ESSAY ASSIGNMENT #1 REVIEW

Write a review of one of the following works:

• Chopin's "The Story of an Hour";
  
• Chopin's "The Storm";
  
• Harrar's "The 5:22";
  
• Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"; or
  
• Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty";
  

Telling the reader why you thought the story was good or bad, etc., will form the body of your review. To do this, you must look at the elements of the story. Examine things like character, theme, plot, style and setting. How do these things contribute to the story being good or bad? Evaluations require one to set standards for comparisons. Let the reader know what your standards are. Perhaps relate the story to others in the same genre.

Because your audience will probably not be familiar with your story, you should include a brief summary of the plot. However, you should not give away too much. You also may consider including background information on the author and or the story itself.

Additional questions to consider to aid you (perhaps) –

• Were the characters believable?
• What did the author do to make you feel (or not feel) a particular way?
• How did the author achieve (or fail to achieve) his/her purpose?
• Was the way the author wrote any good? (use of descriptions, analogies, symbols, etc.)
• Was the plot predictable or surprising? What made it so?
• Could you relate to the story and/or characters?

You can find film and music reviews that I have written at S.P.A.M. Most of these are not exactly well-developed "essays," but they may help.

A professional review of Stephen King and Peter Straub's Black House has been stolen from the Miami Herald. My critique of the review is mainly that it has too much summary.
Black House Review

A professional review of Black Hawk Down has been stolen from the Miami New Times.
Black Hawk Down Review

Additional info for Essay 1 can be found by following the link here.

See also writing links section of the teaching links page.