General readership review of one CD for amazon.com or another online source. (30)

Length: a couple of paragraphs.

Due: Friday, Sept. 12th

Value:  30 points. 

Purpose:  This assignment is a warm-up exercise, a community building exercise, and an exercise in voice.   You are being asked to review one CD (or other appropriate product) and post your review at an online e-commerce site like amazon.com.  While you probably have no financial stake in the product you are reviewing, you might want others to check out music you are interested in—we all seem to want others to like the things we like.

Genre:  the quick, commercial review.  Emphasis is on recommending or dissing the item being reviewed.  You need to be able to give good reasons as to why you recommend the item or not.  Most of these online reviews are pretty informal, and some even have typos and grammatical errors.  Can you believe it!!  ; )

Your audience:  classmates and other shoppers—what relationship do you want to establish?  Your classmates are what I would call the "addressed audience"—you know they will read this review, so they are your most important readers.  The other shoppers are "invoked"—you know others might find this review, and you might want to impress or persuade them in one way or another.  You can provide contact information if you want to.

Voice:  use a voice that is appropriate to your subject matter, and/or appropriate to the type of relationship you want to establish with your readers.  Have some fun with voice on this assignment—the best online reviews are a little bit creative, a little bit off-the-wall (IMHO). 

The social context might be a motivator or a barrier for you.  I am asking you to do some writing that goes beyond this class, and could be read by friends, family, and strangers.  Some people will say "great," others will say "this makes me nervous."  For those who are uncomfortable with this social context, let me know and we can make an alternative arrangement.  All of you, however, pay attention to how much this social context influences your writing—I will ask you to reflect on that after the assignment is completed.

Grading—I am going to look for three things:

• How well you follow the conventions of the genre, particularly backing up your claims.
• How effectively you establish a relationship with the audience: let readers know where you are coming from.
• How effectively you use a writing voice that engages most readers: show some enthusiasm, whether in praise or criticism of the CD you are reviewing.