Please read the following links to reviews to get an idea of how different writers approach the genre.
As you read, think about why we use reviews and the different purposes these reviews take on.
For this Exercise, write a response to one of the reviews in the Comments section of this post.
Consider and analyze:
- Who is the source/reviewer? What credibility do they have?
- What is the conclusion of the review? Do you agree or disagree?
- Is this review fair or biased? How can you tell?
- What counts as evidence here? Research? Comparison/Contrast? Personal experience and taste? Storytelling? Historical testing?
- What values are implied or stated in this review?
LINKS
http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/taylor-swift-1989/
or any of these. . . http://www.collapseboard.com/music-blogs-3/no-one-sent-us-the-new-taylor-swift-album-to-review/
ALBUMhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-i-am-malala-by-malala-yousafzai/2013/10/11/530ba90a-329a-11e3-9c68-1cf643210300_story.html
BOOKhttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/23/fury-review-brad-pitt-second-world-war-drama
MOVIEhttp://www.cnet.com/products/apple-iphone-6/
PRODUCT
CNET provides a great review on Apples I-Phone 6 and 6-plus. According to their website, CNET is a reliable source that is serving the community based on their unbiased reviews of technological advancements. I think the review hit it on the mark when considering the I-Phone 6 and its counterpart. It truly is one of the best phones on the market. It is reliable, easy to use and fun for any member of the family to use. They go into detail on how the screen is the perfect 4.7 inches with the fact of easy transactions through Apple store (This excludes the fact that the plus is 5.5 inches). They do explain the problem with battery life with the I-Phone 6 and how there is not much life to it (Again this excludes the plus which has 2 ½ more hours of power). If I were to ask myself if this article was biased or not I would have to give a mixed review myself. There were some points in which the author gave his opinion on the product within the article. One example is when he says, “As for me, I found that the iPhone 6 feels best in my hand. It's thin, elegant, performs really well, and is less expensive at each storage level than the 6 Plus. For most people, I think the smaller iPhone 6 is the way to go.” CNET also does not gather information from other sources. They prepare their information from tests done by the company. By this information I would have to say that they were biased even though they explain clearly on their website that they are not. I just cannot believe that. Does this hurt their credibility? I would say not. Based on the article provided CNET has showed me I can trust their review.
ReplyDeleteI read the review of the iPhone 6 and 6-plus done by CNET. Their website accredits them to being a reliable source with unbiased reviews of advancements in technology. They list the pros and cons of the iPhone 6 and 6-plus according to facts about the products. There are overall more good things about these new phones than bad. They have bigger screens than any other iPhone has before. The iPhone 6 has a 4.7 inch screen and the iPhone 6-plus has a 5.5 inch screen while the iPhone 5 has a 4 inch screen. The wireless speeds of the devices are improved as well as the camera quality. I think the biggest improvement is the larger storage capacity that allows you to hold 128 GB. There was really only one negative about these new devices, which was the battery life. It's said to be not much better than the previous iPhones. In their conclusion, they stated that these new phones are the best overall phones of 2014. I would say this review is a mix of fair and biased. In one aspect they list the intended facts about the new phones that are fair, while on the other hand, the author gives opinions on the products from his own experience. However, I would say that opinions from people who own the product in real life are very helpful in deciding whether to buy the product. They give real life experiences that you can relate to and understand. This reviewer gets all their information themselves, they do not use other sources for help. CNET seems to be a trustable source even though they use biased opinions, because it is not always a bad thing when writing a review.
ReplyDeleteI read the iPhone 6 review by CNET. The reason I picked this review is because I'm genuinely considering using my upgrade to get one! The website starts by stating that it is an unbiased and credible source. I do wonder if the review is biased or not, because almost everything in the review is positive towards the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus. The only negative thing that I picked up on in the review would be the battery life. That already exists with all apple phones though, so I'm not too worried about it. The review scans over some of the specs of the apple products: giving screen sizes and memory capacity/storage. This was an opinionated article but the authors opinions came from real life experiences with the device: so as a person considering purchasing one of these phones I find that opinion very valuable and helpful to me. The evidence of this review would be specs(deatils of the products) and personal experience. From what I can tell the reviewer gets all the information themselves, they did not go to other sources for help. After reading this review I feel comfortable going back to CNET for other reviews.
