Showing posts with label references. Show all posts
Showing posts with label references. Show all posts

Sunday, February 5, 2012

So, you've gotten a free topic...

Writing a short story or poem

Writing an interview

Thankfully, when you "write" an interview, your interviewee does most of the work for you. Thus, this formatting should be relatively basic.

1. Give a brief preview of the interview.
The preview is the kind of fuzz that you add in the beginning that introduces your audience to that cool new dude that you've never met before, ever. (Try something like this: "The new GLP session has begun, and I have had the honor to interview the 1st grade GLP teachers.")

2. Make sure you include a photo.
Please, please, please do try your best to add a photo of each of the teachers that you've interviewed. All Expresso articles will require at least one photograph to be included, so it shouldn't be much of a problem unless the teachers has refused to provide a photo.

3. The actual interview

-Do your research. Here's an anecdote from a sunbae of yours: "..based on my experience, the most important preparation for an interview (as an interviewer) is the actual research on the interviewee. I remember having to interview a former director general of the WHO and spending hours and hours looking up information on him so that I could ask more relevant questions." Now, this doesn't mean you should spend 5 hours stalking that sunbae you're interviewing on Facebook so you can ask all about his favorite band, but it does mean that you should have an idea of what you want to cover. Doing background research is a big part of this.
-Ask relevant questions, for the most part. If you're interviewing a teacher, ask about his/her philosophy. If you're interviewing a sunbae, ask about his/her experiences. If you're interviewing a birthday party clown, ask how you make those neat balloon animals. Keep it on topic.
-It's fine to ask a few goofy, personal bits; these make your target relatable and spice the interview up quite a bit. Just make sure you don't ask about the weather.

4. This step is optional, but if you would like a nice, clean wrap up of the interview, go ahead and add a comment or two about the interview or the teachers. If you enjoy a short, simple article you really don't have to write anything beyond the interview. Really, this is your choice.
-Daphne Park

NOTE: Interviewers have an exception regarding the overall formatting of the article. You are not required to side your articles to the left, as interviews will most likely be parted into three columns, and it really looks ugly if each column is not sided in both directions.

Writing a feature piece

Fun stuff to read

Writing a proper article - content

When you begin writing your article for Expresso, there are a few things that you will want to keep in mind...

1.

Writing a school news report

Writing a report, thankfully, is fairly simple as long as you keep several important things in mind,

1. Maintain objectivity.


2. Remember to sample.


3. Emphasize the biggest points.

Writing an editorial

In a way, writing an editorial is just the next step up from writing a news report. You're telling some sort of current story, but then you provide your spin on it. Think of it like the commentary you see on sports games or on talk shows.

So if you have an idea of what you're trying to say, then you're already in a pretty good position. Beware, though: there's a load of people with their claws out, and not all of them are automatically going to be on your side. It's up to you to convince your readers that you're worth being heard.

Here are a few things to think about...

1. Tie your point into the real world. If you've done debate, you will know about how important this point is. Think ARE - that's assertions, reasoning, and evidence. Don't just limit yourself to your personal reading of the issue at hand, but actually take some time to analyze it and where it shows up in real life. Research and statistics can be good for backing up your arguments, but they should be connected to it by your reasoning as well.

2. Think about how it affects you/your audience. Imagine that your reader has never heard of the topic you are writing about. How will you ever get them to care?

Well, they're reading your editorial because they have something to gain from it. In other words, they have a stake in seeing where your train of thought is going--and you can capitalize on that. This is the next step from the first point--you tie your point into the real world, and then you tie it to your reader. That's the jump from a merely educational editorial to an effective one, because it makes the audience care.

3. Don't be afraid to be assertive...people have opinions, and sometimes those opinions clash. That doesn't mean that you need to apologize for the viewpoint you hold--if you stick to what you say and back it up, then they will respect it. That said...

