The review/criticism of a piece of media is due by the end of the day on Thursday, 2/11. You are welcome to turn it in late for no penalty.

Instructions

1. Choose any piece of media. It can be something you like, or something you think is terrible, or somewhere in the middle. It can be a book, a movie, a TV episode, a TV show, a song, an album, or some other thing not listed here.
2. Using what you learned from “Writing About the Arts” and the examples you read/skimmed, write your own review of this piece of media.

Grading

0 points– you didn’t turn in anything
2 points– you turned in something, even if it is incomplete
3 points– you turned in something that clearly resembles a review/criticism, but it is missing some features of the genre
5 points — you turned in a review/criticism of a piece of media that follows most or all of the genre features

Welcome to our second week of class, and our first week of our Humanities Criticism unit. Click here for an overview of the entire unit. 

Things We Did Last Week

• Got to know each other a little, got set up on the CUNY Commons, reviewed the plan and policies for the semester
• Learned a little bit of Genre Theory– what is genre? What are literary genres vs. “everyday genres”? What genres do we use in our daily lives?

Things Due Before Class on Tuesday (2/9)

Readings:

• Annotating Video 1
• Annotating Video 2
• Close Reading Video

And here’s a TikTok of an intentionally bad close reading just for fun.

Assignments for Everyone:

• Imaginary resume, posted to site or turned in on Blackboard

Assignments for Structure and Accountability Plan Folks:

• Have an example of humanities content (poem, song, section from a book, clip from a TV show, etc.) ready for us to practice close reading on in class

What We’ll Do in Class on Tuesday (2/9)

• Discuss what you learned from the genre readings
• Do one close reading together
• Breakout rooms to practice close reading in smaller groups using the examples you brought to class
• Annotation notes (due by end of day for Structure and Accountability Option folks)

Things to Do on Async Thursday (2/11)

Readings:

Zinsser, “Writing About the Arts: Critics and Columnists” (PDF)
Review of “Soul” (Movie)
Review of “The Grammarians” (Book)
Review of “Gentleman Jack” (TV Show)

Assignments Due for Everyone:

Review of a Piece of Media (1-2 pages)

Assignments For S/A Grading Plan Folks:

Notes/annotations on the 3 examples of reviews. What do you notice as essential features/norms of the genre of Reviews? If you had to teach someone else how to write a review, just based on these examples and your own prior knowledge, what would you tell them to do?

Preparing for Next Class (2/16)

• Read Twitter threads on Shrek and Shrek 2
• Read this Twitter thread about classical art in Hercules
• Watch this TikTok about the symbolism of werewolves in Harry Potter
• Read this Twitter thread about The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
• Watch Willems, “How Greta Gerwig Revolutionized Little Women”

Welcome to Unit 1: Humanities Criticism! We will spend three weeks on this unit, bringing us to the beginning of March.

What is/are “humanities”?

As a very general definition, the “humanities” are all of the academic disciplines that study things that humans create or ideas that humans think about, such as language, literature, religion, art, media, culture, philosophy, ethics, history, etc. In modern universities, this is set apart from the sciences (both natural science and social science) and “professional studies” (business, law, marketing, criminal justice, education, nursing, and anything else that is basically training for a specific kind of job).  But, the term comes from the Renaissance, when students at universities either studied “humanities” (human stuff) or “divinity” (training to be a priest) or medicine.

What is “humanities criticism”?

In academic situations, “criticism” doesn’t  have to mean complaining about or critiquing something, like the word “criticize” generally means. All it means is that we’re going to think deeply and analytically about humanities topics. Sometimes that will mean criticizing stuff. Sometimes it will mean analyzing both the good things and the bad things, or just trying to discover layers of meaning. It is extremely likely that you have all done humanities criticism before, such as if you’ve ever had to write an essay about a piece of literature in English class.

Essentially, “humanities criticism” is its own unit because most kinds of humanities writing require similar skills (such as close reading) compared to other areas of study. There are still differences in writing expectations for each area of the humanities (essays you write for philosophy class and essays you write for English class are going to have different expectations), and there are many different genres of humanities writing. In this unit, we’ll be studying reviews, criticism in a non-traditional genre, and academic criticism.

Writing For This Unit

There is no single “unit project” for this unit. Instead, you will be writing three different pieces of humanities criticism spread out across the unit.

These are:

1. A review of a piece of media of your choosing (book, movie, TV episode or TV show, album, or something else)
2. A critical analysis of a humanities artifact of your choosing (book, movie, song, video, etc.), written in a non-traditional genre (you can write it like a Twitter thread, a TikTok video, an Instagram story, a YouTube video, or as you would for another social media platform)
3. The same content as #2, but written as academic-style paragraphs.

Grading/Checklist for This Unit

The Humanities Criticism unit as a whole is worth 20% of your overall grade, regardless of which grading option you chose.

Maximum Flexibility Option Required Assignments/Grading:

1. Review of a Piece of Media (due 2/11) – 5pts, see rubric
2. Criticism in a non-traditional genre (due 2/18) – 5 pts, see rubric
3. Academic-style criticism (due 2/25)  5 pts, see rubric
4. Unit 1 Reflection (due 3/2) 5 pts, completion and thoroughness

Total: 20 pts. Each point is 1% of your final grade.

Structure and Accountability Option Required Assignments/Grading:

Here is a list of all graded activities for the unit and their point values:

1. Close Reading Practice (done in class 2/9) – 2 pts, completion
2. Annotations on Examples of Reviews (due 2/11)- 2 pts, completion
3. Review of a Piece of Media (due 2/11) — 5pts, see rubric
4. After-Class Reflection 1 (due 2/16) – 2pts, completion
5. Criticism in a non-traditional genre (due 2/18)- 5 pts, see rubric
6. After-Class Reflection 2 (due 2/23)- 2pts, completion
7. Academic-style criticism (due 2/25) – 5 pts, see rubric
8. Unit 1 Reflection (due 3/2)- 5 pts, completion and thoroughness

Total: 28 pts. Each point is .7% of your final grade.

**I will input all the math into Blackboard so you don’t have to worry about calculating what this means for you**