ReplyDeleteI read the New York Times review of Taylor Swift's album '1989' by Jon Caramanica. The review praises Swift's new album and sound, a pop departure from her country roots. However, Caramanica also notes that Swift's departure is not a surprise, and one she's been playing around with for years. Her move into pop, however, is more inventive and original than most pop stars these days. Caramanica points out that most pop performers find roots in R&B and hip/hop to boost their sound and award them credibility. Swift, however, does not utilize this common approach, for which Caramanica praises her. The review is overall positive. I generally agree with everything Carmanica said about '1989.' Her new sound is a welcome departure from her more country roots. I think the review is fair. It evaluates her new album from various points of views, considering where she started and how she got to where she is now. It takes into consideration her reputation and history, both personal and in the professional music industry. Caramanica clearly values production over lyrical when evaulating content. He also considers reputation and history of not only the musical act, but of any co-writers and producers and how they contribute to the making of the album.
ReplyDeleteI read the review of the movie Fury. I haven't seen the movie but I heard good things about it so that's why I decided to pick this review. The review is done by Peter Bradshaw and published on The Guardian. The Guardian is a British owned news website that posts a lot of stories around the world. They are a reliable source because they have posted a lot of information and have won the Pulitzer Prize. Peter Bradshaw is reliable for movie reviews because he alone has posted well above 5,000 reviews on The Guardian. The review wasn’t biased because he gave about the same amount of positives and negatives for the movie. He just gave it a 3 out of 5 stars because the negative outweighed the positives. The major negative was that the movie was based too much on Call of Duty. He also thought the movie was similar to other war movies and that’s why he didn’t like it so it could be a bit biased in that way. Other reviews who haven’t seen the other war movies Bradshaw talked about may have given it a better review. Bradshaw uses multiple forms of evidence to back his review. He talks about how the movie is realistic in what happened during World War II. He is also interviewing two other people so that gives it more credibility. He compares and contrasts it between video games and other movies. Bradshaw includes some parts of his personal taste about where some things just didn’t fit in the movie. Overall I think The Guardian does a great review on the movie fury even though it is a bit biased but it’s almost impossible to stay unbiased.
ReplyDeleteCNET wrote a review on the iPhone 6 that they stated is unbiased. CNET is a credible source for reviews on technological advancements. The overall review of the iPhone 6 was a good one. The iPhone 6 has a faster A8 processor and speedier WiFi. It also has an amazing storage capacity of 128GB. The screen size is bigger than the other iPhones with a 4.7 inch screen. The only negative thing this reviewer had to say about the iPhone 6 was that the battery life was the same as the iPhone 5. I feel the review was a little biased because the person who did the review used the iPhone 6 personally but I feel that is a good thing. I want to know about a product I might buy from a person who has actually used it and not someone who has just played around with the device. I know this because when he was describing Apples new payment system he said "But having used it since its mid-October debut, I can say that it works seamlessly (most of the time)." Also the reviewer said "As for me, I found that the iPhone 6 feels best in my hand." and this all leads me to believe he is a little biased towards the iPhone 6. Overall I feel this review was very informative and helpful and should be read by anyone who is interested in buying the new iPhone 6.
ReplyDeleteI read the review about Taylor Swift's new album, 1989, written by Jem Aswad for billboard.com. Obviously, almost everyone knows of Taylor Swift and how big of a hit her new album is. Personally, I was very shocked by how electronic sounding this new album is. Jem Aswad agrees with me, saying this album is completely different from others, "The mandolins and violins were left back in Nashville.." I believe this is a reliable/credible source because Billboard is a nationally known company which rates and reviews music. This review is fair because the writer really compares and contrasts Taylor's new work to her old work. Like most of society's opinion, Jem makes sure to state the ever repeating topic of relationship problems/ breakups, which seems to be a common theme for most of her albums. However, Jem thinks that even though this common theme continues to be relevant, this may be one of her best albums yet. He discusses how her transformation from country music to pop music and how she couldn't have been more successful in the process. Jem's ending note is how 1989 is just the beginning of Taylor's new chapter of music and that her future is going to be very bright with this new type of music. I definitely agree with this review because her album was very popular from the beginning. Of course the most popular songs have been played on the radio non-stop, but recently other songs are being played on the radio, and those will soon become popular as well. I most agree with Jem when he says that this new style of music for Taylor will do her well because it now entices a more broad audience compared to before where the music was mainly country.
