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Evaluating Arguments in Documentary Film and TV News Shows
You will be evaluating a documentary, news or factual feature episode (of your choosing as long as it is not a fictional or dramatic film and is considered an authoritative source) that pertains in some way to one of your chosen topics for this course (Homelessness – Sacramento) in order to demonstrate your understanding of the rhetorical strategy of evaluation argumentation.
More specifically, you will be identifying and evaluating how effectively (or ineffectively) the filmmaker/director/producer uses logos, ethos and/or pathos as well as any other rhetorical tools in film/video to support their argument/position.
Choose StrategicallyA note regarding your choice of a documentary to evaluate for this assignment: Do yourself a favor and choose a documentary that is, at the very least, related to your Subject/Question at Issue from your Diagnostic or your Career Worksheet and that you have been continuing to develop in this course.
More DetailsYou are required to write a 3- to 5-page essay (a minimum of three FULL pages using MLA Formatting Guidelines), using the tools of effective argument to evaluate the film as an example of a contemporary argument. From your copious notes on the documentary you have chosen (see required Worksheets noted below), you should be able to develop an analysis of the film and determine the extent to which it presents an effective argument, based on the following:
Logos:Premises, either implicit or explicit, to support his/her positionChoices made by the filmmaker to SUPPORT these premises (facts, research, )Ethos:Tone of the filmmaker (editorial choices, music, film style, interviewing techniques, )Consider the filmmaker’s Authority in terms of his/her evidence:is the evidence sufficient?is the evidence typical?is the evidence consistently accurate?is the evidence relevant?Filmmaker’s use of convincing and authoritative outside authorities, experts in the subjectFilmmaker’s attempt to represent and refute opposition’s argumentsPathos:How does the filmmaker engage the viewer’s emotions?What underlying assumptions or implied premises are used to cause viewers to feel more sympathetic to the subject, even if they disagree with the argument?Is emotion used responsibly, or is it false or gratuitous?
Ultimately, the question you should answer in your evaluation is:Does the filmmaker present an effective/ineffective argument, and why is/isn’t it effective?
Of course, a key component is being able to articulate exactly what the filmmaker is arguing for–what exactly is their thesis? This is something you should clearly identify in your introduction paragraph so that you can in fact answer the question above in your thesis (i.e. “The director effectively demonstrates through the use of ethos, pathos and logos in her documentary that Americans should invest in elderly care programs.”).
Your goal in this essay is to create your own initial claim that asserts an argument about the filmmaker’s success or failure to persuade an audience to believe the filmmaker’s position/claims. You can agree/disagree with one of the filmmaker’s themes or show that the filmmaker has or hasn’t fully considered the problem and explain what the filmmaker does or should have focused on to be more successful. To illustrate the success or failure of their argument, you must illustrate how the filmmaker accomplishes (or does not accomplish) integrating logos, ethos, and pathos in presenting their argument.
You will build your own ethos as an evaluator of the documentary’s argument by:
Citing several specific examples from the film, including direct quotations when appropriate from the documentary (all of the Media Education Foundation videos have transcripts available, and if you are savvy enough, most YouTube videos have a captioning function that may allow you to select, copy and paste into a document).
Including at least ONE Secondary outside source that will support your evaluation of the documentary. Those secondary outside sources can be reviews of the film itself, articles on the subject of the film, others’ opinions about the topic that the film focuses on, etc. Always research using the library’s online databases first (i.e. Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) database, etc.) to find your sources, but otherwise strive for authoritative sources. We refer to this as a “secondary” source since the “primary” source is the film you are evaluating.
Primary Source (the Source You will be Evaluating)
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