Here are some sample assignments to get your brain pumping:
- Film Review. Evaluate a film, any film, based on common film elements. Consider films from the American Film Institute’s top 100 list. Carefully consider criteria from this review. One may also choose to review a film that receives a negative evaluation.
- Consider looking for professional film reviews to provide ideas for criteria.
- Consider quoting film reviewers from publications like The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Rolling Stone Magazine as secondary evidence in your essay
- Evaluate technology such as an Iphone, Ipad, a Tesla automobile, cell phone etc. Again consider what criteria you will use to evaluate it. Test its durability, comfort level, apps, storage capacity, ergonomics, screen quality, etc. Compare it with previous technology you or someone else has owned. Also, compare it to a different type of technology such as comparing an Ipad to an Iphone or a Samsung Galaxy.
- Write a restaurant review. Go to a restaurant and evaluate it as a restaurant review.
- Find reviews from publications like the New York Times or even local reviews to determine what criteria best suit your interests as a restaurant consumer. Then think about how you’ll evaluate each element of your criteria.
- You may also want to read reviews of the restaurant on Yelp.com or other rating websites.
- Consider quoting/paraphrasing what other reviewers/researchers have said about your chosen restaurant; they may have had a different experience than yours or may provide information about the business/product/service that you were unaware of.
Expression and Inquiry by Chris Manning, Sally Pierce, and Melissa Lucken is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
