Assignment 2
Experiential Review
Assignment Sheet, Stage 1
Writers Week
Important dates and submission info:
Drafts:
You can submit a maximum of two drafts at any time – Final deadline for drafts is end of lesson Tuesday, Week 8
Final Submissions:
Final copy due: Week 9, Friday end of lesson
All final submissions are submitted via Daymap
Copy of Assignment Sheet:
Review writing and commentary writing
Review and commentary writing tends to be a piece of writing in which you offer your personal opinion. Your own personal knowledge will make your conclusions count. You will need to support your points with valid reasons.
A review:
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focuses on strengths and weaknesses, but has a point of view
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uses evidence to support ideas
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draws a conclusion, saying whether something will be useful for, or interesting to, its audience and purpose
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gives personal opinion with confidence and authority
Like all text types, review writing has certain, fairly fixed conventions (called 'genre conventions').
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the review opens in a lively way to state the writer's opinion
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there is a use of direct-address ('you') combined with a question aimed at engaging the reader
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alliteration helps emphasise a key phrase
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references memorable quotes, and specific details from the event
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persuades, informs, and might use humour
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writing techniques such as a metaphor create vivid imagery that helps engage the reader and also emphasise the writer's negative view
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use writing techniques such as figurative language (eg similes, personification and hyperbole or exaggeration; these help engage the reader by creating imagery that emphasises your opinion
Examples of previous student reviews will be handed out in-class to look at. They are not published online as I do not have student permission to do so.
Sentence structure
Sentence structure is an important component of 'good' writing, and can be especially effective in short pieces, (like reviews.) Below are some posters that are up in class talking about how to use shorter and longer sentences to make your writing more effective.
How to make your metaphor take flight (pardon the pun)
A lot of students, (including me as a student), find adding metaphors quite difficult, and there is so much, often contradicting, information online that you can often end up being more confused, the more you try and work out how to add them to your writing.
Let's start with a little bit of basic revision, and then I will give you some tips on how to find ways to insert metaphor into your writing.
Why use metaphors?
Metaphors help you charm, influence, and persuade people in a way that plain English can't because they create powerful imagery in the mind's eye. They also have been shown to work subconsciously, so if you can use metaphor, you can influence and persuade people without them realising you are doing it.
Many, many professions need to use them including lawyers, scientists, and small business owners.
What are metaphors, again?
A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn't literally true but helps explain an idea or make a comparison. The simple metaphor format is "A is B", as in "time is money". Metaphors can also be indirect or implicit: "That's a half-baked idea". This metaphor compares ideas with part-cooked food – without mentioning the food!
How to find a metaphor in your writing.
Step 1 – First, try and add texture and detail.
Original student sentence: "As we waited dramatic music was played, whilst we waited it was also a hot day so our mood was to hurry up and get out of there."
Let's take the first chunk of that sentence: "As we waited dramatic music was played." If we focus on this one sentence, can we think of anything that we can add that would give us more texture or detail to play around with?
Here's what I came up with:
As we sat there bored and waiting, soft but dramatic music was playing from the black speakers next to the stage.
Step 2 – I don't know how to create a metaphor!
This is such a common problem, and it usually is because student's find it quite difficult to imagine other objects/things/creatures that they could compare the original word with. To help with that I've made a metaphor quiz that I hope will help.
Let's take the word "bored" in this sentence and apply the quiz criteria to it:
Metaphor Quiz template
A successful review will *usually* be full of descriptive language.
By upgrading key verbs and adjectives the author of the review retains their voice within the piece, but it prevents their review from sounding like a whine or a winge, and instead frames it is an authoritative piece of opinionated writing, written by an expert.
Move through your writing and look for opportunities to do this. This will be a key part of the assessment!
PDF version of Poster
Sentence structure
Sentence structure is an important component of 'good' writing, and can be especially effective in short pieces, (like reviews.) Below are some posters that are up in class talking about how to use shorter and longer sentences to make your writing more effective.
Self-check for first draft
Learning to self-check/assess your work is a crucial skill.
It is unlikely your boss will want to see anything you've done until you've moved through a self-check of some sort, so it is a good habit to get into now.
You can download the self-check checklist on the right. Once you have moved through the checklist, you will need to submit a copy of:
1. Your original draft.
2. Your upgraded draft.
3. Your completed checklist.
Copy of checklist