4. Just don't be combative. If you've ever argued with your parents, there will have been a time when you knew what they were saying was right, yet you completely disregarded it anyway. That's natural; humans do not easily accept points from people who they feel are being disrespectful or condescending.

Nobody likes the loudmouth in the class who knows their stuff but is always an ass about it. You don't want to be that guy. Taking a professional tone ("I take issue with this, and here's why.") instead of an overly personal one ("They're such awful sexist pigs for saying that and Girl's Generation rules!") only makes you look more credible. Be willing to let in opposing viewpoints into your article, because the process of considering and taking from those will only serve to enrich your arguments in the long run.

Great job making it to the end of this! Now you have the skills necessary to write an editorial about the pointlessness of writing editorials so you can prove me wrong on all of these counts.

-Moses Kim

Writing a review

When you write a review, you have several approaches you can take:

1. short-form reviews - this is a good approach to take if you are trying to cover as many things as possible in one article. (doing an article on all of the films coming out or the latest K-pop hits would warrant the short-form review treatment.)

2. long-form reviews - if you want to do an extended commentary on whether a work is worth checking out or not, this is the form you should take.

3. analyses - these aren't reviews in the strictest sense of the word because they're not a discussion of quality; this is more of a look at the themes/implications that a work of art would carry.

All of these are useful formats to know, and it's likely you will have to try all of these as you cover different mediums of art. Don't worry, though; once you get the basics down, writing a good review isn't too tough.

SHORT-FORM REVIEWS
If you're a fan of American TV, there's a chance you'll have seen an article like this one covering all of the new shows debuting. Now, when there are something around thirty new shows premiering at the same time, there's no way you can afford to write a full article for each and every one of them. In this case, you try to skim over the premise of each and give a brief opinion on all of them in order to cover more ground. This is the objective of a short-form review: to give an insight using as few words as possible.

Now, the good news is that you will never have to do anything as huge as that article: the majority of short-forms will be for either A) pop music or B) films. (The exception to that sorting is C) new television shows, but that will only take place in September. We'll aim to cover around five to six songs/film in each article of a short-form review series.

If you've been tasked with covering all the hot new summer films that have come out, then here's a place to begin:

1. Do your research. You have to get as much of the important material as possible, so before you even type a single word, ask yourself: what would my friends be interested in? Which works are the most relevant/current? You may be a huge 2NE1 fan, but if SNSD has a new #1 hit out, then you'll want to cover that, no matter how hot you think CL is.

2. Do your research, part 2. (This is the fun part, so relax!) You wouldn't take a GLP quiz on an article without reading that article first. (Well, some people would, but I assume the best of you.) Similarly, don't give an opinion on something if you haven't actually experienced it first! Do you have to cover May's hot new songs? Then take the time to listen through everything and pick a few you want to write about.
Now, the catch is that in some cases, doing this is impossible. You certainly aren't going to watch 10 movies after finals just so you can write a summer movie recap, right? In this case, you might be better off watching trailers and giving impressions based on those. There's always a way.

3. Get your feelings down. When I was in charge of POPWATCH (covering K-Pop) last year, I found that it helped if I just sat down with a blank sheet of paper and jotted down every single thought I had while I was listening. People read reviews because they want to know if what YOU feel is worth feeling for them; recording those feelings goes a long way towards insight.

When writing a review, try some of these things!

-Provide background information. Not everybody will know what you're talking about when you jump right into reviewing, so make sure you provide the context for each work. Talking about how that work fits into the scope of an artist is always a good idea.

-Focus on the main attribute of the work(s) you're covering. Short-form reviews are fairly broad; you gotta get the main idea across as quickly as possible. Reducing a work to its most prominent characteristic and then building other insights around that one often gets this done. Pound it in once again at the end for extra effect.

