Steps Toward Completing Project #2

1. Readings in Writing Today:

· About art reviews: Review in Writing Today, "Reviews," Chap. 6, pp. 84-90 and "Quick Start Guide," p. 99.

· “Starting Research,” p. 466. For your review, you are conducting research for “advanced knowledge” of your subject, and also to “support an argument” you will ultimately make about your subject.

· “Doing Start-Up Research,” p. 470.

· “Researching: Go Experience It,” p. 90.

· “Finding Sources and Collecting Information,” pp. 479-489. Good tips on searching the web and finding articles.

· "Using MLA Style," Chap. 27: read and skim this whole chapter. You need to know what specific info you must save for the particular sources that you find. That info will go into your in-text citations and Works Cited page.

2. Sampling Reviews (get a feel for what reviews are like)

CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF SAMPLE REVIEWS TO READ AND WATCH.

3. Forming Groups, Electing Point Person

a. Be sure that you all swap email addresses and phone numbers.

b. Select a “point person” who will be the “go-to” guy, the one you contact to get clear about what’s happening or to submit work for the whole group. This may also wind up being the group scribe or secretary. (Because point-person tasks can involve a fair amount of work, the point person will likely not need to do quite as much on the final product as everyone else. Always try to distribute work evenly among group members.)

c. Select a motivator. This person is responsible for encouraging participation by all members, and quieting down any blabber mouths.

d. Select a time-keeper. This person watches the time for all group meetings.

4. About Note-Taking and Keeping Track of Sources

· Throughout your research, look at Writing Today, p. 511 to identify documentation info you’ll need for each kind of source you plan to use. Record, print, or otherwise save documentation info for each source.

· Take notes and/or highlight documents. Be sure to correlate notes and documentation.

· Also look over pp. 512-527, including the sample Works Cited page on 527. You want an idea of what your own Works Cited will look like and the kind of info you need to keep organized.

5. Start-Up or Background Research

For this segment of your project, YOU WANT TO LEARN ABOUT THE TYPE OF ART YOU ARE REVIEWING so that your evaluation of the work you’ve chosen is knowledgeable and informed. This is a kind of “start-up” or background research. Each group member should aim to find at least 3 good and distinctive kinds of sources. (You may use Wikipedia, but it won’t count as one of the 3.)

For a list of questions for various types of art, go to:

www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/120/Project2ArtReviewGroupResearch.docx

Find your group’s type of art, then divide up the questions. Each group member will research their designated questions.

6. Reading Other Reviews of Your Chosen Subject

· A big part of writing a good review is to be familiar with how a work has already been received. That is, you need to read reviews already out.

· Groups should divide up the work of finding these reviews. You can accomplish this in a couple different ways: you can have one set of people look for positive reviews, and another look for negative reviews. Or you can assign a different resource to each group member. For example, one member will look for magazine reviews, one will look for website reviews, one will look for newspaper reviews, one will look for YouTube reviews, and so on.

· If you are doing a concert, you can review the artist’s concert tour to date. Or if you are doing a local play, you could research other recent performances of the same work, especially in towns more or less the size of Fargo.

· Write up a brief report for your group: what sorts of reviews did you find? Were they favorable or unfavorable, and why? What was each reviewer’s main claim, and how did they support it?

· Keep track of all documentation.

7. Compiling Research Results

Everyone will email their point person their research materials, and the group will compile the info.

8. Writing Your Review

Your group will reach a consensus on your thesis, then outline your review and divide up segments to be written. Each member will write their own part. Everyone will help each other revise, edit, and proofread. The finished review will need at least 3 distinct kinds of sources, not counting Wikipedia.

9. Creating Your Supplemental Film or Power Point Piece

[more info coming]

10. Each group will hand in the following: final version of review, any drafts with teacher comments, compiled research, and any peer critiques.

11. Evaluating Group Members

All group members will evaluate each other, ranking everyone according to how much they contributed to the project. (The whole group will receive the same grade, and this peer evaluation will help assure that no one is penalized by any slackers.)