I have used B & T before (although Film History rather than Film
Art), but one book I found to be especially useful in terms of techniques
for essay writing is Bernard F. Dick, Anatomy of Film, NY, St.
Martin's Press (1990) 0-312-01991-2 (paperback). It includes an
appendix entitled 'Sample student paper' which will give students some
idea of what a 500 to 1,000 word piece on film criticism might look
like. My only caveat is that the paper (and the whole book) uses
American English spellings - where I taught they were not allowed in
assessed student work - but this will not be a problem at a US
institution...
The alternative, of course, is to give them bugger all, especially before
they do their very first piece of written work, in order to get an idea
of where people's strengths and weaknesses lie. In the very first
taught session of my MA course, Charles Barr showed us the opening reel
of THE LION HAS WINGS, then told us to write about it - anything we liked
- for half an hour afterwards. I think it would be fair to say that
all of us wrote very different things and that all of us found the
feedback a lot more useful than if we'd been given a structured essay
question.
I guess that such an approach might un-nerve an undergrad who is not a
film major, but the little darlings are allegedly at University to be
challenged, have their outlooks broadened &c. &c., not just to be
spoon fed with 'how to write a lit crit essay about films in six easy
lessons'.
L
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Leo Enticknap
Projection and Sound Engineer
City Screen Cinemas Ltd., London, UK
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