Hollywood on Hollywood

Order Instructions:

Subject: Common or parallel themes in TWO of the four viewed meta films (“Hollywood on Hollywood”)

As all of the films featured Hollywood examining itself, create a one-sentence thesis including a “three” (subpoints) about a theme common to at least TWO of the four viewed films.

Notice will be taken of those whose one-sentence thesis makes an argument about a theme encompassed by three of the four films.

First, remember that theme is not plot. (Do NOT find yourself telling the reader “and then…and then.”) A theme is the point of a story rendered as a generalization, some universalized “truth” about some aspect of the human condition.

Your thesis will be an argument — something not obvious but, rather, controvertible — about a theme.

Other things to remember:

Review the Cat Essay handout/lecture notes for basic structure. Note that 2 or 3 sub-subpoints within each of your “three” is a composition device that virtually guarantees tight composition as well as obviates the worry about word count.
Review the C-C-E-C model of literary analysis for how best to prove your “three” subpoints. The subpoints, sufficiently proved, will combine to “prove” your thesis as wel as be an analysis of the films.
Never belabor a plot (more appropriate to a film review). Merely mention or briefly outline plot elements as is essential to providing context for a reader. (See the C-C-E-C model; do each, in order, for each of your subpoints.) Your essay must always be proving your thesis, never retelling a story already told.
Use the language of film and literature analysis — never gratuitously (throwing film words around, which is easy to spot), but so as to call things by their proper name and adopt a scholarly attitude.

The conclusion should highlight and, in some way, reiterate your “three,” so as to demonstrate that your thesis has been proved. Don’t allow your conclusion to appear “cheap” — hurried, and full of mechanical errors — signaling that the writer is just trying to “finish.”
Consider rewriting or, at least, carefully re-editing your intro before submitting the essay. This is a respected composition technique. A good intro and conclusion are matched (but not identical) bookends to everything in between them.
Be sure MLA is correct. If you still don’t know how the titles of films are to be punctuated, look the MLA rule up.
Everything counts this time. You can do it. Just follow the steps. ( possible books Required): Ways In: Approaches to Reading and Writing about Literature and Film.
2003. 2nd ed. Muller, Williams. ISBN: 978-0072512908. (Used copies at Amazon.)
(Required): Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
1958. Truman Capote. (Used copies at Amazon.)
(Recommended): The New McGraw-Hill Handbook [English grammar handbook].
2010 (or 2008). Maimon,Peritz & Yancey. McGraw-Hill.