Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region VII, Central Visayas
DIVISION OF BOHOL

ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

Quarter : 1 Week : 7 Day : 1-4 Activity No. : 1-2

Writes an objective/balanced review or critique of a work of art,
Competency
: an event or a program
1. Write an objective review applying its principles
Objectives
: 2. Express opinion on the material read
Topic : Writing a Review or Critique
Materials : Sample persuasive speech, sample summary and movie review
References : https://tinyurl.com/EngWriting
https://tinyurl.com/paperman2012
https://tinyurl.com/y5puk4ws
https://tinyurl.com/yyx8vuph
https://tinyurl.com/y22rm4da
Copyrights : For classroom use

CONCEPT NOTES:

A critique/review is a careful analysis of an argument to determine what is

said, how well the points are made, what assumptions underlie the argument, what
issues are overlooked, and what implications are drawn from such observations. It is a
systematic, yet personal response and evaluation of what you read.
Writing a critique involves conducting a systematic analysis of a scholarly
article or book and then writing a fair and reasonable description of its strengths and
weaknesses.

Organization
1. Introduce the subject of your critique – the reading under analysis.
2. Review the background facts or issues that must be understood before the point of
the reading can be appreciated: significance, design, appeal, and so on.
3. Review the assumptions in the reading that must be understood before you take a
position.
4. Make your position statement clear: what is your evaluation? On what basis are you
making it, given what you have stated in #2 and #3?
5. Review the author’s ideas in light of the position you identified and elaborate on
each point that relates to your central position.
6. State your conclusions, reminding the reader of the points you have made and your
reasons for making them.

What steps need to be taken to write an article critique?

A. Before you start writing,

 Choose an article that meets the criteria outlined by your instructor.
 Read the article to get an understanding of the main idea.
 Read the article again with a critical eye.

B. As you read, take note of the following:

 What are the credentials of the author/s? Is the author qualified to write about
the topic?
  Are the chosen research methods appropriate to answer the research
question(s)?
 Are there issues related to the generalizability of the results?
 Is there evidence of bias or a conflict of interest?
 Is the article timely and relevant or is it outdated?
 Did the author/s ground their research in theory and previous literature?

An article critique has four main parts/structure:

1. Introduction
2. Summary
3. Critique
4. Conclusion

Example of Movie Review:

Movie Title : Paperman (2012)
Summary
While waiting for a train to arrive, a young man holding some papers, has his
attention drawn to a cute girl, clutching an armful of papers. As a train behind them
thunders past, one of his papers flies out of his stack, and hits her in the face!
Pulling it off, she chuckles, and he sees that her red lipstick has left a mark
on the paper. Unfortunately, the moment passes, and she boards a train.
At his office, the young man attempts to get to work, but his attention is on
the lipstick-smeared paper. As he glances out the window, he is surprised to see the
girl in an office right across the street from him.
When he attempts to get her attention and fails, he begins to make paper
airplanes out of the stack of work papers he has, but none of them seem to get her
attention.
With only the lipstick paper left, he attempts to give it one more try, but the
wind snatches it out of his hand, and it spirals to the ground below.
As it does so, he sees the girl leaving her building, and makes a mad dash
outside...but she seems to have disappeared.
Finding the last paper airplane on a mailbox, the young man angrily snatches
it up, and throws it skywards, before sulking off down the street.
The airplane ends up in an alleyway, wherein a number of the other airplanes
that were made. Suddenly, they all begin to take flight, and come across the young
man. Pretty soon, they force him to change direction, as the lip-sticked paper flies
off.
It soon catches the attention of the young woman, and begins to lead her onto
a train. When she gets off, she finds the young man, covered in airplanes, has
arrived at the same station, and they share a moment.
The final images show the two in a coffeeshop, talking about their strange
day.
She leaves the office across the way.

