Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Essay Proposal Assignment
FA/FILM 1401 6.0 Introduction to Film (For Non-Majors) Fall/Winter 09-10
ESSAY PROPOSAL ASSIGNMENT
Due in tutorial January 19/20, 2010
- This is worth 5% of your final grade
- Late penalty: 5% per day off the graded result (not including weekends)
This assignment is intended to prepare you for writing your critical essay. To this extent you will be required to provide your topic of research, a thesis statement, an outline of the essay’s structure, the methodology you will use in analysis, and at least six sources that you will be using as basic research material. The length of the proposal will vary with each student’s chosen topic but it should be at least three (3) pages (750 words minimum) including bibliography. The proposal will be evaluated on the originality of the topic, essay organization and structure, and the quality of the research material. While you are free to choose from a wide variety of topics, your essay must be partially derived from the course material. For instance, you may choose to write about a film, genre, filmmaker, or film movement that we have studied in class; or, you may wish to analyze a film (not screened in class) using a critical methodology studied in the course (e.g., ideological, narrative, genre or formal analysis). In short, you must demonstrate that your essay is connected in a significant way to the course material.
The following steps may be useful in developing your proposal:
1) Choose a topic that will sustain your interest through research, analysis, and writing.
2) Use the FIAF International Index to Film/TV Periodicals or the Film Literature Index (available on-line and at Scott Library) to find essays and articles written about your topic (these will serve as your research sources).
3) Get copies of the sources by searching Scott Library’s holdings and then photocopy or download these articles. For instance, if you are researching cinematography in Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, you would look up the film title in the Film Literature Index, copy the titles of articles and the names of publications in which they appear (incl. date, volume or number, and page number), and then enter the title of the publication into a Library search engine to determine whether York holds this publication – if so, get the call number and find the publication in the stacks (or do it virtually).
4) After reading several sources, you will gain confidence about your subject and this will assist you in developing a strong thesis.
5) Plan your essay so that each component of it highlights your research as well as sustaining your thesis (which will be illustrated by sequence analysis).
Useful Tips:
- give yourself enough time to search for sources and reflect on the source material before developing a thesis statement.
- If you are having difficulty with research ask for assistance at Scott Library.
- Refer to Bordwell & Thompson, “Writing a critical analysis of a film,” pp. 431-438 in Film Art or Timothy Corrigan’s A Short Guide To Writing About Film (esp. Chapters 5 & 6) for assistance with researching and writing a critical essay.
**Note: You will have the option of re-submitting your proposal once in order to refine your project, as well as potentially receiving a higher grade for this assignment.
McCullough 07/08
ESSAY PROPOSAL ASSIGNMENT
Due in tutorial January 19/20, 2010
- This is worth 5% of your final grade
- Late penalty: 5% per day off the graded result (not including weekends)
This assignment is intended to prepare you for writing your critical essay. To this extent you will be required to provide your topic of research, a thesis statement, an outline of the essay’s structure, the methodology you will use in analysis, and at least six sources that you will be using as basic research material. The length of the proposal will vary with each student’s chosen topic but it should be at least three (3) pages (750 words minimum) including bibliography. The proposal will be evaluated on the originality of the topic, essay organization and structure, and the quality of the research material. While you are free to choose from a wide variety of topics, your essay must be partially derived from the course material. For instance, you may choose to write about a film, genre, filmmaker, or film movement that we have studied in class; or, you may wish to analyze a film (not screened in class) using a critical methodology studied in the course (e.g., ideological, narrative, genre or formal analysis). In short, you must demonstrate that your essay is connected in a significant way to the course material.
The following steps may be useful in developing your proposal:
1) Choose a topic that will sustain your interest through research, analysis, and writing.
2) Use the FIAF International Index to Film/TV Periodicals or the Film Literature Index (available on-line and at Scott Library) to find essays and articles written about your topic (these will serve as your research sources).
3) Get copies of the sources by searching Scott Library’s holdings and then photocopy or download these articles. For instance, if you are researching cinematography in Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, you would look up the film title in the Film Literature Index, copy the titles of articles and the names of publications in which they appear (incl. date, volume or number, and page number), and then enter the title of the publication into a Library search engine to determine whether York holds this publication – if so, get the call number and find the publication in the stacks (or do it virtually).
4) After reading several sources, you will gain confidence about your subject and this will assist you in developing a strong thesis.
5) Plan your essay so that each component of it highlights your research as well as sustaining your thesis (which will be illustrated by sequence analysis).
Useful Tips:
- give yourself enough time to search for sources and reflect on the source material before developing a thesis statement.
- If you are having difficulty with research ask for assistance at Scott Library.
- Refer to Bordwell & Thompson, “Writing a critical analysis of a film,” pp. 431-438 in Film Art or Timothy Corrigan’s A Short Guide To Writing About Film (esp. Chapters 5 & 6) for assistance with researching and writing a critical essay.
**Note: You will have the option of re-submitting your proposal once in order to refine your project, as well as potentially receiving a higher grade for this assignment.
McCullough 07/08
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