Write an essay about a performance based on reading Chapter 6 in Bloom’s Fact and Artifact on “Writing About Performance.”(in the file name CH 6 Bloom) Please read the entire chapter carefully. Using MLA formatting (12 pt. font, 1” margins, etc.)
RESEARCHING
This unit has one added element, and that is researching. In order to write convincingly and have any authority to judge a performance, you need to know something about it. Four sources are required. They should be CREDIBLE sources. This does not mean they must be academic sources; this means that whomever wrote your source of information must be a person who is an authority on the subject. For example, my best friend’s blog might actually be a credible source if I’m doing a movie review and my friend happens to have a PhD in film studies.
Find out as much as you can about the people, history, and place of the event, as well as past and present social and newsworthy conversations about the performance. For example, if you are going to do a restaurant review, first go to their website. Find the “about” page and read up on the restaurant. Find its history, its owners, what they claim to be known for, etc. If you’re going to a sporting event, you should know BOTH teams, their strengths and weaknesses, their players, their record, etc. Without this background work, you will not be credible as a writer.
This means that you should choose the performance you want to review with care. If you know nothing about baseball, don’t write a review of a baseball game unless you plan on writing it from the perspective of a newcomer to the game for some reason. If you know nothing about film, don’t review a movie. Reviewers write about performances they understand.
First Draft of Assignment Three
After reading Chapter 6 in Bloom and the readings from “Reading Packet D”(You have read before in my last question”250 wards discussion and 3 responses”, I also add it in the file name Packet D), write a review of a performance. You may write about any performance you wish, but it should be a performance you actually witness/attend/watch and take notes as you do. In other words, don’t review a ball game you saw last week; although you may feel you remember it well, if you did not go with this mindset that you were going to write about it, you will miss details, emotions, specifics, and nuances that you will catch if you are going as a writer. This will be your peer workshop draft.