Movie Review

by Sebastian Evidente
Paperman is a black and white Disney classic that although lacks the color
variance of its Disney contemporaries during its time, does an exemplary job of
retelling an all familiar story of a boy meets a girl.
It’s a wordless love story of an office worker and the woman of his dreams,
who he happens to meet at a train station. The movie’s simple construct and black
and white charm, puts its viewers in the shoes of the persistent office worker who
after being struck by love at first sight, is left only with a remembrance of the
stranger and goes back to his dull office day job of paperwork and stern bosses.
 He then spots her through the window of the skyscraper opposite his
workplace. The boy now faced with the desperate need to get her attentions, his
imagination and a stack of paperwork on his desk folds the latter into small paper
planes and flies a whole fleet of paper planes in an effort to get her attention. He fails
a couple times, multiple times actually and as a result runs out of paper. Surviving
only on sheer persistence, he remains adamant but still unsuccessful. Despite his
boss’ disapproval and his fear of his boss’ disapproval, storms out of his workplace in
pursuit of the girl he’s afraid to lose forever. As a showcase of destiny and the
animator’s skills, the paper planes magically lead the two strangers together into a
fated reunion.
Paperman is a lovely short story. Its defining element is its color scheme which
is black and white with only exception being the girl’s lipstick which adds contrast to
the monochrome theme and allows viewers to emphasize on the important detail. As
aforementioned, the movies construct is simple and its sequence of events especially
the introduction is easy to follow since the movie did a great job of establishing the
protagonist’s goal early on from the beginning. The movie is an animation
masterpiece as well since it is a well- crafted display of computer generated
animation and hand-drawn animation. Christophe Beck’s soundtrack is crisp, timely
and it hits all the right notes. The soundtrack did what a good soundtrack does
which adds emotion to the scene without grabbing the viewer’s attention from the
scene. The theme is relatable but cliché. But even if it was cliché, the method in
which the boy-meets-girl, love-at-first-sight story was shown was different and new.
The movie was brief and concise. Disney really hit the goldilock’s zone with the
duration of this one because if it was shorter or longer, it would’ve been worse. So
kudos to Disney for that!
All in all, Paperman is a great film. Disney really brought home the bacon with
this one. It is deserving of its critical reception and the three Academy awards it has
won. A strong 9/10.

Activity 1.
Read the sample persuasive speech outline, ‘Don't Text and Drive’ by
dabbin65 , uploaded on July 08, 2013.
Using the graphic organizer below, express your opinion on the following points.
You may use another sheet of paper and copy the same format. (A total of 20pts.
could be earned)
Author’s Point/s: (5pts)

Issue/s Presented
in the speech: Your position on the issue: (5pts)
(5pts)

