For this assignment, you will be writing two blurb summaries. The first blurb will be over one of "The
Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury or Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut. These readings can be found in module
9.2.4 Read: Bradbury and Vonnegut only pick one of them to blurb. The second blurb will be over a piece
of media of your choice: short story, novel, television show, film, video game, musical album, etc. The choice is
yours! So, what is a blurb?
A blurb is the text that would appear on the back of a piece of physical media in order to give a perspective
watcher/reader/listener a brief idea of what it is about. Blurbs are most commonly found on the back covers of
books, but you can also find them on DVD or video game cases, as well as VHS covers (ask your parents about
these if you are unfamiliar with them).
A good blurb summary focuses heavily on genre. Imagine a person who thoroughly enjoys horror thriller
films. While at the video store, they are trying to decide if they want to rent the most recent Halloween film or
the most recent Scream movie. The blurbs on the back should summarize the setup, give some of the plot,
highlight a bit of the action or tension, namedrop some of the important actors, but it should also try to use
specific language or terms that would pique the interests of someone interested in the horror thriller genre. The
tone of the blurb can also match the genre - mysterious writing for a mystery book, strong evocative words and
choppy sentences for an action-packed movie, etc. Most of all, the blurb should be fun.
Simplified Directions:
. Read "The Pedestrian" by Bradbury and Harrison Bergeron by Vonnegut
• Choose one
• Select your own media artifact
• Write two blurbs
• One over the assigned text you chose
• One over the media artifact you picked
• Each blurb should be at least 200-250 words
• Strive to use proper mechanical spelling and grammar
Tips for SUCCESS
. It could help to write a traditional summary before attempting to stylize it into a blurb. Or you could jot
down some of the main sequences, important characters, etc.
• Remember that genre is an important motivator in how the blurb should be written. You may spend some
pre-writing time looking up genre conventions for the genre of your chosen artifacts.
.
Have fun with this one! Be bombastic or cheesily romantic or overly grandiose with your language.
Channel the vibes of a dramatic movie trailer narrator if you need to. Just make sure to keep it PG - you are
striving for a blurb that could be professionally printed.