1. No research. These papers require no outside sources other than the movie/literary work discussed. Do not consult any other outside materials. Any paper that has used an outside source will not be accepted and will thus earn a grade of zero for failure to follow the guidelines.

2. For both critical papers, you will be asked to choose a question to answer. The easiest thing to do is to take the question, turn it into an answer, and use that answer as the thesis statement for the entire paper. The thesis statement is the one statement that controls the entire work. Then, in the body, use support from the movie/literary work that supports and is directly related to your thesis statement.

3. A critical paper is not a plot summary. The plot should only be discussed in relation to the thesis statement. Avoid long sections of plot summary. Assume that your reader has read and is familiar with the work.

4. Your paper should be centered on a theme -- or, in other words, the writer's purpose for writing the story. What does the writer want the reader to see when reading the work, or what does the director want the viewer to see?

5. Hints to uncovering themes: look at the characters, especially. Look to see what the characters represent or what their purposes are. What kind of characters are they? Look at imagery. Look at a writer's philosophy.

6. The paper should be typed and double-spaced in a 12- or 10-point font, preferably Times, Geneva, Chicago, etc. Please don't use wild font sizes and types.

7. Every paper must have a title. The title should not merely be the title of the work -- it's been taken. For instance, if you write on the first movie, your title should not be "Frankenstein." I'm sorry, but Mary Shelley has already beaten you to that title. However, you can say something like "Death Imagery in Frankenstein."

8. On the first page, in the top left-hand corner, place these four components:

Your name
Bunnell
EN 202
Date

9. Your paper should follow the standard five-paragraph form hopefully learned in Composition I, albeit there doesn't have to be five paragraphs. But, you should have an introduction, a body (with the number of paragraphs dependent on your thesis), and a conclusion.

10. The introduction should be at least four or five sentences with a slow, general build-up to your thesis. Start off with some general statements and make a clear transition to your thesis or statement of purpose. Don't just dump your thesis statement on the reader.

11. Never, ever, say "This paper is going to be about . . . " or "I'm going to discuss. . . ."

12. For the most part, avoid "I" and "you." These papers should be written in the third person. "You" should only be used to actually refer to the reader -- not as a replacement for "a person" or "one."

13. When discussing literature, use present tense, but watch unnecessary tense switching: "Eliot wrote (past tense) Prufrock" but "In Prufrock, the main character faces (present tense) a world of inability."

14. Titles of individual poems and short stories are in "quotation marks," whereas titles of longer works such as poem collections and novels are either underlined or in Italics. However, your title of the paper should not be in quotation marks, in italics, or underlined. Leave it plain.

15. In the introduction, always make sure that the author's full name and the title of the work is mentioned very early and never assume that because the title is mentioned in your title that you don't need to mention the name of the work in the introduction. Also, make sure that when referring to the author, use the full name on first reference and the last name thereafter. You don't know the author personally, so don't call one by his or her first name.

16. In the body, use "evidence" from the work to support your assertion or thesis statement. Feel free to quote material as long as it supports your point, and never, ever, just dump a quote. Make sure that there is a build-up to your quotes. Longer quotes (five lines or more), should be separated and indented.

17. In the conclusion, sum up the entire paper, making sure to include no new evidence. The summary can be small, but make sure that there is a finite sentence which lets the reader know that the paper is, indeed, finished.

18. The papers will be graded on grammar and on presentation as well as on content. Do watch grammatical errors, and if you have problems, you might want to visit a writing tutor in Reneau. Use transitions as much as possible (next, then, in addition) to help with flow and watch flow in logic as well.