Prompts Film (1) Analysis Essay Organization You are required to write a minimum of 2 to 3-page essay after each film screening, typed double spaced, on similarities and differences between Arabic and American cultures and how different aspects of Arabic culture are represented in the film. You will write your essay about one topic of your interest represented in the film. This is an example: you will use this example for each essay after each film you watch. Concept of kinship and the notion of the family as the central social and economic structure in Arab society. •  Compare and contrast your family experience with that of a typical Arab family. •  Connect customs and traditions to family values. •  Analyze and discuss the movie Yacoubian Building: by Marwan Hamed I know that I’ve received some questions about how I would personally structure the film analysis essay and how I think you should structure it. Personally, I think the answer to these questions is irrelevant: what’s important to me is that you come up with a plan, tailored to your specific essay that best expresses your ideas. You all have different writing styles, and I encourage that. I want you to improve your own style while incorporating what I think is important about writing; I don’t want you to automatically take on my style. Yet it can’t hurt for me to tell you how I would structure the film analysis essay. Just keep in mind that there’s no one right way to write this paper. You need to make decisions for yourself about how to best express your ideas. Perhaps by learning my style, you can work toward developing your own. Introduction My introduction would be about 100-150 words long and would end with a thesis statement. This thesis statement would be two sentences long and of the following form: “The film, [Film Title], suggests that [my idea about what major idea the film suggests: the film’s overall theme]. In particular, [my character] suggests [my more specific idea about what my character says about the film’s overall theme].” Prior to this thesis, my introduction would look at something specific to intrigue readers. I would discuss a very specific example of something that happened in the movie and discuss it as it relates to my thesis. Rather than generalizing about a subject, I think that this is the best way to introduce a paper: being as specific as possible. Film Summary Rather than having a specific section where I summarize the film, I would summarize it as I go. I would stay aware of the main ideas that I’m talking about and only summarize as much of the film’s plot as I needed, making sure to connect my overall thesis with this summary of the plot as well as with my specific ideas. Examples and Major Points – The Essay’s Body My essay would focus on examining my thesis through looking at examples from the film. I would begin by looking at a section of the film that emphasizes my main idea/thesis and articulate exactly how this section of the film makes a case for my main idea/thesis. After that, I would go to a section of the film that seems to go against my main idea/thesis, because I care more about being accurate than supporting the idea that I started with. I’m never attached to that idea I started with, because I can always change it. I would try to articulate exactly how this section of the film makes a case for my main idea/thesis, changing that thesis if I find that it’s not quite accurate. I would proceed in this way until I felt that my paper provided adequate support for a particular conclusion. Conclusion The body of my essay should lead directly into a conclusion, and in this conclusion, I would look back to the best example I had previously written about. I would think about my essay and decide which part of the movie best made my point, and I would refer back to that in my conclusion. I would probably look at it in a slightly different way or look at a different detail to relate it to my conclusion, and then articulate how it relates to my conclusion, ending on a specific part of to hopefully get my readers to think about my main idea.
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