Question #79d5f

1 Answer
Mar 9, 2017

In the explanation I copied the prewriting document my English teacher gave my class. Our assignment was a play review, but I think you can still use this.

Explanation:

Review/Critique of a Play (or Book): Tips and Guidelines

Prewriting: Consider the following questions when reviewing a play.

“The first moments are critical. You can sit there, tense and worried, freezing the creative energies, or you can start writing something, perhaps something silly. It simply doesn’t matter what you write; it only matters that you write. In five or ten minutes the imagination will heat, the tightness will fade, and a certain spirit and rhythm will take over.”

                               —Leonard Bernstein

The following questions are designed to help you generate and focus your ideas when writing a book, movie, or film review. You won't need to answer all of these questions for your paper, but many of the answers will help you discover information and focus your thinking.

What questions
• What are you reviewing? What is it about? What's the plot?
• What's the theme?
• What is the author's/director's purpose?
• What genre or classification does it fit?
• What is the tone? What is the point of view? What's the mood?
When and Where questions
• When was this done? Or when does the action take place?
• Where was this done? Or where does the action take place?
Who questions
• Who wrote it, directed it, or acted in it? What else have they done?
• Who are the main characters?
• Who's the intended audience?
• Who has said what about this? Why?
How questions
• How does it convey its main point, mood, or theme? How does the audience/reader react to it?
• How well does it fulfill its purpose?
Evaluation questions
• Did I like this in general? Why?
• Did I agree with the main theme/purpose? Why or why not?
• What specifically did I like/dislike? Why?

After you have answered these questions, begin selecting and organizing the information that you'll include in your paper.
Once you've done the prewriting, you're ready to think about the requirements and structure of a review which your teacher might have given you, and decide how to divide what info into what paragraphs, etc.

Credit: You can thank my teacher Mrs. Belinda Snyman for this resource.