Video Essay: MLA Citation Help

The Purdue Owl is the best place to go for help with citing other types of sources.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/09/

Here are some example citations for common types of video essay sources:

Music/Audio
AC/DC. "Highway to Hell." Highway to Hell. Atlantic Records, 1979. CD.

Personal Interviews
Schiffman, Roger. Personal Interview. 11 Nov. 2009.

*Furby inventor

Cuckoo's Nest Film Response **Optional**

For up to five points, you have the option of writing a response discussing one significant difference between the film and novel versions of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Video Essay Project Help and Hints

As you define and refine your topic and work to articulate your claim, focus on how best to communicate your message to your audience. The techniques employed by documentarians effectively manipulate images and music to enhance the emotional appeals of their arguments. What images and music will make your claim more convincing? Moreover, how can you weave the different media together to create a coherent, compelling argument? Many websites offer tips on all aspects of documentary making, but you should work with your group to limit the scope of your project to what you can reasonably accomplish before Nov. 18.

Morgan and the "McGurgles"

Morgan Spurlock's extreme diet demonstrates the hazards of consuming too much fast food. Since so much of the American diet contains processed, fatty items, obesity has become a significant, widespread epidemic. Does Spurlock's documentary effectively identify the problem and offer a solution? Is his experiment a valid one, and does he treat the issue fairly? Who is responsible for the negative health outcomes that fast food causes?

Spurlock uses an expository direct address in his documentary. How does this compare or contrast with Michael Moore's interactive approach? Which part of Supersize Me did you find most effective? Did one particular track (audio, visual or text) have a greater impact on you than the others?

Are there any issues that you would be willing to make sacrifices for as Spurlock did in making this film? What would you be willing to give up in order to make a difference for a cause that you support?

Advertising or Gender Essay

Using the pieces in Mirror on America as models, compose an essay that focuses on the way gender roles or advertising informs your daily life. You may choose something serious (impact of Barbie or unrealistic female body images on girls' self-esteem; impact of excessive commercialization on mental and physical health) or something lighter (differences between boys and girls; why funny commercials are so successful). Develop your discussion using specific details from your own personal experience/observations and at least one outside source (an article, research study, etc.). Use the following guidelines as you develop your paper:

• 500 - 1000 words (roughly 2 - 4 pages)


• clear, controlling thesis (refer to the 'Thesis Statement Basics' handout) in the introduction


• body paragraphs that support the thesis, develop the discussion with specific, supporting details, and link logically to the thesis


• engages at least one outside source (either supporting or refuting your claim)


• demonstrates mature diction and sentence structure


• demonstrates control over grammar, usage, and mechanics
  

Have a complete first draft completed by Thursday, Oct. 22.
A final, revised version of the paper is due Thursday, Oct. 29.

"Reptilian Hot Buttons" Ad Analysis

In The Persuaders, Clotaire Rapaille claims that consumers respond to unconscious cues that push "reptilian hot buttons" in our brain and bypass rational decision-making. Select an ad (from TV, print, radio, or the internet) and analyze its subrational content. What does the ad tell you about American culture in general and the target consumers in particular? What "reptilian hot buttons" does the ad push? Develop a short, well-reasoned essay that discusses your insights and present your findings to the class (you can either print or post on your group blog). You can find clips to many television commercials at advertisementave.com.

You also may find it helpful to consider Maslow's hierarchy in analyzing your ad's appeals to individual desires for fulfillment. Do you see any evidence in your ad for rational appeals to consumers?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

As you read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, consider the targets of Ken Kesey's narrative: the hospital, with its emasculating nurse and sadistic orderlies, stifles individual expression (read male urges) and renders the patients both figuratively and literally impotent. The novel's "Combine," an allegorical representation of the oppressive forces of conformity in Kesey's world, and its main enforcer, Nurse Ratched, systematically prey on the men's neuroses and alienate them from their own free-spirited natures.

The book has received much criticism (and been banned in many schools) for its apparent misogyny (the female characters are either castrating nurses or prostitutes) and racism (the African American orderlies are charicatured as cartoonishly sadistic "black boys"). Do you think such criticisms are fair? What challenges does having a narrator who is a paranoid schizophrenic, often divorced from reality, present for the reader?

After the novel won wide acclaim, Kesey became a cultural icon, traveling around the country in a bus with a group called the Merry Pranksters. How did the novel help usher in the cultural changes that defined the 1960's?