Blog Post III part II

I was initially drawn to a Black Swan movie review because I have been wanting to see it since it was released. I was drawn to this specific article because the deck presents a mediocre opinion of the film, and I have only heard great things about it. Because of this, I was immediately interested and continued reading. I was also drawn to this review because of the intense, action photos used to break up the text. Strengths of the writing include the acknowledgement of the film’s positive areas, as well as its faults. Solid reasoning is given to backup each opinion, and the most important factors of a review are covered, including information on the plot, music, casting, and director. Technical aspects, including lighting design, that are often overlooked, are also mentioned in this review. Negative aspects include lengthy paragraphs as well as slightly informal and wordy language. Excessive use of first person also weakens the review. The writer fails to mention details about the film’s rating, running time, and cost, leaving some questions unanswered at the review’s end.

Blog Post III part I

Although it was an interesting topic, I encountered many obstacles when writing my amazing race article. I faced a substantial obstacle early on, having three failed attempts before finally conducting a successful interview with one of my sources. I then overlooked the fact that the history department had completed a trial run of the amazing race, and I failed to notice it until after the article was written. This proved to be my greatest obstacle. I backtracked to include this important information, but then struggled to fit it into its proper place in the article. I also had trouble condensing all of the information I collected into an article that did not exceed its word count limit.
On a positive note, all of my interviews went well once I was able to meet with the interviewees; and although my abundance of information clashed with the restricting word count, I never worried about having to fill up space. I received and interesting response to the question of where the idea for the amazing race came from. According to Daniel Jewett, the concept was inspired by a similar activity done by college freshman at Boston University. To improve this piece, I would plan my interviews as well as my writing more carefully before starting.