Paper #4 Assignment

Paper #4: Reviewing Your Life!

For this assignment, you’re still going to respond to a conversation in society, but in a very different fashion. The only research you need to do is find a review of a movie or TV show you like: it can be a bad review or a good review. Read it carefully and note what aspects of the show (the acting, the story, the plot, the dialogue, etc.) the reviewer applauds or criticizes. What makes the film/show successful or a flop according to the reviewer?

THEN, I want you to review something in the real world according to the exact same guidelines. In other words, I want you to be this reviewer, and to review something that is not a movie or show as if it is. This could be anything in the course of your day-to-day existence. You will become a reviewer of your own life!

Some things you could review are:

* A college class

* A job

* A restaurant (but don’t just review the food—review the entire experience)

* A date

* A game (ECU or otherwise)

* A TV or web commercial

The trick here is to write satire: that is, to be ironic (and treating a job like a movie is ironic), and use humor and over-the-top language to help us see what is satirical about this place or event. For example, you might have a class that is really, really boring; maybe the professor only reads off Powerpoint slides all day, every day. So how would the writer of your film review rate your own class? Based on what he/she said about the film, how many stars would he/she give your class? What would he/she like? Dislike? How could he/she discuss your class in terms of the movie? Use the review to satirize what works and doesn’t work about your class, to help us ‘see’ how you feel about it. Irony often helps us see what we would otherwise miss, just as film reviews help us understand why a movie works or doesn’t work.

REQUIREMENTS

• Write this as an actual review of a movie. Use the same author as your film review and try to talk about your event in the same way. Mirror the actual language of the review if possible.
• Turn in the review with your paper: I want to see how closely you modeled your satire on the real review.
• Have fun, be silly, but also make a point: show why the date didn’t work out; show why we lost the game; show why a college class is surprisingly interesting despite the dull subject matter, etc.
• Due the last day of class, Thursday, December 1st by 5pm

Satire Handout (Tuesday)

Satire Workshop, Part I: The Irony of Satire

Humor Vs. Satire:  Which one is humorous and which one is satirical?  What crucial element distinguishes one from the other?

• Professor Dillinger is so hard that it took me the half the semester to figure out I wasn’t even in his class!
• Professor Dillinger gives out so many F’s that even the janitors fail his afternoon trash collection. 
• Professor Dillinger goes out of his way to help and encourage student success.  In fact, just last week, he didn’t just give me a 36 on my exam, but gave me a 36 on the next one so I wouldn’t have to go through all that trouble studying.  What a guy!

“Bush Earmarks 1.5 Billion Gold Stars for Education”

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Vowing to give the nation’s public schools “a much-needed boost,” President Bush announced Monday that his 2003 budget proposal would allocate 1.5 billion gold-star stickers for education.  “As class sizes continue to grow and test scores continue to decline, our public schools are in a state of crisis...There is no more time for deliberation.  It is time to act.  Our children need these adhesive gold stars.”

Bush went on to describe the “alarming state” of many of the nation’s public schools, citing underpaid teachers, buildings badly in need of repair, and woefully outdated textbooks.  “If a child is going to learn under these conditions, he or she is going to need lots of encouragement...These gold stars will serve as reinforcement for our best students while motivating underachievers to do better.  I know it made a big difference to me as a child.  Bush said the stars, which are expected to cost the government an estimated $2.3 thousand, are well worth the expense.  “Can we really put a price tag on the future of our nation?” Bush asked.  “Can we ever put a dollar amount on success?” 

Laid-Back Company Allows Employees To Work From Home After 6 pm

GRESHAM, OR—Underscoring the benefits of working for a laid-back company like SocialFire Marketing, founder and CEO Matt Avalon told reporters Tuesday he had instituted an office-wide policy permitting employees to work from home anytime after 6 p.m. “If it helps them be efficient and get more done, I have no problem with people working remotely once they’ve left the office for the day,” said Avalon, who noted that as long as they’re doing their jobs, the location where his staff members choose to work between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. is “completely up to them.” “That’s the kind of relaxed culture we strive to create here—one where you can even be working from your living room couch at two in the morning if you’d like.” Avalon added that since they don’t have to be in the office for any meetings, employees are free to work from home on weekends and holidays as well.

SATIRICAL HEADLINES: How many of the following headlines can you explain to the satirically-challenged? In other words, what is each one making fun of through irony?

·         Voting Machines Elect One Of Their Own As President

·         CIA says that Syria Harboring More Than 15 Million Known Arabs

·         Nation’s Shirtless, Shoeless March on Washington for Equal-Service Rights

·         Thin, Attractive Woman Accepted For Who She Is

No Class on Thursday (due to OLAF)--see below

Remember that class is cancelled on Thursday due to the Oklahoma Literary Arts Festival which will take over Horace Mann. Come back on Tuesday and we'll wrap up our discussion of Escape from Camp 14. That means the paper is due next Thursday instead of Tuesday. 

See you then!