JE MONDEJAR COMPUTER COLLEGE

Tacloban City

Subject: ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES GRADE 12

Module 6
READING AND WRITING A REVIEW

OBJECTIVE:
Writes an objective/balanced review or critique of a work of art, an event or a program.
CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-Id-f18.

WHAT YOU KNOW

Answer the following in your journal (required-Big Notebook)

1. Why do people read reviews?

ANSWER: people read reviews because they, Offer valuable guidance from people who've
used the service or product. Make it easier for shoppers to decide. Attest to a company's
reliability.

2. Why are reviews important?

ANSWER: Online reviews have increasingly become the front to your digital reputation. Reviews
help you get noticed, lead to more sales, improve search engine rankings, inform your business,
and convince customers to pick up the phone and call you.

3. How do reviews change the way you look at a movie, product, or place?

ANSWER: Reviews helps us change a lot in the way we look at a certain movie
or place. Because the people who makes review are from that place.

Before-Reading Activity

The review found below is a reaction to the short stories of O.Henry. O.Henry is considered to
be a master of short story; however, many critics were slow to appreciate his literary genius. In order to
fully appreciate the review, one should read at least one short story by O.Henry. An old favorite is “The
Gift of the Magi,” where a newlywed couple is short on funds and tries to buy each other gifts and reveal
 the folly and wisdom of love. This is readily accessible in the Internet, and should be read before you
read and discuss the review on O.Henry’s stories below.

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW IT

O. HENRY

O.W.Firkins

1. The are two opinions concerning O. Henry. The middle-class views him as the impersonation of
vigor and brilliancy; part of the higher criticism sees in him little but sensation and persiflage.
Between these views there is a natural relation; the gods of the heathens are ipso facto the
demons of Christianity. Unmixed assertions, however, are commonly mixtures of truth and
falsehood; there is room today for an estimate which shall respect both opinions and adopt
neither.
2. There is one literary trait in which I am unable to name any writer of tales in any literature who
surpasses O. Henry. It is not primary or even secondary among literary merits; it is less a value
per se than the condition or foundation of values. But its utility is manifest, and it is rare among
men: Chaucer and Shakespeare prove the possibility of its absence in masters of that very
branch of art in which its presence would seem to be imperative. I refer to the designing of
stories-not to the primary intuition or to skill in development, in both of which finer phases of
invention O. Henry has been largely and frequently surpassed, but to the disposition of masses,
to the blocking-out of plots. That a half-educated American provincial should have been original
in a field in which original men have been copyist is enough of itself to make his personality
observable.
3. Illustration, even off conceded truths, is rarely superfluous. I supply two instances. Two lads,
parting in New York, agree to meet “After Twenty Years” at a specified hour, date, and corner.
Both are faithful; but the years in which their relation has slept in mutual silence and ignorance
have turned the one into dashing criminal, the other into a sober officer of the law. Behind the
picturesque and captivating rendevouz lurks a powerful dramatic situation and a moral problem
of arresting gravity. This is dealt with in six pages of the “Four Million.’’ The “Furnished Room,”
two stories further on, occupies twelve pages. Through the wilderness of apartments on the
lower West side a man trails a woman. Chance leads him to the very room in which the woman
ended her life the week before. Between him and the truth the avarice of a sordid landlady
interposes the curtain of a lie. In the bed in which the girl slept and died, the man sleeps and
dies, and the entrance of the deadly fumes into his nostrils shuts the sinister and mournful
coincidence forever from the knowledge of mankind. O. Henry gave these tales neither
extension nor prominence; so far as I know, they were received without bravos or salvos. The
distinction of a body of work in which such specimens are undistinguished hardly requires
comment.
4. This imperfect list is eloquent in its way; it smooths our path to the assertion that O.Henry’s
specialty is the enlistment of original method in the service of traditional appeals. The ends are
the of fifty years ago; O. Henry transports us by aeroplane to the old homestead.
5. O. Henry’s egregiousness, on the superficial side, both in merits and defects, reminds us of those
park benches so characteristic of his tales which are occupied by a millionaire at one end and a
mendicant at the other. But, to complete the image, we must add as a casual visitor to that
bench a seer or a student, who, sitting down between the previous comers and suspending the
flamboyancies of their dialogue, should gaze with the pensive eye of Goldsmith or Addison upon
the passing crowd.

Comprehension Questions

1. Do you like O.Henry’s stories? Why or Why not?

 ANSWER: Every  story O.  Henry rendered  is awesome.  It is because they are full of twist  and
have an unpredictable ending that I love them.  You won't even know or think that  it will end its
stories like this. One thing that  does make O.  Henry's fascinating stories are that they  generally
end up with a twist.  A surprise in a plot is when  you are not expecting it to happen.  Like the
Last Leaf, it was,  I can say, a fantastic piece.

2. Why do you think some reviewers did not like O.Henrey’s work?
ANSWER: hey probably weren’t expecting his surprise endings or didn’t literarily understand
his writing style. He was ahead of his time in many ways considering this was the 19th
century, short stories didn’t hit their full stride until the latter half of the 20th century with
the increase of periodical magazines and a better subscription model. Also the academic
community came to accept the short story as a valid literary art form by this time period as
well.

3. Was it important to summarize the short stories? Why or Why not?

ANSWER: Summarizing is an important skill to master since it helps students learn reading
comprehension and hones writing proficiency. Properly breaking a short story down into its
basic elements requires careful reading, preparation and explanation of the ideas from the text.

4. Did this review satisfy you? Why or why not?

ANSWER:

5. What do you look for in reviews?

ANSWER:

EVALUATION

Write a review about the TVProgram I Witness (WalangMaiiwan) episode.

- Describe the tv program as well as the experience while watching it.

- Include the history of the program and what they are known for.
- By the end of the review, conclude by either recommending or not recommending the tv
program and why.
- Include a few good photographs to showcase the TV Program.