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Essay Assignment Sheet
Paper Topics and Deadline
Paper #3
Watch The Revenant, and, based off the lecture video and Belton reading, explain how the film adheres to and/or departs from the normative conventions of the western genre. FOR THIS ESSAY, you MUST sufficiently quote and cite the Belton reading in your response. When incorporating scenic evidence to prove your argument, your paper MUST feature filmic analysis of specific scenes in a way that critically applies the terminology of ALL the formal elements of cinema. Please see the “Paper Requirements” section for more details (especially the section on “Incorporating and Citing the Assigned Reading”), as well as the “student example” of filmic analysis.
Paper Requirements 1. Each essay must be a full 4-5 pages and typed in 12-point Times New Roman font, with 1- inch margins, and double-spaced. Deviating from the formatting or page-length guidelines will detrimentally affect your grade. (Please note that I approach students meeting page requirements the same way I approach ordering burritos at Taco Bell, meaning that if I order and pay for four burritos, I expect four full burritos—not 3 1⁄2 or 3 3⁄4. Similarly, satisfying the 4 to 5-page requirement means that you must submit a full four pages, not 3 and 3⁄4 pages.) In this same vein, do NOT include extra spacing between paragraphs, multi-line headings, etc. For a
heading, please just write your name in the header, like in this document. Failing to follow these instructions will will detrimentally affect your grade.
2. You must have a single, fully developed, argumentative thesis where you make a claim about the film and attempt to prove your position. Your essay must have a singular, unified thesis and argument. In other words, the essay must be on one topic, not a range of small topics. Advanced-level theses do not merely state facts or cursory observations but are highly complex, argumentative, and defendable statements. A poor thesis may resemble the following: “Violence has a crucial role in Frankenstein, harming characters physically and mentally.” This statement is obvious, common sense, and not necessarily debatable. A more acceptable thesis may appear as so: “Iola Leroy grounds its position on passing at the intersection of race and gender, revealing that Black women’s experiences in ante- and post-bellum America complicate and challenge moralizing condemnations of enslaved Black women who chose to pass.” Keep in mind that your thesis need not be a single sentence. You might have a “thesis paragraph.” 3. Evidence: Your essay must incorporate scenic evidence and analysis to corroborate your claim. Make sure that you do not leave scenic evidence to speak for itself. Always extrapolate the scene and explain the relevance of its formal and narrative components for your argument as a whole. Ask yourself: “How is this scenic or formal evidence advancing or proving my position to my reader?” Afterwards, explain explicitly the answer to that question in your essay. Above all, you must reasonably prove your claim with the evidence you select and the analyses and arguments you make. You do not have to write an argument that you think I will agree with or refuse from making one you think I will not agree with. I do not care whether you argue something that I do or do not agree with or like, and my personal politics will never affect my reading of your essay. If you can construct a convincing, well-thought-out, and meticulous argument that is difficult to dismantle, then you will do well on this assignment.
4. Attention to all four formal elements of cinema and utilization of the correct terminology when analyzing the formal elements. Your essay must interpret and close read scenes in a way that furthers your essay’s argument and convincingly proves your thesis. Throughout your reading of scenic evidence, your essay should collectively identify (with the correct filmic terminology) SEVERAL types of sound, mise-en-scène, editing concepts, and components of cinematography. Your identification and close reading of the formal elements should not be random. If you are choosing to close read a scene and are engaging the language and concepts of the formal elements in your interpretation, make sure you are doing so in a way that relates to, and helps prove, your essay’s thesis. PLEASE SEE THE STUDENT EXAMPLE OF SCENIC ANALYIS FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF HOW YOU SHOULD IDENTIFY AND ANALYZE FORMAL ELEMENTS OF CINEMA IN YOUR PAPER.
5. Information on only summarizing: While you must inevitably summarize certain scenes to convey your point, your primary focus should be on analyzing scenes and their formal elements. If your evidence only consists of identifying scenes and explaining what happens in that moment of the plot, then you are not analyzing or close reading, simply storytelling. In the end, make sure you are constructing an argumentative piece of writing that proves a claim, not regurgitates the narrative.
Your Name Goes Here 6. Incorporating and Citing the Assigned Reading: For Papers #2 and #3 ONLY, you must sufficiently incorporate the assigned reading in your analysis of The Silence of the Lambs and The Revenant. This requirement does NOT mean only citing a sentence or two here and there from the reading, especially if the quoted sentence has no relevance to your argument. Instead, your essay should quote and cite the reading’s argument multiple times and throughout your essay in a way that advances and helps prove your paper’s thesis.
When quoting the reading, do NOT quote for more than four double-spaced lines in your writing. If a quote exceeds four lines, you should paraphrase some of the material. Students should also NOT quote arbitrarily. Quoting just to quote when the quote does not contribute to the essay’s argument in a meaningful way will affect the essay’s grade commensurately. Likewise, quoted material should NOT consist of more than 40% of
the paper. Remember, the assigned reading is a tool used to advance your essay’s argument, so make sure
that your essay does not become a summary/report of the reading.
Do NOT draw from outside research in your essays, only the assigned reading. In your essays, proper citation entails placing a parenthetical citation with the page number at the end of the quote, such as like this à (17). Do not worry about writing a bibliography or mentioning the author’s name in a signal phrase.
7. Proofreading and Clarity. Please, proofread your writing. Minor grammatical mistakes, such as dangling modifiers, comma splices, and split infinitives, are understandable and will not affect your grade. On the other hand, typos, missing words, and wrong words are a result of refusing to proofread and will commensurately affect your grade. Moreover, try to avoid pronouns and abstract language. Words like “it,” “that,” and “this” are a quick way to lose your reader because the antecedent is difficult to locate. If you are using “this/that/those/these,” make sure that a noun phrase always follows the “this.” Additionally, words like “thing” can refer to “anything,” so be specific and state directly what you are referring to. Also, avoid sweeping generalizations that you cannot prove (e.g. most people, all people, the majority of people, etc.), unnecessary adverbs, and repetitive word choice.