WRIT 201 Final Essay Proposal Assignment

WRIT 201 Final Essay Proposal Assignment

WRIT 201 (S1)
Final Essay Proposal (10%)

For this assignment, you will draft a final essay proposal that outlines a specific, workable approach to one of the essay topics provided (a preliminary plan, in other words, for your final research essay). What (specific) question do you plan to explore? What scholarship already exists on this question? Where will your essay fit within this body of critical thought? How will your work build on and depart from the work of others? What argument do you plan to make? (Note: this is a working argument. It is expected that the argument presented in your final research essay will differ somewhat.)

Note: you may use (and are encouraged to use!) the two scholarly articles on the film that we will be reading for and discussing in class, Amelie Hastie’s “Vagaries of Memory, Verities of Form” and Kate J. Waites’ “Sarah Polley’s Documemoir Stories We Tell: The Refracted Subject.” It is not expected that you will do additional research.

The proposal should be 250 words in length.
All assignments should be typed (using 12 pt. font), double-spaced, and formatted according to

MLA style. (Your assignment does not need a title page.)
Assignments are due at the beginning of class on Monday, November 23rd.

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WRIT 201 Final Essay Proposal Assignment

Topics

When you undertake your research essay, you will respond to one of these questions using Stories We Tell as your primary source of evidence, but this assignment asks only that you research your question and assemble and evaluate that research. (You will find it helpful to briefly contextualize the film to help your reader understand your argument, but your main goal is to situate your argument within a scholarly conversation.) You will be graded on how successfully your assignment demonstrates the following skills:

1. 1)  identifying useful information and interpretations in relevant secondary sources and applying them to your essay topic,
2. 2)  writing critically about, and positioning your work in relation to, the arguments of other scholars, and
3. 3)  correctly quoting and documenting secondary sources using MLA style.

Remember that the topics below serve only as points of departure; your essay will need to define a narrower focus that draws on specific moments in the text.

Choose one of the following topics:

1. Approximately thirty-five minutes into Sarah Polley’s film Stories We Tell, her brother Johnny asks her, “What do you remember me saying? I trust you more than I do myself right now.” Write a short essay that discusses the film’s approach to memory.

2. Toward the end of Sarah Polley’s film Stories We Tell (approx. 1:27), the camera pulls back and reveals that many of the scenes presented up to that point as home movie footage have been staged, directed by Polley and populated with actors filling the roles of her mother, family, and loved ones. Later still (approx. 1:39), her father, when asked to redeliver a line of the narrative he’s reading for Polley, jokes, “I was being so real. Completely convinced myself!” Write a short essay that discusses the ways in which the film explores the idea of performance of the self.

3. Toward the end of Sarah Polley’s film The Stories We Tell (approx. 1:26), Polley’s brother Johnny asks her: “What would you say this documentary is about?” As Polley considers her answer, Johnny grows impatient and jokingly interrupts her, asking, “Is this a good angle for me?” Write a short essay that discusses the ways in which the film explores its characters’ impulses to place themselves at the center of the story.

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Stories We Tell is available to be streamed (for free) on the National Film Board website: https://www .nfb.ca/film/stories_we_tell/

WRIT 201 Final Essay Proposal Assignment

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