INTRODUCTION: People often “like” or “dislike” a movie but cannot put their finger on exactly why. By reading movie and film reviews and critiques written by knowledgeable experts and scholars, we can learn why some movies are successful at accomplishing what they are trying to do while others are not.

ASSIGNMENT: For this research paper assignment, you will choose a commercial movie that you have seen at least once and with which you already are familiar. Then, you will research, find, and read several movie reviews / critiques of that film which you will summarize, paraphrase, and directly quote in your paper. You will use those reviews / critiques (along with their praises and criticisms) to evaluate just how well the movie fulfills what it sets out to do. Your final research paper must follow all instructions and adhere to all MLA guidelines for use of sources, avoiding plagiarism, presentation, format, etc.

REQUIREMENTS:
1) Your research paper must use no fewer than five, and no more than seven, movie reviews / critiques of your chosen film.
2) The Research Paper must be between four and six pages in length (no shorter, no longer).
3) It must include a Works Cited Page (NOT counted as one of the 4-6 pages).
4) It must adhere to all MLA guidelines.
5) In addition to the final draft, you will complete three assignments along the way (due dates TBA):
a) a one-half page Topic Statement:
This topic statement will help guide you in your research. It is a description of the movie you have chosen, what questions about it you are interested in answering, and a tentative plan for what you wish to look for or find in your research. The final product should be approximately one-half page in length (a little longer is ok, but you won’t need a full page).

b) An Annotated Bibliography:
An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents.  Each citation is followed  by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation.  The purpose of the annotation is to   inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.  Note that these are not    abstracts; abstracts are the purely descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal     articles or in periodical indexes.  Annotations are descriptive and critical; they expose the author’s point of     view, clarity and appropriateness of expression and authority.  You will use your annotated bibliography    of movie reviews you have researched to help you develop your ideas for your research paper.

c) a First Draft Self-Critique: You will submit your answers to the following questions when you finish your    initial draft:

1. What is your purpose in this paper? In other words, what specific idea or claim do you want your     readers to understand as a result of reading your paper?
2. What are the strengths of this paper? What are you pleased with, and why?
3. What difficulties did you face in responding to this assignment? How did you deal with them?
4. Self-Critique: Point out three aspects of your paper you feel need more work and why.

6) Any instance of plagiarism shall result in an automatic grade of 0 (zero) on the research paper.