Analyze the causal links between technological advances and stylistic changes

HUM 70

Professor Jeppesen

FILM ANALYSIS REQUIREMENTS

Critical Thinking and Writing

This assignment is designed to demonstrate that you understand and can apply a specific concept to a film in a clear, concise manner.

Objectives

Film analyses are designed to foster and test your college-level thinking and writing abilities. Your analysis must respond to a question posed and have a purpose and point of view that lead to implications and consequences. You must use cinematic terminology and concepts learned in this course appropriately, and your reasoning must culminate in a logical conclusion.

Writing Requirements

These papers require the use of data, facts, and experiences to make inferences and critical judgments based on concepts and theories learned in this class to respond to a question posed. Your work must, therefore, be accurate, precise, and relevant. Your thinking must have breadth and be based on data, information, and evidence. Information must be clear, accurate, and relevant to the question at issue. Reasoning must be expressed through and shaped by concepts and ideas that you have clearly identified with precision and be supported by specific examples.

· Your analysis must be at least three (3) full double-spaced pages, 12 point Times New Roman, with one-inch margins all around.

· Your analysis must be at college level and will be graded on a number of aspects, as shown in the Grading Rubric for Film Analysis below. In other words, they must be thoughtful, well-organized, well-supported, and well-written.

· Your analysis must have a readily identifiable Title, Introduction, Thesis Statement, Development/Defense using specific film examples, and Conclusion.

· Your analysis needs to have a specific and well-defined point of view. This is key to writing a good paper; not having a clear point of view is the most common error students make these papers. It’s hard to defend a position that is not clearly defined. [Note: Some instructors tell students not to use first person, e.g., “I believe . . .” or “In my opinion . . .” Personally, I am OK with using first person in that manner.]

· You must include specific film examples to support your point of view.

· Your ideas must lead to some sort of logical conclusion that you state at the end of the response.

· Your work must be your own. Do not simply copy something from the Internet or other source, including another student. If you do use an outside source for a portion of your response, you must cite where you got the information; this applies to both direct quotes and paraphrasing.

· Do not spend time summarizing the narrative or reviewing a film. Assume that the reader (me) has seen the film. Whether you like or dislike a film or think it is good or bad is irrelevant.

· The convention for writing about movies is to use present tense when talking about events and characters.

· MLA style is to italicize film titles and the accepted convention in writing about movies is to include the director’s name and year of release for each film on first reference, e.g., The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin, 1925).

· Slang and profanity are not acceptable unless directly quoting.

· The assignment will be graded using the Grading Rubric for Film Analysis below. The letter grade will be translated to points based on the maximum point value for the assignment.

Grading Rubric for Film Analysis

Given a prompt for a representative film, students will write a coherent, well-supported and properly cited essay advancing a critical interpretation of that film.

Primary Trait	The 5 Essay	The 4 Essay	The 3 Essay	The 2 Essay	The 1 Essay	The 0 Essay
Thesis-Centered Interpretation of the film	presents a thoughtful and cogent, thesis-centered interpretation of the film	presents a thoughtful, thesis-centered interpretation of the film	presents an adequate, thesis-related interpretation of the film	presents an inadequate, non-thesis-driven response to the film	presents an unacceptable response entirely lacking a thesis, and/or not responding to the prompt or film	no essay submitted or is plagiarized
Textual Evidence and Explication	elaborates interpretation with ample, well-chosen visual and/or auditory evidence and compelling explication	elaborates interpretation with sufficient, appropriate visual and/or auditory evidence and thoughtful explication	elaborates that response with acceptable visual and/or auditory evidence and partially sufficient explication	fails to elaborate response with acceptable visual and/or auditory evidence and sufficient explication	fails to elaborate response with any visual and/or auditory evidence and/or explication	no essay submitted or is plagiarized
Application of Film Studies Aesthetic Terminology and Relates to Historical Contexts	masterfully applies relevant film studies aesthetic terminology and masterfully relates to historical contexts	competently applies relevant film studies aesthetic terminology and competently relates to historical contexts	adequately applies relevant film studies aesthetic terminology and adequately addresses historical contexts	inadequately and/or inconsistently applies relevant film studies aesthetic terminology and does not sufficiently address relevant historical contexts	fails to apply relevant film studies aesthetic terminology and does not at all address relevant social, historical, and cultural contexts	no essay submitted or is plagiarized
Citation and Integration of Primary and Secondary Source Materials	masterfully cites and integrates relevant primary and/or secondary source materials	competently cites and integrates relevant primary and/or secondary source materials	adequately cites and integrates relevant primary and/or secondary source materials	inadequately or improperly cites and/or integrates relevant primary and/or secondary source material	fails to cite and/or integrate relevant primary and/or secondary source material	no essay submitted or is plagiarized

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