Essay #3: Research Paper
Putting Basic Instinct in a Researched Context (from Nathaniel Hodes)
Your assignment is to research some aspect of Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 film, Basic Instinct, and use that research to inform and contextualize your reading of the film. A list of possible topics you might research includes:
The initial controversy over the film’s representation of homosexuality.
Later controversies over the film’s explicit sexuality.
The notion of stardom arising around Sharon Stone or Michael Douglas.
The cinematography of Jan de Bont, the score of Jerry Goldsmith, or the costume design of Ellen Mirojnick.
Contemporaneous feminist movements.
Contemporaneous debates about the connections between sex and violence.
Source films or novels (such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo).
Your essay should incorporate at a minimum either two primary source materials, or one primary and one secondary source.
Anticipated Length: 5-7 pages
Goals of the Essay
In addition to working on the goals of Essay #1, this assignment asks you to:
Open with an engaging introduction that makes clear your motive, and draw out the implication(s) of your argument in the essay’s conclusion. The motive makes an essay appealing to a wider audience of readers who might not care about Basic Instinct or about your specific interests in the film. This assignment asks you not only to make an interesting, arguable claim about the film (a thesis), but consider the ramifications of your argument to topics of universal interest. Among other questions, you might consider, what does your argument imply about what we consider to be pornographic, how a film segments and operates on a divided audience, or how the film juggles different genres like romance, mystery, and suspense/thriller?
Integrate primary source material. You should not simply report the findings of your research, but incorporate them into your argument as evidence or motive.
Open each paragraph with a topic sentence. The topic sentence does the double duty of (a) encapsulating the main idea of its paragraph, and (b) smoothly transitioning from the last idea of the previous paragraph. A topic sentence will ensure both that each paragraph serves to prove a specific claim, and that your paper has an overall logical flow.
Title your paper. Titles should be both catchy, drawing in a reader, and informative, giving them a clue as to the aims of your paper.
Essay #2 Pre-Draft Assignment
Due Monday, March 6
1. Locate two primary source materials, or one primary and one secondary source.
2. Submit an annotated bibliography of your source materials. If you have questions about what an annotated bibliography is, you might check the Cornell library website on the topic: www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm
3. In a paper of 1-2 pages, use one primary source to contextualize a scene from Basic Instinct. Then answer the following:
What aspect of the scene are you contextualizing?
How does the information available in your primary source give you a fuller understanding of that aspect?
How does the scene unexpectedly diverge from the information in your primary source?
Does your source set up some problem or debate which the film is taking up or resolving?
How does the information change your reading of the scene?
Essay #2 Draft
Due Monday, March 13
Bring 3 (three) copies to class (for myself and the members of your peer review)
Draft Cover Letter
Please write a letter, addressed to your readers, in which you answer the following questions and present any other concerns that you have. This letter should be typed and should be about three-quarters to a full page long. Attach it to the front of your essay.
What do you see as your thesis or main idea?
What do you see as your motive? (Remember, your motive is your intellectual reason for writing the essay, the reason the argument needs to be made and thus read. Its signal word is “but” or “however.”)
What are the biggest problems you’re having at this point in the writing process? What you done most successfully?
What’s the number one question about your essay—its thesis, structure, use of evidence, persuasiveness, style, and so on—that you’d like your reader(s) to answer for you?
When you revise, what’s the one “big” thing—something related to thesis, motive, or structure—that you intend to change? How will you change it?
Essay #2 Peer Review
Due Wednesday, March 15
Bring two (2) copies to class per draft you have read (for myself and the author)
As you carefully read and re-read each essay:
Draw a squiggly line under awkwardly expressed sentences and phrases whose meanings are unclear.
Write marginal notes to the writer on anything that puzzles you explaining why.
Label the topic of each paragraph; if you can’t determine the topic, put a question mark.
2. After re-reading, write a letter in which you address these questions:
Thesis and Motive. What’s the essay’s thesis, or controlling idea? How compelling (original and non-obvious) is the thesis? What’s the motive (its “so what,” or reason for needing to be written)? State each in your own words (try not to use the writer’s language). If thesis and motive aren’t clear, let the writer know!
Evaluate the introduction. Does it invite you into the essay with an effective opener? Are context, motive, and thesis clear and effective? What could the writer do to improve the intro?
Topic Sentences. Do any of the topic sentences fail to capture the major idea of their paragraph? In those cases, is the paragraph about something else or something more elaborate, in your opinion, or is there more than one major idea in the paragraph?
In the cover letter, the writer has asked one or more questions. What answers do you have to offer?
Essay #2 Revision
Due Friday, March 24 in my Rabb mailbox by 5pm
Revision Cover Letter
Please write a one-page letter, addressed to me, in which you discuss your revision. Be sure to state your thesis and motive. |