__________________
__________________
__________________

Conclusion: (5pts)
 ‘Don't Text and Drive’
Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., have banned it. The Transportation Department
prohibits truckers and bus drivers from doing it. President Obama has outlawed the practice for
all federal employees, and Jonathan Adkins of the Governors Highway Safety Association thinks
it should be forbidden in every state.
Does anyone know what I’m talking about? Texting while driving. My intention is to
persuade you to think twice next time you pull out your phone while driving. I’m going to touch
on why texting while driving is bad, a couple of studies that provide shocking evidence on how
impaired someone is when they are texting and driving and texting while driving vs. driving
drunk.
Nowadays, we can find many studies that examine the effects of texting while driving.
The one conclusion they all seem to have is that texting impairs a driver’s abilities. One of the
most obvious things that happen when a driver is texting while driving is that the driver would
avert his or her eyes from the road for around five seconds. This is more than enough time for a
person to run in front of the vehicle or for the vehicle in front of you to make a sudden stop or to
miss seeing the light change.
Despite all that, many people still text while driving. I will let you watch this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0LCmStIw9E&feature=related 1:07.
The video you just saw is a public service announcement that originated out of Gwent,
Wales in the United Kingdom. It did not make it pass the U.S. TV censors. It was aired on
TODAY and even then, segments were cut out. The effect this video has on its audience is
because it is so graphic it sticks in people’s minds. That’s what its mission is.
According to researchers from the University of North Texas Health Science
Center, texting behind the wheel accounted for 16,141 deaths between 2002 and 2007. The
percentage of all traffic deaths caused by distracted driving rose from 11% in 1999 to 16% in
2008. Distracted-driving crashes are more common in urban areas. Overall, 40% of all crashes
happened in urban areas in 2008, up from 33% a decade earlier. Only one-third of Americans
had a cell phone in 1999. By 2008, 91% of us did. Texting is on the rise, up from 9.8 billion
messages a month in December 2005 to 110.4 billion in December 2008.
Another study conducted at Virginia Tech found that texting drivers are 23
times more likely to be involved in a collision than non-texters. And although the AAA reports
95 percent of drivers polled acknowledge texting while driving is dangerous,21 percent of them
have done it recently anyway. Another thing that happens when a driver is texting is that
the driver’s mind would be on the message that they are reading or writing. This of course,
prevents the driver from thinking quickly to a situation on the road because he or she is
thinking about the message.
Car and Driver Magazine conducted a study in which the driver of a vehicle would
actually read and type out text messages while driving. The study solely focused on the driver’s
reaction times to a light mounted on the wind shield at eye level, meant to simulate a lead car’s
brake lights. The test was conducted on an old airplane runway, away from pedestrians, traffic,
and real life driving conditions. The passenger would trigger the light and the driver was
instructed to brake every time he saw the red light. While reading a text and driving at 35 mph,
the driver’s average baseline reaction time of 0.57 seconds nearly tripled, to 1.44 seconds. While
texting, his response time was 1.36 seconds. These figures correspond to an extra 45 and 41
feet, respectively, before hitting the brakes. Think of what could happen in 41-45 feet if you’re
not paying attention while driving.
Lastly the study compared driving while under the influence of alcohol to texting while
driving. The results were eye opening. The driver drank enough alcohol to be at the legal limit of
0.08% blood alcohol content. The driver’s reaction time after drinking averaged 0.64 seconds
and, by comparison, added only seven feet. The results at 70 mph were similar. The driver’s
response time while reading a text was 0.35 seconds longer than his base performance of 0.56
seconds, and writing a text added 0.68 seconds to his reaction time. But his intoxicated
number increased only 0.04 second over the base score, to a total of 0.60 second. This test was
using a straight road without any traffic, road signs, or pedestrians and was only testing
reaction time. The method that most of us use AKA the two hands on the wheel with the phone
in front of our faces would make it difficult to do anything other than hit the brakes. If anything
 in the periphery required a response, the drivers would have found themselves in a possible
fatal accident.
To sum it all up for you is pretty easy. Don’t text while driving. Almost all think they are
the best drivers, or a pretty good one to say the least, but all it takes is for your eyes to be off the
road for a few seconds and an accident can occur. You’ve heard how texting while driving is, if
not equal, worse than driving under the influence of alcohol, that should be enough right there.
All the studies that have been conducted are there for a reason. So many people have cell
phones and text regularly on a minute to minute basis that it’s hard not to send a quick
message while behind the wheel, but for your sake and others out there, wait until you stop
driving, you’ll see the person soon enough.

Activity 2.
Watch any movie (of any type or genre) at home or from your mobile phone.
Make a Movie Review based on the movie you have watched. Make sure to apply the
principles and structure in writing a review/critique( Introduction, Summary, Critique,
Conclusion).
Follow the given format. Use a separate sheet of paper/s for your Movie Review.

Title of the Movie:

Director:
Main Characters: (at least 3-4 characters)

Movie Review
__________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________.
__________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________.
__________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________.

Criteria:
Introduction – 5 points
(Provide basic information about the movie, and a sense of what your
review will be about.)

Summary – 5 points
(Give a brief summary of the plot in which you identify the main
characters, describe the setting, and give a sense of the central conflict
or point of the movie.)

Critique- 10 points
(Write about your own opinions; just be sure that you explain and
support them with examples.)

Conclusion – 10 points
(Briefly conclude the review by pulling your thoughts together. You may
want to say what impression the movie left you with, or emphasize what
you want your reader to know about it. Be sure to include a grade, 1-10,
in your review with a recap of why it earned that grade.)