Assessment at pervious work

In this update I have understood how the practical coursework has been marked with the use of the structure of the mark scheme, and by carrying out the task on how I, and a small croup consisting of four people would mark previous work created by past students on the same subject we are proceeding with.

Within the process of marking we had been given three mark sheets for each section of a magazine that we will also be creating in the future, which consisted of a magazine cover, a magazine contents page and a magazine double page spread of the main article related to the front cover on the magazine cover page. Within the mark scheme we had to assess and grade what we thought was appropriate for each section within the assessment grade sheet.

The sections that we had to mark and assess were the following:

- Produce material appropriate for the target audience and task

- Show understanding of conventions of layout and page design

- Show awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size

- Accurately use language and register

- Appropriately integrate illustration and text

- Shoot a variety of material appropriate to the task set

- Manipulate photographs as appropriate to context including cropping and resizing

The grades we had to assess for each following included:

-       Level 4 which is the equivalent to a grade A/B

-       Level 3 which is the equivalent to a grade B/C

-       Level 2 which is the equivalent to a grade C/D

-       Level 1 which is the equivalent to a grade E/U

The first previous work we had assessed was a magazine titled “Revolution” and the group and I had given the following grades for each section within the magazine cover page.

-       Level 4 for producing material appropriate for the target audience and task. We gave the magazine cover, contents and double spread this mark because the cover looked professional and appropriate for the target audience it was intending to be aimed at due to that the magazine cover followed the conventions of its genre in terms of following codes of colour within the magazine cover, dress codes and props in terms of the main image of the magazine cover, The layout was structured, clean and uniform for the magazine colour in terms of where all the sell lines, masthead and title were placed within the magazine cover.

-       Level 4 for showing the understanding of conventions of layout and page design, and we gave the magazine cover, contents and double page spread this mark because the magazine cover kept to a colour scheme of 3 colours of black, red and white in addition to background of grey in which all contrasted and none of the text blended in with the background. The sell lines were also around the main image and not crossing on top or over the main image which would have cluttered the magazine cover

-       Level 4 for showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size, and we gave the magazine cover, contents and double page spread this mark because the person who had created this magazine had used multiple fonts for different contexts and content within the persons magazine, for example she uses a different font for the masthead, another font for her sub-heads and another different font for her essential info.

-       Level 4 for accurate use of language and register and we gave it this mark for the we gave the magazine cover, contents and double page spread as the tone and the use of language with the genre of the magazine is following convention with the socio-economic group this persons magazine is aimed towards.

-       Level 4 for appropriate integrated illustration and text and we gave it this mark for the we gave the magazine cover, contents and double page spread because the person who had created this magazine had appropriate layout of each image and text, showing that nothing was too cluttered and produced  original imagery that was conventional to her genre of magazine.

-       Level 4 for shooting a variety of material and appropriate to the task set and we gave it this mark for the we gave the magazine cover, contents and double page spread because the person as all their imagery was original and all editing was of the persons original images as well as the editing which went to the magazine.

-       Level 3 for manipulation of photographic images to the context including cropping and resizing and we gave this mark to the magazine cover, contents and double page spread because we saw that she had resized and edited her images, however we found the use of background was unprofessional because it was just a wall inside the models house and we felt that this made the images look cheap and unprofessional, in addition we also felt that the personal could and should have edited lighting or light sources into the images as we felt the image looked too dark, which added more unprofessionalism.

The main strengths we found within the magazine was that the magazine did look professional in layout and followed convention of the chosen genre the persona had aimed their magazine towards with appropriate and clear layout throughout the persons magazine, however the areas we felt that the magazine needed to improve was the manipulation of the images, as we felt that the images could have been brighter or tinted to be more colorful to keep the target audience engaged with the imagery.

We then assessed another magazine another ex-student had created which was titled “Loud!” and our group assessed and graded each section of this magazine.

-       Level 4 for producing material appropriate for the target audience and task and we gave the magazine cover, contents and double spread this mark because the magazine looked quite professional due to the structure of the magazine following the convention its genre to appeal towards its target audience due to that it had a very controlled code of colour with a large use of greys and whites but a subtle use of more brighter colours such as red and blue to gain the audience attention

-       Level 4 for showing the understanding of conventions of layout and page design, and we gave the magazine cover, contents and double page spread this mark as all of the props, layout and structure were conventional to the genre towards the primary target audience, the magazine was aimed towards such as the clothing props were conventional to see in a rock magazine fulfilling audience expectations.

-       Level 4 for showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size, and we gave the magazine cover, contents and double page spread this mark because the person who had created this magazine had used a variety of fonts that were appropriate towards the type of size and composition of the text, for example there is more creative fonts that are used for the masthead and the sub-heads and more clear text that are used for the sell-lines and the essential info.

-       Level 4 for accurate use of language and register and we gave it this mark for the magazine cover, contents and double page spread as there was appropriate use of language for each section such a there was a straightforward, snappy tone when the text on the cover was to gain attention of the reader and elsewhere on the magazine the tone was more casual and personal such as in the double page spread the tone of the language was more laid back and careless which gave it a personal edge since it was an interview with an artist.

-       Level 4 for appropriate integrated illustration and text and we gave it this mark for the we gave the magazine cover, contents and double page spread because the illustrations and text were appropriately composed and looked quite neat and conventional within the persons magazine such as in the contents page of the personas magazine there are a wide variety of images all towards one neat section of the magazine whilst maintaining the essential info in appropriately sized text.

-       Level 4 for shooting a variety of material and appropriate to the task set and we gave it this mark for the we gave the magazine cover, contents and double page spread because there was a very wide variety of images, fonts and backgrounds used within the magazine for example the background for the cover of the magazine was white and on the contents page there was a grey background and on the double page spread there was a black background, in addition every image on each section of the magazine was different such as the main image on the cover of the magazine was a close-up portrait image of the main artist within the double page spread of the magazine, whilst the images were different within the contents section as they were mid and long shots of the main artist, again but this time he was what appeared to be a studio practicing, and in the double p[age spread it had more different images used of the main artist in a rural environment as well as a different image of the main artist practicing in a studio.

-       Level 4 for manipulation of photographic images to the context including cropping and resizing and we gave this mark to the magazine cover, contents and double page spread because there have been editing in the images such as some of the images in the contents page have a gray or cold tint in the images as well as images fading in to black in the double page spread.

The strengths we found within the magazine is that the magazine looked professional throughout the magazine as there was an appropriate structure and layout within the magazine that also followed convention of this persons chosen genre, showing us that the person who had made this had paid quite an amount of time into research into their genre, however we did feel in areas to improve on this magazine is that we did feel that some of the images looked slightly pixelated and so we thought the persona should have made or edited their images to be sharper.