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FMA 1172: Introduction to Film Analysis

A guide intended to assist students with the research skills assignment in this course.

Your assignment

  1. Choose a film screened for class.
  2. Make note of the genre, national cinema, historical period, stars, and ideologies that you can identify for your film.
  3. Come up with a clear, strong theseis statement for an argument.  See 5 Tips for Writing and Effective Thesis Statement and other tips for developing a thesis.
  4. Think about what kinds of claims and evidence you may want to respond to and incorporate.
  5. Conduct some research using the resources recommended in the sections of this guide.
    1. Find a print scholarly article or book chapter.  Keep a photocopy of it.
    2. Find an online scholarly article/essay/chapter.
    3. Find a popular press review of the film.
  6. Revise your search, broadening and narrowing as needed, trying multiple resources.
  7. For each of your three chosen sources explain what it is (scholarly, review..) and why you think so.
  8. Write  sentence or two summarizing the argument of the source in your own words  Disucss what aprts of the argument you agree with or find valuable, and also discuss what parts are lacking or that you disagree with.
  9. State how this source will help you provide evidence in making your argument.

Identifying Films From a Particular Year