In this review essay portfolio, you’ll analyze a cultural object that you want to examine more closely. You can choose what to analyze. It could be a movie, a music video, a song, a TV show, an album, a web series, a video game, a product, or something else that you choose. 

You’ll work toward producing a print essay, an audio essay OR a video essay that carefully explains the cultural object that you choose, including relevant historical and social context, references, and an analysis of the object’s formal features (so, both what is there, and what you think it means.) As you did in the personal essay, you should choose a very specific audience (and venue) where your review could live, though you are not required to submit it. This means that you should choose your modality (i.e. print, audio, or video) based on your purpose and your intended audience. 

The final portfolio should contain a draft or script, a peer review, a final version, and a brief reflection (350-500 words) on the steps that you took to research, write, and revise your piece. 

To maintain an A, the essay portfolio must contain all of the above components. To maintain a B, one component can be missing. To maintain a C, two components can be missing. To maintain a D, you only need to turn in the final draft of this project. 

Prompt Ideas:

Below, you’ll find some prompt ideas. You are welcome to use these if they are helpful to you, but if you’d prefer to write a different kind of review, just be in touch with me so we can work out a plan.  

Prompt Idea #1

Use the Sink Review series as inspiration to generate a series of Tik Tok-esque videos or a photo essay that reviews an ordinary object. Or use the Cheesecake Factory Twitter thread as inspiration to generate a Twitter thread that reviews an ordinary object. You could review something that you see every day, but that you haven’t looked at closely before: subway cars on different lines, egg and cheese sandwiches at different bodegas, buildings at Queens College, whatever you want.

Like with Sink Reviews or the Cheesecake Factory thread, you want to make sure that your review is not just a “thumbs up / thumbs down” description of the objects, but that it actually shows us something that we haven’t seen because we hadn’t bothered to look very closely. Give some historical or social context of this artifact. Describe and give some analysis of its formal features. And keep your audience in mind: if it’s a social media audience, these probably need to be funny and engaging / insightful / generally “grabby.”

Prompt Idea #2:

Want to write a print essay on a recent TV show, book, video game, or movie? Check out the submission guidelines for Cultured Vultures and a few of the reviews listed on the site for the genre that you’ll review. Following these submission guidelines, draft a review (per their guidelines, film reviews can be 500 words, game reviews need to be 1,000 words, and nothing should exceed 2,000 words). You will also need to include a brief summary of your review and an out-of-10 rating if you pursue this option.

Note: if you know of a different venue that accepts writing from freelancers, you are welcome to write for one of those venues instead!

Prompt Idea #3:

Pitch a YouTube review series on a cultural object of your choice (i.e. this could be a film review channel, a makeup review channel, a book review channel, or anything that interests you.) Check out these tips to consider when starting a YouTube channel. Decide on your intended purpose and audience. Maybe you want to play and review video games, or review episodes of a TV show, or review tech gadgets, or something else. To pursue this option, you should:

• For the draft, write a draft of a script or some talking points for your first review, including a description of the shots that you would use. Remember that this review needs to be more than a “thumbs up / thumbs down” review. Do some analysis of this object.
• For the final, film your review.
• Include a 500+ word reflection that describes the intended purpose and audience for your channel. Why does the internet need this review series? What’s going to make your series stand out in a sea of YouTube review videos?

Prompt Idea #4:

Read some of the student reviews in The Knight News, Queens College’s student newspaper. Write a review that could appear in the Arts & Entertainment section of this newspaper. Notice the average length of the reviews that you read, the details that they include, and how they differ or compare to the reviews that we’ve read together for class. Also consider what kinds of cultural objects are typically reviewed in the paper. Along with your review, include a 3-4 sentence description of your article idea that you could include on the story submission form.

Have another idea?

I am open to other ideas for review formats! You do not need to do one of the first four prompt ideas. If you have another venue that you’d prefer to pitch, or another idea of how to write a review for a public audience, please be in touch. If it makes sense to do so and with your permission, I will share your ideas here so that other people could also use them.