ReplyDeleteI read the review on Fury because I have seen the movie and wanted to see what an expert reviewer thought about the movie. The review comes from a credible website that reviews movies as a company and as actually won a Pulitzer Prize on their work about movies they have reviewed. A lot of people take their opinion seriously and can make a difference of how many people actually go see the movie. The conclusion about the movie Fury is that it was a descent movie to go see and a well put together piece of art. I agree with the review that it was a good movie and would recommend it to anyone that like a good World War II war movie. The movie review seems to be fair to where they give it a good rating compared to other movies with the same rating. They do point out a part of the movie they don’t like which give another perspective of it. I can tell the movie got a fair rating because the guy Peter Bradshaw that reviewed it gave it a three star rating which is pretty good on the hard rating system they give. The credibility of the movie reviewer is evidence enough that the review got a fair trial and the reviewer is not a beginner at these movie reviews. The review states what the soldiers went through and expresses how the director succeeded in showing the ugly side of war and how the soldiers coped with death and the boredom that succumbed over the soldiers.
ReplyDeleteI read the Fury movie review. The review is written by a film critic for The Guardian by the name of Peter Bradshaw. The Guardian is an award winning British daily newspaper. Bradshaw's conclusion is that the movie is thrilling at times, but often feels like a video game. I can agree with some of the review, as I found myself on the edge of my seat during the action sequences, however, I would have liked to have a larger emotional bond to these men. Also, I found the "war is Hell" message, mixed with the tank's phrase "best job I ever had" somewhat contradictory. The review was unbiased but somewhat nitpicky. For example, the video review was talking about how Brad Pitt's body was too "in shape" for WWII. Also within the video review, Bradshaw compares Fury to other World War 2 movies including Inglorious Basterds (also starring Brad Pitt), and Saving Private Ryan. Bradshaw states that Fury, along with Inglorious Basterds, takes the idea that you can load your movie up with hideous violence but reclaim your moral high-ground by hating Nazis. I agree with most of the review, but I thought that the critic may have been a bit TOO critical.
ReplyDeleteI read the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus review from CNET. CNET is a very reliable source for reviews in the world of electronics. The author begins the article with a pros and cons list, and a 'bottom line'. The pros to the iPhone 6 are it has an improved screen size, a better camera, overall faster speeds, accompanied by new software and finally larger storage capacity for those who are willing to pay. The only con the author had with the new iPhone was due to its unimproved battery life when compared to the iPhone 5s; also a minor downfall of the iPhone 5s from a year prior. The authors bottom line is the iPhone 6 is great in nearly every way except its unimproved battery. It is much thinner, faster and accompanied by a larger screen size, thus easily making it on of the best overall phones of 2014. This new iPhone however is moving away from the traditional iPhone design that we have seen over the past couple years. Apple has decided to move towards the more Android design, but using a much larger screens than most iPhone users are used too. Also, the phone's external closely resembles that of the HTC One M8. Overall I think this was a very fair and unbiased review, providing both the pros and con, while also comparing it to many other phones which are close competitors. Anyone who is considering buying the iPhone 6 should use CNET as a reliable source to help them make their decision.
ReplyDeleteI read the book review: 'I am Malala' by Malala Yousafzai which was reviewed by The Washington Post. The credibility of this newspaper dates back to 1877, making it the oldest extant newspaper, It is the most widely circulated newspaper published in Washington, D.C. This review did a really good job of not stating the pros and cons of the story but more of the facts of the story and what the book is about. Malala believes strongly in the importance of education and at the age of only 15 years old she was shoot by a Taliban fighter for speaking out about her God-given right to attend school. I couldn't agree more with Malala, in many countries over seas people do not believe woman should have the right to a proper education, at the beginning of this article they talked about how to end global poverty and the answer was an easy one, educate girls. However by doing this you begin to have a more powerful populace and the governments power begins to decrease. Something people in power do not want. The evidence hear is the gun shot wound that symbolizes so much more then a gun shot. The most important value that is stated in this review is that woman's education is important, and people, like Malala, are willing to give up their lives for this belief.
ReplyDelete