Reference no: EM132270316

Question: Movie Boyz n the Hood

1. Develop a thesis statement pertaining to the assigned film text and whether or not it, the film, in your view has the power to transform one's political sensibilities. Your argument should express your point of view regarding the politics of difference, political sensibilities, and political transformation(s) as related to the film. Remember, you're writing (developing) an analytical essay. Submit your thesis statement in the box located to the right. Be sure to proofread your work

2. Develop three (3) topic sentences that articulate the major ideas that will comprise the body of your essay. Remember that your topic sentences should clearly state the argument or point to be made in the respective paragraphs and must map back to your thesis statement. Submit your topic sentences in the box located to the right. Be sure to proofread your work

3. Identify three (3) scenes from the film that support your thesis statement. Briefly explain your choices of scenes and how the scenes specifically support your thesis statement. Also, provide the exact time the scenes begin and end within the film text. Submit your reply in the box located to the right. Be sure to proofread your work.

4. Lastly, fully develop your introductory paragraph. Remember that the best possible thesis will answer some specific question about the text. In this case a question related to the film's power to transform political sensibilities regarding difference. Your thesis statement should appear parenthetically within the paragraph you present. Submit your answer in the box located to the right. Be sure to proofread your work.

Dictionary definitions: Define key terms and concepts in your opening paragraph, but don't quote directly from the dictionary to do so. Use a dictionary - more than one dictionary - to formulate the definition in your own words.

Generalizations about "life," "society," "people today," etc.: You don't want to begin your essay with the kind of statement that teeters on that fine line between opinion (those ideas you will go on to prove) and belief (those ideas unprovable with the evidence offered by the text). Rather than a statement like, "Almost every man has a sense of pride and will go to war to prove it," try something more specific to the text you are analyzing. "The character of Roland exemplifies how personal pride and personal valor do not always lead to the most fortunate conclusion." The painfully obvious: Avoid opening statements like "Dante's Inferno is about a journey to hell," or "Roland is the hero of The Song of Roland," unless such statements are in some way controversial and challenging to traditional interpretations of the text. Try to avoid any kind of tautological formula - "something is something else" - in the opening sentence, especially, but also elsewhere as an "argument."

Try to distinguish between historical or biographical fact: "Dante's Inferno was written in fourteenth-century Italy," and interpretation, especially when you are considering the intention of an author: "Dante wrote his Inferno to expose the problem of Florentine political corruption to the world." The latter may be a part of your theory or thesis (or conclusion) but if you use it as a statement of fact (an "intentional fallacy") you will have to prove it rather than merely argue it - a slippery and difficult and perhaps not particularly useful task. Beware also of using vague or imprecise generalizations of terms such as "dramatic," "realistic," or "critical," which differ in their literary and historical significance.