Reviewception

This is a blog entry comparing the review styles of an album review done by the online version of Rolling Stone magazine and a comic book review done by Amazon.com. Essentially my task is to do a review of two reviews comparing how they review and what conventions they use in their reviews. The two sites have very different styles which implements a variable that forces you to look at one review as more reliable than the other. Rolling Stone magazine has been reviewing all types of music since 1967 which, to me, makes them a lot more credible than Joshua Koppel from Chicago throwing in his two cents who has been a member since June. Despite the differences, there are a few similarities between each review. For example, both Rolling Stone and Amazon provide all of the essential information about the item you are reading about such as artist/author, publisher/producer, etc. Each review also provides a star rating for that simple quick check to see if it is even bother reading the review. A brief description about both items is given in each of the reviews, however, due to the more professionalism of Rolling Stone, their description goes into greater detail and provides a lot more background for that album. Rolling Stone is tailored to people who are really interested in the music that they listen to and want to know every last bit of information about. Their articles provide a great description of the style of the album comparing it to previous albums by the same artist as well as albums of similar artists. They use a fairly formal tone in their writing unlike Amazon which is always a case by case scenario for their writing style. All in all, I would definitely rely more on Rolling Stone for an album review, however, if you were just looking for a simple customer review, Amazon would be the place to go before thinking of purchasing a certain item.

Brainwashing. I mean Brainstorming.

I am going to review the newest Black Keys album "El Camino" for part of this project. I am most likely going to review this album in the form of a Rolling Stones article. I want to review "El Camino" because the Black Keys are one of my top three favorite bands (the other two being the White Stripes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Also, I would like to tell my peers of the great sound that this band can produce. They have grown so much musically and listening to them is quite an experience. My second review will be on a graphic novel. I'm not sure which one yet. It's either going to be Watchmen, Kingdom Come or Superman: Red Son. Each of those comics were brilliant works of art and story telling. I have been a big fan of comics for several years and a self-proclaimed nerd my entire life. I plan on writing this review in the style of a book review. Not sure the exact style yet. I want something greater than an Amazon review but nothing too prestigious. But I know that I would be able to talk about the story, the art, the character development and the symbolism behind each of these graphic novels with great depth. They are some of the greatest comics I have ever read.

A Brief History of Writing: The Devin Prior Story

I learned how to write sometime before kindergarten. It began with the ABC's and grew to words, then sentences and evolved to forming complex sentences. In the first grade I had to write a weekly paragraph of what I did that week or what I had planned on doing. Soon those paragraphs turned into pages and eventually into papers. Throughout elementary school and most of middle school a standard paper was a basic five paragraph format. My writing really developed in seventh and eighth grade when in order to receive an A we had to write two more of whatever was required (i.e. if there was a five paragraph paper due we needed to have seven in order to receive the A otherwise we would get a C for doing the average work). Each semester we were assigned five papers to write, each one on a different topic and a different genre. Writing all of those papers and having them edited by my teacher really showed me what I needed to do in order to improve my writing. Unfortunately in high school I did not give as much attention to my writing as I would have liked to. There were not many assignments that involved writing in the classes that I selected and were placed in and if there was, the assignment was usually a basic research or informational paper that required zero creativity which I found to be quite boring. I always tried to add in my own style for these informational papers which unfortunately usually caused a deduction in my grade. My favorite style of writing is not having one. Having a free flow of thoughts scratched out onto a piece of paper, writing whatever is on your mind, creating a reality that exists solely in your head and describing the beauty or horribleness of that world through the use of your words making the reader explore your inner thoughts; That, to me, is the best type of writing. A true expression of what the writer is thinking. Because when you pick up a pen and paper and just sit down and begin to write whatever comes to your mind that is the truest form of writing.