Informal Review Writing Teaching Resource

Slides for teaching review writing for Year 13 students

1. Review Writing Year 13 301 English - Portfolio

2. Types: Many types of review: Literary (film, TV, books, performance) , Academia, aka literature review (peer-reviewed articles), Systematic reviews (collecting and using data), Bought review (products). Review writing (in all forms) is a persuasive piece.

3. Book Review: A book review is when a book is analysed in terms of its style, its content, and its merit (quality of being good/worthy). Length varies; can be a paragraph to an entire essay. The review can be presented in different ways; a plot summary and opinion, or an opinion paired with new learnings. Non-fiction reviews tend to have more of focus on the reader-friendliness and practical usefulness of the text.

4. Music Review: Performance, Recording, and Composition. Performance : these reviews tend to be shorter articles that inform the readers about the performers, pieces, or songs that were performed. These is usually two categories that the reviews fall into: technical and subjective/ artistic . Technical criticism tends to focus on aspects such as rhythm, togetherness, intonation, errors and/or slip ups. Subjective/ artistic criticism tends to focus on the reviewers taste.

5. Music Review: Performance, Recording, and Composition. Recording: Critics of music review the recording of the piece/s. This includes both singles and albums. With albums, reviewers judge both the individual songs and how well the songs work together as a whole set. With the rise of streaming music on platforms such as Spotify, audiences are now able to cherry-pick which songs they want to listen to. This adds a new element ot review writing of recorded music. The hardcore fans tend to listen to the album as it was created in trms of structure of songs, order of songs etc.

6. Music Review: Performance, Recording, and Composition. Composition : Compositional reviews are much different. Much more niche review category. Critic will use knowledge of music theory; harmonic analysis , thematic analysis, idioms, and compositional practices. Piece doesn't have to be performed, it can be reviewed based solely off the manuscript of the music.

7. Film/TV Review: TV and film are reviewed in a similar fashion. These reviews have existed since the beginning of film production. They were posted in newspapers and periodicals. Now they posted in these as well as on specific websites dedicated to film review, blogs, and magazines. These reviews are to give a persuasive rating and opinion on the film without giving away the plot. Examples of websites: Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, The Guardian.

8. Bought Review: Product review. When a product is bought/produced and the reviewer gives their opinion on it. Often “muddy” in that there is a paid relationship between the critic and the producer, so people can be skeptical. Jobs that may use this style of review?

9. Faces of Review Writers (Critics): Roger Ebert - First person to win a pulitzer for criticism (1967-2013 - The Sun) Judith Crist - Among the first full-time female film critics. Worked for The New York Herald Tribune Marcel Proust - French critic. Considered to be one of the most influential critics of all time. Clive James - Australian critic. Worked for The Guardian up until he died at age 80 in 2019

10. Informal VS Formal: Language → Style, Word Choice, pronouns. Author Status Publication *Informal pieces are no less valuable than formal. They just serve a slightly different purpose.

11. Group Work: On Classroom → Informal reviews. In table groups, read the review piece provided from Nexus. Answer the three questions (on the projector). Prepare 3 people to speak, each will answer one of the questions for your group.