FTS-100 349 Project 2: My Album Review (Fall 2016)

Start: Friday, 9/16; Due: Friday, 10/14, in hard copy, by the start of the class. Mini oral presentation on 10/19 and 10/21.

Bare Bones Description

In this project, you will write a music review for an album of your choice. Your review must be between 1 - 2 pages long. There is no formal presentation component to this project, but there is a small oral presentation.

You are to do this project individually.

What This Project Accomplishes

This project is an extension of the previous one. As mentioned, critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally. In essence, critical thinking requires you to use your ability to reason. This project, like the last one, is designed to help you with the skill of reasoning. However, this time you are expected to give more realized arguments and to backup your arguments with research. This project also provides you with the opportunity to think about writing related issues and teaches you the process of formal writing via multiple revisions.

Project Detail

You will listen to an album (of any genres) and write a review. The task at hand is to provide your readers with an informed impression of a piece of art. This project is divided into several small tasks:

First, you will examine the process of writing by reading album reviews from magazines such as Pitchfork, Spin, Mojo, or the Rolling Stones. You will later give me a 3 minutes oral presentation on the effectiveness of these writings (on Wednesday, 10/19 and Friday, 10/21).
Then, you will pick an album to review. Once you have listened to the album, you will fill out this worksheet. It serves as an outline for your review.
Once you have an outline, you can start writing drafts of your review. Based on the drafts, you can then write the final version. You will provide at least two versions of the review to me (one draft and one final version). I also want to see the corrections you had made (written in pen) from one version to the next.

Tips

First, album reviews should not be limited to music you know you love or know you hate. Challenge yourself to explore the unknown. Try writing a review for an album that you know nothing about by an artist you have never heard of.

Listen to the record from start to finish and begin to write down your impressions. How does the music make you feel? What does it sound like? What does it remind you of? Write your notes into the worksheet I provided for you.

Now, you can use Google to find out about the artist, the genre, and the culture surrounding the music.

Finally, revisit your worksheet and combine what you have learned with your first impressions.

Don't forget to cite your resources in the final version of your review. To cite a resource, please read pages 41 - 44 in your text book (EasyWriter). You may choose to use any of the citation styles for this particular project.

Although at its heart a music review is your opinion, the purpose of the review is to give your readers an informed impression. Thus, you should avoid opinions that are too personal. You need to give your reader plenty of room to listen to the music themselves and make up their own mind. Even with "negative" reviews, your writing should make readers curious enough to want to listen to the album themselves.

Grading

Points total: 15

You will give a 3 minutes oral presentation during the lecture on 10/19 (Wednesday) and 10/21 (Friday), and provide a list of reviews you had read. I will look for insightful observations: 3 points.
You had completed the worksheet and had taken sufficient notes during the initial listening process. I can see the connection between your notes and your review: 1 point.
You had provided a draft and a final version of your review. The corrections are visible (in pen) from draft to final version: 1 point.
Your review is well structured. All of your arguments are clearly presented: 1 point.
All your arguments are fully realized: 5 points.
All your arguments are supported. All your resources are cited: 4 points.

Due Dates

You will give a 3 minutes presentation during the lecture on Wednesday, 10/19 and Friday, 10/21. Your worksheet, draft, and the final version of your review should be printed and stabled together; they are due on Friday, 10/14, by the start of the class.