This is a reposting (with slight editing) of a post from four years ago. Hard for me to come to terms with the fact that this presentation is from 20 years ago!
My JMC 406 commentary class is going to be talking about writing critical reviews over the next week or two. Here are a couple of readings and great talk by movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert for my students. But for all of you thinking about reviewing, these materials are all great. (And, please, take the time to watch the C-SPAN video of Siskel and Ebert talking to National Press Club back in 1995. Get passed the complaints about Sen. Bob Dole and get to where they talk about what makes movies good or bad.)
Siskel & Ebert at the National Press Club
- Roger Ebert’s Rule Book for Review Writing
A great set of rules for writing reviews. The first half deal with writing; the second half deals with working as a reviewer. - Roger Ebert’s Web Site
A great collection of Ebert’s writing. Some about movies, some about other subjects.
Columnists for your reading pleasure
Here are links to a number of columnists and columnist index pages from newspapers around the country for my JMC 406 commentary writing students, and anyone else who’s interested. It has previously been published here in somewhat different form.
National Columnists
2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist. His column written in response to the events of 9/11 struck a strong chord with readers. One of my favorite columnists. (I really liked his 2011 column on Anderson Cooper that addresses the issue that Jay Rosen calls The View From Nowhere.
2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist. While she has been a co-host on CNN, her real gift is as a center right columnist. Among her Pulitzer portfolio was this great look at how inconvenient it can be that men and women are different. (And here is another post I put up on Parker for you to take a look at.)
1977 Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, known as an “old guard” commentator who drops a lot of Latin and literature references into his columns, and writes occasionally about baseball.
Dionne is a liberal Catholic columnist and blogger for the Washington Post who takes a fairly serious, measured response. Provocative without being a flame-thrower. When Pope Benedict stepped down in 2013, he called for the Catholic church to name a nun as pope.
King writes about DC as well as politics for the Post. He won the Pulitzer for commentary in 2003. He had a lengthy column on the occasion of Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday that gives us a powerful look at the issue of segregation and race in the United States.
In addition to writing on a wide variety of issues for the Miami Herald, Hiaasen also writes comic novels about south Florida. I highly recommend Skinny Dip and Basket Case
Commentary from newspapers around the United States:
Commentary from Nebraska newspapers:
Note: Many of the posts here are letters to the editor. They are interesting, but they are not newspaper columns. If you use this link, check what you are reading carefully.