April Castillo for Alondra

Peer Review Questions for RIP Essay

1. Has the writer clearly spent time analyzing audience reception?
Alondra repeatedly kept the audience reception in mind throughout her project process. She
began by deciding to express her understanding of the Horror genre by using a power point that
focused on zombies. Instead of using historical background of zombies in their presentation, her
group wanted to be engaging and decided to only use the information that would help the
audience better understand the subject. This is a clear understanding that she has the audience
reception in mind, she thought about their engagement in the subject and how likely material
would appeal to their senses; due to the nature of the audience she decided to leave out the
information she knew would bore them in exchange for current information.
2. Does the writer clearly describe the medium and genre used for their project and discuss
how specific conventions expected of texts in that medium and genre were targeted?
She identifies that they used a PowerPoint in order to provide information to their audience.
Some expectations that come with using this type of medium are, its too boring, the presenters
are monotone, and its too much information all at once. Her group kept these in mind and wanted
to steer away from them. They chose to stick to information that was relevant to understand
zombies. She states I came to the final agreement that we would be showcasing our own
understanding of the horror genre through the creation of an informative PowerPoint that focused
on zombies, the audience expectations that come with that genre, as well the metaphor behind the
genre that ultimately lead to their grown popularity. This shows that Alondra and her group
wanted to use different conventions in their PowerPoint to demonstrate their understanding on the
subject. Her group focused on the metaphor of the zombie to todays society and the tropes that
come along with zombies.
3. Does the writer clearly describe what she wants the audience to know, feel, and think and
how those receptions were designed?
In the second paragraph she describes the audience she is presenting to as another 39B class
from the culturally diverse UCI campus. Her group didnt use any particular references that only
someone from UCI might understand but, as I said earlier, she cut down on the historical part of
the information in order to make it more relevant. She said the popularity of zombies has grown
in the past couple years and this in fact true with the new movies and television shows coming
out that involve them but I didnt rea about any specific ones she used in her essay and I think this
would help the audience see how she crafted the presentation for their enjoyment.
In particular:

How did it appeal to the audience? (UCI, college student, scholars) What specific
references do you make that only someone from UCI might understand? What specific
elements did you include that cater specifically to scholarspeople who are

academically interested in the content?

How did it meet their expectations? (audiences expect certain elements
(conventions/tropes) as part of a particular genre or medium) How did you arrange
visuals, for example, on a slide, to make sure they would appeal to your audience?
How did it grow out of the need to meet the conventions of your particular
genre/medium? What elements were necessary because of your genre and mediumfor
example, if its a song, its conventional to have a stanzas and a chorus, rhyming, rhythm,
etc.
Why was a particular piece of information important to include in the content because of
your purpose?
How does it reflect your cultural situation? Or what element did your group intentionally
include so that it would reflect this situation and speak to it? (what element, if it were
seen/read/heard by someone from a completely different culturea different location,
different age, different culture and country entirelywould make no sense? If you can
identify elements that way, you know they grew out of your own cultural context).
4. Does the writer clearly describe what he/she intends as the primary message of the text?
Has the writer distinguished between purpose and message? Also, are the purpose/message
of the text related to an analytical point that was discussed in class?
In the final paragraph Alondra states the purpose of their presentation was to persuade the
audience to perceive the horror genre and zombies under a new standpoint. I understand the
purpose of the presentation but I didnt get a clear message she was trying to give to the audience.
What about zombies did she want them to understand? Writing 39B was focused on rhetoric in
the horror genre and the messages horror films wanted to make. She could use previous class
assignments as evidence for this topic. This is the message I feel she is trying to give that zombies
represent more than just bodies rising from the dead and for the audience to look at horror movies
from this perspective.
5. Has the writer addressed the group situation with some insight and engaging examples?
This was the one point where I feel the essay needed improvement. It was missing some
examples that the group used in order to get the point across. She did list the strategies they
wanted to us but it missed some examples from within the presentation where they used them. By
adding specific examples from the presentation, it will help create a clear picture of how exactly
you focused on audience reception and it would help make the paper longer which is always
good. I think her rough draft was a great start as it clearly laid out the thought process of the
project but she just needs to add specific details and it will end up great.