-Mix your opinion in with the facts. The lack of an actual opinion is often a problem in short-form reviews. Remember: you're not recapping or summarizing a work, you're providing an opinion on it. This is the difference between "Transformers is a movie about car robots who get peed on by dogs. It's fun and stuff. Bagels." and "Transformers is a monster of an action movie, with exquisite set-pieces, fiery explosions, and an Oscar-worthy performance from Megan Fox."

(Bending over a car trunk so your booty sticks out is hardly acting, but for the sake of that example let's just hypothesize that Megan Fox can, in fact, act.)

Here's a short-form review I did for SNSD's The Boys last year; see if you can spot some of the techniques I mentioned earlier.

SNSD – The Boys
For a group with such a lively personality, SNSD’s music has always been quite minimalistic, all the more better to pound their massive hooks even deeper into the earphones of fans everywhere. While “Oh!” and “Hoot” offset their sparse compositions with cheery pep, though, “The Boys” forgoes this attitude completely. At times it almost seems to revel in audio fascism, subsisting only on a diet of glitchy, spaced-out beats and distorted, robotic voices. Don’t be fooled, though: despite its barren terrain, the track stealthily builds until all of the nuts and bolts come together in calculated harmony. To sum up, like all SNSD tracks, it’s about boys, it’s loud, it’s pretty low on brains, and it’s going to steamroll every other song in Korea for the foreseeable future. (B)

If you want more ideas for short-term reviews, this website is a good place to start.

LONG FORM REVIEWS/ANALYSIS
Short-form is great for some things, but sometimes reviewing requires a deeper level of understanding. You might want to talk about that album that everyone's been talking about for the part two months, or that book you think deserves more attention, or that film that you find particularly interesting for whatever reason. And if you really want to make a point, "it's clever and funny and good, bye" isn't going to cut it.

Welcome to...(evil voice) the art of the LONG-FORM REVIEW! BWAHAHAHA!

You may be confused at the combination title up there, but quite honestly, writing long-form reviews is quite similar to writing an analysis piece. The objectives are different, but you'll use a lot of the same methods to get both places.

Things to think about:

1. Figure out your thesis. Yes, I'm serious: think of a thesis. A review is basically an opinion, and if you have no idea what your own opinion is, then how will anybody else?

In the case of a review, what makes that work good/bad/worthwhile/worthless, and why?
In the case of an analysis, what is this work trying to say/how does it fit into a bigger social or cultural picture?

2. Break that work down. A work of art never hinges on just one aspect. A film is not just an acting showcase: it's a script, it's visuals, it's a story, and it's a performance. An album is not just a voice: it's that voice, plus the songwriting, plus the lyrics, plus the production. Scrutinize each aspect and figure out how it fits in.

3. Look at the good and the bad--and back both up. Much like how hearing about how great/awful that movie/singer/TV show is and how everybody loves/hates it and how you have to watch/boycott it TODAY can get annoying, overly effusive praise--or criticism--can actually make you look less credible. It's perfectly fine to love or hate something, but just make sure that you can support those claims.

This is where both Steps 1 and 2 come into play: you go back to your point-of-view, and you show all of the evidence that supports that point.

Compare these two blurbs:
"Lea Michele is such a good actor [that's cool you think that, but what defines a good actor?], and boy can she sing. [I haven't heard her, can you include a YouTube link in your article next time?]"
"Lea Michele perfectly captures the struggle between the child she is and the adult she wants to be [why Lea Michele is good], particularly in a heartbreaking confrontation with rival Quinn. [evidence--a scene in which she displayed that attribute]"

4. Begin and end with the big picture. Once again, writing a long-form or an analysis is like writing an essay--it begins with the point of view, you justify it by breaking your topic down, and you end by reminding your audience why that matters. If you can do that, then you can write a badass review.

Here is one of my favorite reviews/analysis pieces of all time, if you're hungry for a good example.

Congrats on making it to the end of this how-to. Now go and put some snotty artists in their place.

-Moses Kim

Writing a proper article - formatting

Monday, January 30, 2012

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