choose any movie that was distributed in the United States at any time. Just be sure that you are able to see the movie several times to do the necessary close reading of the film. Also, no documentaries for this assignment. Once you have chosen your movie, actively read your chosen movie as a text, a collection of signs that contain social/culture significance.
In addition, research and analyze any relevant context, such as when the movie came out, how much money it made, who went and saw it, what awards it won, any discussion that was being had about it, and any materials created to promote it such as websites, posters, and commercials.
Thesis, Purpose, and Audience: Then, write a thesis-driven essay that presents a specific idea on your chosen movie’s social or cultural significance. For example, how does a movie represent a specific cultural value or myth? Or, does the movie challenge a specific cultural value or myth? What does the movie say about the people who choose to see it? What does it say about the society from which the movie springs? Perhaps a film impacted culture or society in a specific way. There are a number of different ideas that can focus your essay. You will then support that thesis through a series of supporting paragraphs that present supporting ideas and specific evidence that work to convince your audience of the thesis you presented. Your audience again for this essay will be the class: a general, academic audience.
The thesis should be explicit and present an interesting insight into your chosen movie rather than one that states the obvious.
Avoid broad, generalized ideas; instead use specific and analytical ideas, ideas that can be supported logically with evidence.
Your purpose is to persuade your audience of your thesis.
Assume your audience has little or no knowledge of the movie you are analyzing.
Use of Summary: Consider including a brief summary of your chosen movie, either in the introduction or first support paragraph, and/or summarize the movie throughout the essay as you work to analyze specific features of the movie. However, avoid too much summary. While the early portion of your paper may provide a very brief summary of the overall movie, and you will do some summarizing in other support paragraphs to set up your analysis, the analysis should be the focus of the essay. It’s the analysis that connects the evidence back to your ideas and persuades your audience of your thesis. Use only enough summary in your essay to help your audience understand your ideas, evidence, and analysis.
Sources of Information: For this assignment, you must bring into your essay at least three outside sources to help support your thesis, but you may bring in more than three. The first outside source will be the movie itself. Much of your evidence will come from the movie itself such as descriptions of particular scenes and/or characters (particularly their actions), quotations of dialogue, settings, camera work, music, special effects, and other movie elements. The other two sources could come from the movie’s website, reviews of the movie, interviews with the actors and/or director, statistics about how much a movie costs to make, how much a movie earned, how long a movie stayed in theaters, etc. However, be sure that the sources you choose are quality sources for an academic essay. You must also cite your sources correctly using the MLA system of citations.
Rough Draft: A week before the final draft is due, you will be asked to submit a rough draft of your essay. This is an important deadline since it allows you time to revise, edit, and get assistance on the essay before you turn in the final draft.
Your rough draft of the essay should be a minimum of 850 words (around 3 pages):
If you do not turn in the rough draft, your grade for the final draft will drop a full grade.
Formatting: Your essay should adhere to the MLA system of formatting:
double-spaced
one inch margins
twelve-size font
an academic font (Times New Roman is the most common)
formal heading in the top left corner
a title
paragraph indents (tab key)
Use of in-text citations for all outside sources
Inclusion of a Works Cited page
Your essay should be a minimum of 1200 words (around 4 pages) to qualify for a passing grade.
Your essay must represent a focused thesis-driven analytical essay that presents the social and/or cultural significance of a consumer artifact.
It must also adhere to the MLA system of formatting and citation, including a Works Cited page.
You must include at least two sources in your essay and Works Cited page.
