66 years later. Childress's contemporaries included Lorraine Hansberry and her play A Raisin in the Sun. While Hansberry's play dealt with the overt, capital-R racism of housing discrimination, Childress's dealt with a common, insidious form of racism, that of well-meaning liberals--those who Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the white moderates, 'more devoted to order than to justice'."
--Diep Tran, "'Trouble in Mind' Review--The Kind of Good Trouble Broadway Needs"

Tran offers important historical information to provide context in which Trouble in Mind appears on Broadway in 2021 as a revival of a play that was implicated in racial politics in 1955. Had Childress acquiesed to the pressure to "tone down her play," she would have been the first African American woman playwright to have her work produced on Broadway. Instead, that honor went to Lorraine Hansberry. Tran felt it was necessary for readers to have this information to understand the place of Childress's play in American theater history and in current news.

Critiera for Evaluation

Quantitative

"This adult bike helmet is one of the best CR has tested. It rates Excellent for absorbing impact forces in a crash. And it incudes a multidirectional impact protection system (MIPS), a promising technology designed to reduce the risk of concussion. This relatively lightweight, easy-to-use helmet also provides excellent ventillation. It's one less-than-stellar quallity concerns fit adjustability: It comes in a universal size, and not all the straps are adjustable."
--Consumer Reports, "Giro REgister MIPS Bike Helmet"

Consumer Reports, a non-profit publication dedicated to product reviews, provides specific critera for evaluating bicycle helmets. The review is presented in multiple formats incuding a "ratings scorecard," a list of highs and lows, and a detailed narrative explaination of reviews.

Critiera for Evaluation

Qualitative

"We are women who serve. Attending Spelman empowered me in a way that would not have been possible at any other institution. I have a community or family of Spelman sisters that will be with me forever. I wish I could have my college experience one more time to take advantage of more opportunities presented to me at that fine establishment. Black women being educated and supporting one another is beautiful and powerful."
--Spelman College Alumna, Review on Niche (2022)

This reviewer uses qualitative criteria such as personal feelings and values to signal the strengths of the college.

The foundation of every review is a clear evaluation, a claim that something is good or bad, right or wrong, useful or note. Whatever you're reviewing, you need to give reasons for what you claim and sufficient evidence to support those reasons.

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A Well-Supported Evaluation

"Even in the context of a series that regularly receives criticism for feeling formulaic, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are particularly familiar. As remakes of the fourth-gen titles Diamon and Pearl, these are homages to an era of Pokemon when the series was just starting to settle into a comfortable niche. Not only that, but these are extremely faithful remakes, right down to the visual style and classic combat mechanics. . . Even those who haven't spent the last few decades repeatedly catching 'em' all know the gist by now. You're a plucky kid who goes on a grand cross-country adventure training pocket mosters and ulitmately becoming world champion. It's recognizable in the same way that you basically already know that Mario is going to save to save the princess, and has a certain level of simplistic appeal."
--Steve Watts, "Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl Review"

This excerpt of a review from GameSpot was clearly written for an audience familiar with previous versions of the game. Even though the reviewer provides a bit of background in the second paragraph for those newer to the Pokemon universe, he assumes his audience knows the history of the game.

Attention to the Audience's Needs

An Authoritative Tone

"At first brush, These Precious Days seems [an] incongruous addition to the sizeable stack of recently published essays by female writers. Though not devoid of joy, titles such as Lavinia Greenlaw's Some Answers Without Questions or Lucy Ellmann's Things Are Against Us are unabashed polemics; they grapple with the gritty, they rail and the fulminate. Patchett's, in contrast, is characterised by sun-dappled beneficence."
--Hephzibah Anderson, "These Previous Days by Ann Patchett Review"

Anderson's review of Ann Patchett's collection of essays in The Guardian creates an authoritative tone through her demonstrated knowledge of nonfiction recently published by other women writers.

The Ethics of Reviewing

Be Aware:

• The consequences

  • Example: A film reviewer's influence on whether the film will be shown in theatres

• Giving away key details can ruin another's experience ("spoiler alert!")

• How your background and experiences influence your evaluation

• The effect your review might have on the creator

Open Ended

Locate a review online on a subjec taht interest you and evaluate it using the list of characteristic features for revews (Relevant background information about the subject, Criteria for evaluating, A well-supported evaluation, Attention to the audience's needs and expectations, An authoritative tone, Awareness of the ethics of reviewing). For any features you find missing, consider whether including them might have improved the review.