Paper 1

Sean Allan
Fall 2007
English for Non-Majors


Paper 1: Film Summary and Analysis
Page requirement: 2-3 pages.
Secondary source requirement: Use at least one review of the film in your paper.

This paper will test your summary skills. You will need to describe, in clear and correct English, the key elements of a film: plot, character, style, etc. This will improve your ability to write economically (because you have to describe an entire film in just a few pages).
This paper will also test your ability to think intelligently about film. In addition to summary, the paper requires analysis. The analysis has to be more than your opinion as to whether the film is good or bad. You must explain the film’s strengths and weaknesses, and you must prove your ideas by using examples of dialogue and action from the film and using ideas that other film reviewers have written about the film. Your analysis can take many forms. You are free just to discuss in great detail why a film is good or bad technically and aesthetically; you could also use a more sophisticated approach—for example, you could talk about how a popular film is dangerous to its audience because it does not show the world as it truly is or people as they truly are.
The film can be in any language, but you are required to discuss the film in English and to translate any dialogue or movie review that you use into English.

A sample paper structure follows:
Introduction: The paper provides some background information about the film (the year that it was made, the director’s name, the lead actors, etc.). The introduction ends with a thesis statement, which tells the reader what the paper will argue about the film (e.g. “The film is entertaining because the action scenes are very well made.”)
Body 1: The paper describes the main characters and the plot of the film. The paper describes the film’s style, discussing one scene in the film or discussion some of the dialogue from the film.
Body 2: The paper provides evidence supporting its thesis statement. Here the writer will introduce more scene descriptions and dialogue selections from the film. The writer will also bring in a review of the film written by someone else as a way to make the writer’s own ideas more clear.
Conclusion: The paper looks at a larger issue related to the movie. For example, if the paper was written about an action film, the conclusion might discuss why it is important to discuss action films and why it is important for a movie audience to enjoy a good action film.

A note: When you discuss the plot of a film, write about the action in a film in the simple present tense, not the past tense. You shouldn’t write, “He then went to the store”; you should write, “He then goes to the store.”