Course Recap for Thursday, October 13, 2016

Song Analysis

We analyzed a few songs together.  We looked at how the lyrics, the music, the time period the song was written, the background of the artist, etc all can be used to help us determine the meaning of the song.  The two things I want you to keep in mind as you choose your own songs is the fact that a set of lyrics can mean different things to different people depending on who's listening and to pick songs where some of the lyrics are up for interpretation.

Homework

• Outline for Movie of your choice.  Check out the Sample Analysis Outline. Due Tues 10/18 in class
• Read Sonny's Blues (underneath Class Documents) Due Tues 10/18 in class
• Outline for Song of your choice Due Thurs 10/20 in class
• Read The All-Girl Football Team and Virgins Due Thurs 10/20 in class

Course Recap for Tuesday, October 11, 2016

How to Determine a Good Thesis

Your thesis is the most important part of your paper.  It gives your paper structure.  Determining what the thesis of your analysis paper is will help you determine what details from the piece you should include in your paper and which ones to exclude.  I had you guys answer several questions about the movies you are thinking of analyzing.

1. What are the larger issues or topics your piece talks about?  For Carrie this would include bullying, religion, abuse, sexuality, high school, etc.  Then I asked you to ask what you feel the piece says about those topics? For Carrie I could say that the piece talks about how bullying can turn people into monsters or that sexuality especially in women is a bad thing.  These would be potential theses for an analysis of Carrie.
2. Next I asked you to consider the type of conflict you have.  There are 5 archetypal conflicts that are usually present in most stories. Man vs Man, Man vs Self, Man vs Nature, Man vs Technology, Man vs Society.  Determine which of the conflicts you have. Then think about who wins the conflict and why, what does that say about that thing?  For instance, nature wins in Titanic, why?  Because humans underestimated it.  They thought they built something indestructible but nothing is indestructible. Or in Carrie we have man vs man and everyone loses, why?  Maybe because everyone who refuses to stand up to bullying is just as complicit as the bullies and so everyone suffers in the end.
3. Next think about how the societal descriptors like race, class, gender, sexuality for the characters in your movie and how they may affect your character and the piece.  In Carrie, Carrie's religious background and her gender has an effect on the piece.  A potential theme could be how these things affect her.
4. How does the history surrounding the piece affect your interpretation of it?  What real life events might the piece be influenced by?  The feminist movement was hitting it's stride in the 70s when Carrie was released, and so it is pretty significant that de Palma made a movie with a mostly-female cast where just about every woman is crazy.
5. Know your director.  Know who they are and know some of their other work.  Sometimes a good way to find a theme is to spot the reoccurring images or themes throughout their body of work.  If nothing else, this information can provide you with good background  info that you can use to support whatever your thesis is.

Course Recap for Thursday, October 6, 2016

Analysis of Carrie

When analyzing a piece, one of the things that helps us establish the message is examining the patterns that we see in the piece. What things do we see being repeated over and over and what do those things mean?  What message is being sent intentionally or unintentionally by the repetition of these images and ideas?

In a movie, another thing to pay attention to is who in the movie is successful and who in the movie fails.  What is the difference between those who get what they want and those who don't?

Homework

• Read Cult Movie Review: Carrie by John Kenneth Muir and Horror, Femininity, and Carrie's Monstrous Puberty by Shelley Stamp Lindsey.  As you're reading these articles, take notes on the different themes these writers saw in the movie Carrie.  What did they feel the movie had to say about the world, about high school, about womanhood, and any other topics the movie addresses?  Also make note of what things from the movie they believe help illustrate these themes. (The Horror, Femininity, and Carrie's Puberty is a VERY dense piece.  Please give yourself enough time to parse through it.  The intro in particular can be a bit hard to understand but it becomes less so as you continue.  Do not give up.  Summarize it the best that you can.) Due Tuesday October 11 in class
• If you could analyze two movies for your next paper, which movies would they be?  Have them in mind when you come to class Tuesday.

Course Recap for Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Grammar
At the beginning of class, we went over a few grammatical rules.  You can find further information about these rules in your EasyWriter book.  Here however are a few quick and easy things to keep in mind.

• Whatever tense you start your paper in (past, present, or future), you need to stay in that tense.  Check your verbs and make sure you are consistent.
• Whenever you start a sentence with an -ing verb, a subordinating conjunction (because, before, after, when, since, etc), or prepositions (in, on, over, under, etc), you'll need a comma.  
• Avoid starting sentences with FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So)
• If there is a complete sentence on either side of a FANBOY, you need a comma.  
• Semicolons separate complete sentences only.
• Indent first lines of paragraphs.
• Make sure your paper is formatted correctly.

We also started the movie Carrie which we will be completing on Thursday and discussing as we head into the second project

Homework

• Review the following pages in your EasyWriter if you know you need a brush-up on certain grammatical issues.  Sentence Fragments: pg 90-92, Comma Splices and Fused Sentences: pg 87-89, Commas pg 110-118, Semicolons pg 119-120, and Tense Shifts pg 105
• Extra Credit:  Go to bedfordstmartins.com/easy and use the access code in your EasyWriter book to access an instructorless course.  Do the Exercises and Learning Curve Adaptive Quizzes that correspond with one or more of the above issues (Commas, Tense Shifts, etc)  Record your answers to the questions on a sheet of paper or on a Google Doc. Due Thursday Oct 6 in class
• Continue revising your narratives.  Final Drafts of Both Narratives Due Thursday Oct 6 by the time class starts. (If you are going to take your paper to The Writing Center you need to make your appointment before class time on Thursday.)