Essay Assignment Handout

Genre of writing
scholarly film criticism

Assignment objectives
● To construct a meaningful original claim about a visual text
● To develop and to defend the claim throughout an essay of some length using both primary and scholarly secondary evidence
● To connect interpretation (opinion) to analysis (fact) in a cogent and convincing way

Eligible primary texts
● Taxi Driver by Martin Scorsese (1976)

Secondary texts
● Scholarly books
● Scholarly journal articles
● Newspaper and magazine articles (optional)

Tertiary texts (not encouraged as citable sources)
Wikipedia
Anonymous websites
Film textbooks (which are too descriptive and unfocused)

Grading criteria

Complex primary text analysis
➢ This involves in-depth analysis of multiple scenes on the basis of audiovisual design and literary design
➢ This also should involve connections among these scenes, not just analysis of each scene in isolation

Sophisticated, original interpretation
➢ This criterion is ranked below interpretation because logically the analysis will occupy more space in the essay than the interpretation. But interpretation and analysis are interdependent. A skillfully analyzed scene that has no relevance to interpretation or a clever, original interpretation that has no grounding in analysis — neither of these qualities can result in success.
➢ “Original” argument means that the thesis is not merely rehashing what some scholar already published.
➢ “Sophisticated” means that the argument moves beyond an obvious summary of a text’s “preferred” meaning into the theoretical implications of that meaning within a particular subfield (critical approach).
➢ Despite the theme of the course, students are not required to write about gender and will likely make greater progress after initially brainstorming about film through multiple critical lenses instead of regurgitating platitudes about women and power.
➢ Argument is probably the most difficult aspect of writing an essay. The key is to remember that a good argument is always a product of analysis. So a good strategy for starting a draft is to choose scenes that you think belong together in an essay, even if you can’t decide why. Then analyze those scenes, and then write an argument paragraph that addresses what you found in that analysis — an argument is really an announcement of findings. But students too often write the first paragraph first and then refuse to revise it no matter what. They would rather “revise” the film itself, distorting it to make the film relevant to the claim (confirmation bias) instead of making the claim relevant to the film. You are writing to an audience that has seen the film. Trying to slant your evidence to fit a weak argument — the folly of that should be obvious. But if you wait until the last minute to develop your ideas rather than writing and revising them over time, then you will give yourself no alternative.

Secondary source engagement
➢ It is impossible to place a hard number on the sources required for this assignment. But first let it be said that secondary sources are secondary for a reason: the argument and analysis of the primary text are the foremost criteria and should reflect original insights from the student writing the essay. But to be persuasive, students must also engage with scholarly sources (as well as popular sources if useful) in a meaningful and sustained way. A couple of paragraphs (the equivalent of two full annotations) scattered throughout the essay is a loose minimum guideline. This must involve direct quotations from these sources: You have not “cited” a source if you have not quoted it.
➢ There are many forms of secondary engagement that students often disregard. Writing about Taxi Driver does not mean that all of your sources must mention Taxi Driver: What genre of film is this? What editing strategies does it employ? What other films are thematically similar? Scholars have written about these categories even if they have not written about this particular film. To write about Film A, sometimes you have to engage with secondary writing about Film B. And sometimes you also have to engage with sources that disagree with your position. That doesn’t make you wrong if you have carefully examined their arguments and can model thoughtful refutation in your writing.

Other important criteria
➢ An original scholarly title
○ Someone should be able to read your title and tell that you are writing interpretive film criticism. If they can’t, then your title needs revising.
➢ Thorough documentation
○ Do not use parenthetical references in sentences that do not contain direct quotes. If you want to use someone’s ideas in an essay, don’t phrase the idea as if it were yours and then put someone else’s name in parentheses at the end. Any sentence in your essay that does not contain a scholar’s name or quoted words should not contain their ideas, period. This is a problem of voice. Your voice should not merge with someone else’s in an academic essay.
○ If someone said something worthy of inclusion, introduce the source, quote the passage, analyze the quotes, and then make the connections to your primary text. You can also quote brief phrases rather than whole passages but this is a more distant form of engagement.
○ Page numbers and an MLA formatted works cited page with full and accurate citations will be a major criterion of this essay. Sources not quoted in the essay should not be in the Works Cited, and sources not in the Works Cited should not be quoted.
○ Remember that the primary text is a work cited and should be listed there.