Academic review, applying criteria to one of the CDs you reviewed in the general readership reviews.  (100)

Length: four to five pages.

Due: Monday, September 29^th

Value: 25 points for draft, 75 points for final review.

Purpose:  An academic review will definitely try to inform readers, and frequently won't make any recommendations about buying or not buying a product, attending or not attending, a performance.  The reviewer will be writing in order to explain how a piece of music is put together, what the music might be trying to say or express, and how the music might effect the listener.  Academic reviews might also try to put music in historical and/or generic context.  The review might indirectly encourage the reader to buy the product, but the purpose is definitely to analyze the item closely, and share one's analysis with others.

Genre:  The academic review in all disciplines will announce its criteria for evaluation very early in the paper, and more likely than not will structure the paper around those criteria.  Academic genres tend to be quite rigid and formulaic, so if you can figure out the formulas, and if you know what you are talking about, academic writing is actually pretty straightforward.  Having the detailed, in-depth knowledge of a subject is the elusive key to good academic writing.

Audience:  While I encourage you to share all materials with your classmates, let's not kid around: I am the primary audience for this piece of writing, and your professors will be the primary audience for most of your academic writing.  We will expect you to follow assignments closely, to show knowledge of the subject matter, and to produce writing that is relatively free of errors.

Voice: The writer often keeps him or herself distant from the subject matter and the audience.  You can use first-person in academic writing, but typically in small doses.  If you can get comfortable writing in the third-person, your science and engineering professors will appreciate your style.  Humanities and social science professors, even ag and business professors, might be more open to the first-person perspective.

Social context:  the academic review is a genre that is tied to a very specific social context—university life.  You won't see reviews like this in magazines!  Academic literacy, in addition to valuing third-person perspective, clearly organized documents, and close following of conventions, also values insight, keen observation, independent thinking.  In other words, academic writing is a strange combination of formal rigid ness and creative expression. 

Grading—I am going to look for three things:

• How well you follow the conventions of the genre, particularly how well you set up and follow your criteria, how well you back-up your claims, and how well you show your knowledge of the artist or genre. One of the ways academics support their claims is to show that other people hold similar reviews. Please draw on at least one secondary source to support at least one of your claims; draw on more to increase the formality and authority of your review.
• How effectively you establish an appropriate relationship with the audience: you should try to be objective, knowledgeable, and informative. 
• How effectively you use a writing voice that readers will respect: you should write most of the review in the third person, write with authority, and be in control at all times (i.e., be organized and clear in your expression).