I take your sardonic tone Tom; and I enjoyed the read of a wine writer.
What we need are wine "journalists". I put quotes around that word as a point of emphasis.
We need wine journalists because we need them to cover the industry -- as any journalist would. In this arena, we need journalists to tell the world, and to hold this industry accountable in its agricultural, climate, business, political, and technical endeavors.
Oh, and did I mention the exigencies of its romantic and historical perspectives wine has contributed to society?
Tom- as a former *just 'retired') Panel Chair Examiner (different paper than the one this question comes from for many years, We always love to see a candidate take a contrary position and argue it well. I l love that you took this question as a point of departure. Questions like these on the Exam definitely elicit a wonderful range of answers. Your mock answer, however, would only garner a C grade. Why? Mainly, you need to show proof of argument with good examples to demonstrate your POV. Too, given that this question is part of paper that allows 90 minutes/question to answer, you simply would need to bring in more discussion, argument, and proof. You could enhance the discussion with consideration, for example, with Cinema critics, art critics etc. And, there is certainly need to consider that consumers are insecure and need guidance, but do wine writers do that? Agree with Alan, sardonic/cynical is not a bad approach-- but ya need to prove it...just sayin' Joel
Joel, thanks for the input on this. Fascinating. But did you say you get 90 minutes to write the essay? That would be a luxury. What I wrote here is about 10 minutes worth. Still...A C? I'll take it. For the record, were I actually taking the exam, I'd never do the negative. The negative response is unsustainable from the perspective of logic, reason, history, culture and industry.
Teasing a little, but-- doing the negative (perhaps contrarian is a better word!) often reveals more real talent... here's some background on theory papers for MW Exam.
Papers 1-2,4 (Viti, Vini, Business of Wine have 3 questions to answer in 3 hours
Paper 3 Handling of wine, and Paper 5 General knowledge/current issues? have 2 questions to answer in 3 hours. 90 minutes-a luxury? No way...it makes it harder since you really have to think about things and come up with a respectable number of issues, w/examples, solid logic etc to answer well.
FYI, the Practical Papers (3) each have 12 wines to deal with in 2/14 hours, double blind! J
I take your sardonic tone Tom; and I enjoyed the read of a wine writer.
What we need are wine "journalists". I put quotes around that word as a point of emphasis.
We need wine journalists because we need them to cover the industry -- as any journalist would. In this arena, we need journalists to tell the world, and to hold this industry accountable in its agricultural, climate, business, political, and technical endeavors.
Oh, and did I mention the exigencies of its romantic and historical perspectives wine has contributed to society?
Tom- as a former *just 'retired') Panel Chair Examiner (different paper than the one this question comes from for many years, We always love to see a candidate take a contrary position and argue it well. I l love that you took this question as a point of departure. Questions like these on the Exam definitely elicit a wonderful range of answers. Your mock answer, however, would only garner a C grade. Why? Mainly, you need to show proof of argument with good examples to demonstrate your POV. Too, given that this question is part of paper that allows 90 minutes/question to answer, you simply would need to bring in more discussion, argument, and proof. You could enhance the discussion with consideration, for example, with Cinema critics, art critics etc. And, there is certainly need to consider that consumers are insecure and need guidance, but do wine writers do that? Agree with Alan, sardonic/cynical is not a bad approach-- but ya need to prove it...just sayin' Joel
Joel, thanks for the input on this. Fascinating. But did you say you get 90 minutes to write the essay? That would be a luxury. What I wrote here is about 10 minutes worth. Still...A C? I'll take it. For the record, were I actually taking the exam, I'd never do the negative. The negative response is unsustainable from the perspective of logic, reason, history, culture and industry.
Hey Tom
Teasing a little, but-- doing the negative (perhaps contrarian is a better word!) often reveals more real talent... here's some background on theory papers for MW Exam.
Papers 1-2,4 (Viti, Vini, Business of Wine have 3 questions to answer in 3 hours
Paper 3 Handling of wine, and Paper 5 General knowledge/current issues? have 2 questions to answer in 3 hours. 90 minutes-a luxury? No way...it makes it harder since you really have to think about things and come up with a respectable number of issues, w/examples, solid logic etc to answer well.
FYI, the Practical Papers (3) each have 12 wines to deal with in 2/14 hours, double blind! J