Evaluation Essay

Essay #3, Jones, Fall 2019, English 1101

PURPOSE:

· “Real World” Connections: We make judgments, implicitly or explicitly, on a daily basis. Think of times when you have recommended (or warned against) a show, game, product, or service to someone. This evaluation essay provides a structured, focused way to think about these types of judgments.

· College Connections: Over the next few years, you will be choosing a major and a career path. For this, you’ll need to evaluate specific criteria of careers. For example, how important are working hours and which is more important: money or job enjoyment? You are also making choices on which classes to take and what you look for when signing up for classes (times, days, professors, learning style, etc.).

· ENGL 1101 Course Outcomes: This project offers practice in at least three of our course outcomes: (1) To create, organize, and fully develop original ideas, subjects, and thesis statements in oral and written arguments using print and electronic media; (2) To engage individually and collaboratively in the writing process including prewriting, writing, editing, assessing, and revising; and (3) To become acquainted with research and documentation techniques.

TASK:

· What is the evaluative essay?

· This Unit is made up of two specific assignments:

· The first is an annotated bibliography where you’ll find and summarize three secondary sources and a primary source for your essay about a documentary film. You will use MLA format and the Galileo database to find the sources.

· The second is the research essay. You will evaluate a documentary (that you will choose from a list) based on specific criteria and make a judgement about the documentary. You will use specifics from the film and your secondary sources to back up your judgement.

· What am I supposed to write about?

· The topic for this essay is a documentary film evaluation. You will choose from the list below and watch the film closely to evaluate and judge it. You will probably need to watch the film more than one time. You will be watching the film outside of class but all are available on Netflix, and/or our GGC library, the Gwinnett County Library, and other major viewing platforms.

· We will practice the basic features of the genre in class while watching the film Three Identical Strangers. This will serve as a model for your own essay.

· So what’s the plan?

· One of the most important elements of a complete evaluation is establishing criteria upon which your evaluation will be based.

· For the documentary evaluation essay, you will need to establish the criteria. We will work together as a class to develop concrete examples of the criteria. The criteria will be based on your specific film choice.

· You will use your sources and scenes from the film to name the criteria and then explain how well the documentary meets the criterion

· The bulk of your essay will be devoted to explaining how what you are evaluating does (or does not) meet the criteria you’ve identified.

· Here is an idea of what we will do in our weekly lessons related to this project (this is not everything we are doing, but just an idea of what the timing looks like between now and the final draft):

· This week (10/28- 11/1): Introduction to evaluative writing by reviewing Chapter 8; practice developing criterion for a specific genre, work on finding sources and using the database; work on the annotated bibliography

· Next week (11/4- 11/6): Presentations in class (over the profile or narrative essay); each day we will also go over parts of this evaluation essay

· Week 11 (11/11- 11/15): Generating content, organizing, and drafting; watching and evaluating a documentary in class to mimic what you’ll be doing outside of class

· Week 12 (11/18- 11/22): Complete the annotated bibliography and work on your essay. Final drafts of the annotated bibliography are due on Nov. 24 at 11:59 pm to the dropbox on D2L.

· Week 13 (11/23): Continue work on essay. Draft of introduction and outline is due in class on Nov. 25. This will be returned to you on Dec. 2 (our last class day) and you will submit your essay to D2L before Dec. 8, 2019 at 11:59 pm. As noted on the syllabus, this essay will not be accepted late even if you have never submitted a late assignment before.

· How will this project be graded?

· The project grade is earned as follows (and will be more specifically broken down on the rubric on D2L):

· Annotated Bibliography is worth 10% of final grade

· This will include four sources, two of which must be articles from GGC’s databases and are listed below

· You will evaluate each source and create a citation for each

· The annotated bib will be due Nov. 24 at 11:59 pm to D2L

· The annotated bib will be at least two full pages

· The Evaluative Essay is worth 15% of final grade

· This essay will be between 4-5 pages (not including the Works Cited)

· You must cite at least three sources in your essay

· You must evaluate the documentary based on three criteria that you have picked

· In an introduction, you will state the basic information about the documentary, have a statement of judgment about the documentary, and lead into the criterion

· The final draft of the essay will be due Dec. 8, at 11:59 pm and as stated on the syllabus, no late work will be accepted

· Additional reminders/considerations:

· Don’t forget that your professor and the Writing Center (W1160) are ready and willing to help you! Ask them (us!) questions, and consider making a few appointments to discuss your ideas and work in progress.

· Source Choices:

1. “Docs Face Up to Dramatic Times: Documentary Genre Report.” Televisual

2. “Spike Lee’s Documentaries: The Creative Art of Making Nonfiction.” Black Camera: The New Series

3. “The Claims of Documentary: Expanding the Educational Significance of Documentary Film.” By Jeff Frank

4. “Documentary Cinema and Reality Hunger.” By Richard Porton

5. “How Documentaries Became the Hottest Genre of the Summer.” By Stephanie Zacharek

6. “Alex Gibney’s Empire: Can You Reinvent a Genre Through Sheer Work Ethic?” by Boris Kachka

7. “Netflix Bolsters Offerings in Documentary Genre.” By Emily Steel

8. “Documentary.” Televisual

9. “Year of the Doc.” By Logan Hill

10. “Why Trust is Essential.” By Peter Biesterfeld

11. “Docs on Deck.” By Matt Donnelly and Brent Lang

12. “The Right Format for Your Doc.” By Peter Biesterfeld

13. Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction by Patricia Aufderheide

14. Introduction to Documentary, third edition, by Bill Nicolas

· Documentary Choices:

1. Won’t You Be My Neighbor- the story of Mr. Rogers, 2018

2. The Great Hack- social media privacy and advertising scandal, 2019

3. American Factory- A closed factory in Ohio is reopened by a Chinese billionaire, 2019

4. Icarus- the doping scandal including biking and the Olympics, 2017

5. Chasing Coral- why is coral disappearing from our oceans? 2017

6. I Am Bolt- the story of Usain Bolt, the fastest man, 2016,

7. The Ivory Game – the quest to end the illegal ivory trade in Africa, 2016

8. Free Solo- Alex Honnold’s attempt to climb El Capitan “free solo,” 2018

9. The Black Godfather- the life of Clarence Avant, 2019

10. Jack of all Trades- the baseball card scandal during the 1990s, 2018

11. LA 92- after the Rodney King trial, LA was in chaos, 2017

12. Knock Down the House- 4 females running for Congress seats in 2018, 2019

13. 13th- the US prison system and racial inequality, 2016