Writing II: This is the End
Essay 2: Testing a Theory
Your second essay will be an analysis of a film (either Melancholia or Dr. Strangelove) that
demonstrates whether or not the film fits a definition of apocalyptic film offered by an expert (either
Conrad Ostwalt, Jr. or Jon R. Stone). Each of the critical essays we read offers a theory for
understanding apocalyptic films; you will test one of these theories against the evidence of the film
to show how the theory needs to be extended, modified, or replaced.
Pre-Draft Assignment:
This assignment asks you to pair one of the theories we’ve read and one of the films we’ve watched.
This first, informal assignment helps you to start thinking about the connection between the two.
Choose the theory you would like to write about and, first, briefly summarize that theory (in around
2-3 sentences). Then, with that theory in mind, choose a scene from the film you’re planning on
writing about. (The scene can be quite short; under one minute is best.) Rewatch the scene and then
freewrite about it for 15 minutes. Remember: freewriting means giving yourself permission to write
anything as long as you keep writing. You won’t share this freewriting, but you will look back over
it, choosing 2-3 salvagable ideas to develop in a one-page analysis of your chosen scene. (As you
develop your ideas, you should look back over the “How to Write About Film Handout” for tips
about how to be precise.)
This 2-3 sentence summary of your chosen theory plus a one-page (double-spaced) analysis of your
chosen scene is due to turnitin.com by 8AM on Saturday, March 1st. Use hour/minute timestamps
(instead of page numbers) to specify the scene you’re discussing (e.g., Dr. Strangelove 0:45).
(NOTE: this pre-draft assignment differs a bit from the description on the syllabus. The instructions
on this sheet are the ones to follow.)
Assignment:
Write a draft of Essay 1. Your essay should be about 5 pages long. Your draft may be a bit shorter,
but it should express your argument as clearly as possible and should have a clear beginning,
middle, and ending. Please use the MLA style of documentation. Your essay should be vividly
written in clear, economical prose, and like all good essays, it should attempt to provide readers
with a better (deeper, fuller) understanding of the text. Your essay may include additional outside
sources, but the focus should clearly be on the relationship between your chosen theory and chosen
film.
Your draft of Essay 1 is due on turnitin.com by 8AM on Saturday, March 8. We will schedule
draft conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday (March 11th and 12th).
Your revision of Essay 1 is due to turnitin.com by 8AM on Saturday, March 22nd.
Cover Sheet:
Each time you turn in a rough or final draft of an essay, you must provide a cover letter (one singlespaced page, addressed to your readers), in which you summarize your argument, let us know what
you value about what you’ve done in this draft (using specific examples), tell us what you think you
still need to work on, and (in the case of rough drafts) let us know what you would like us to help
you with. A thorough cover letter should be about a page long.
These are the things I’ll be looking out for in your second essay:

Thesis, Thesis, Thesis: Your thesis should be true but arguable (not obviously or patently true, but
one alternative among several), be limited enough in scope to be argued in a short composition and
with available evidence, and get to the heart of the text being analyzed. It should also govern the
whole essay.
For the purposes of this assignment, that means arguing something that goes beyond merely
saying “Yes, it fits the theory” or “No, it doesn’t fit the theory.” Instead, your essay should show
how your chosen film either extends or modifies the theory you begin with or, alternately, how it
offers a new theory of apocalyptic film that you can offer in the place of the theory you begin with.

Focus: The main purpose of the beginning is to focus your essay. By focus the essay, I mean making
clear to readers what question or problem is at the center of your essay, in this case, what strikes you
about the particular passage that you’ve chosen to concentrate on. The aim of academic argument is
a better understanding of the evidence, which assumes there is something to be understood,
something that needs explaining. Remember: your beginning tells your readers what you are going to
do in your essay and why it’s important to do it. (This is your motive.)

Evidence: the data—facts, examples, or details—that you refer to, quote, or summarize to support
your thesis. There needs to be enough evidence to be persuasive; it needs to be the right kind of
evidence to support the thesis (with no obvious pieces of evidence overlooked); it needs to be
sufficiently concrete for the reader to trust it (e.g. in textual analysis, it often helps to find one or two
key or representative passages to quote and focus on); and if summarized, it needs to be summarized
accurately and fairly.

Analysis: Present evidence from the text, and explain it. Merely presenting evidence is not enough to
make your thinking clear. You will also need to explain to readers how you see the evidence and to
think in writing about what it means. When you tell yourself and your readers how you interpret the
evidence, you enact the thinking that will lead both you and your readers toward your conclusion.
You make your thinking accessible.

Structure: the sequence of main sections or sub-topics, and the turning points between them. The
sections should follow a logical order, and the links in that order should be apparent to the reader
(see “stitching”). But it should also be a progressive order—should have a direction of development
or complication, not be simply a list or a series of restatements of the thesis (“Macbeth is ambitious:
he’s ambitious here; and he’s ambitious here; and he’s ambitions here, too; thus, Macbeth is
ambitious”). And the order should be supple enough to allow the writer to explore the topic, not just
hammer home a thesis. (If the essay is complex or long, its structure may be briefly announced or
hinted at after the thesis, in a road-map or plan sentence.)

Sources: persons or documents, referred to, summarized, or quoted, that help a writer demonstrate
the truth of his or her argument. They are typically sources of (a) factual information or data, (b)
opinions or interpretation on your topic, (c) comparable versions of the thing you are discussing, or
(d) applicable general concepts. Your sources need to be efficiently integrated and fairly
acknowledged by citation.