Lars von Trier
Writing Assignments & Student Groups (Path 2)

"I think that these ideas about control and chaos stem from
my upbringing, which was unbelievably lax."
Lars von Trier, interview w/ Christian Braad Thomsen (1996)

composition guidelines / term paper conference / term paper / path 2 groups

General Composition Guidelines

• employ the same format: use a Times New Roman, 12-point font; double-space your text and alter all four margins to 1".
  
• deliver a structured argument: these assignments will not resemble personal journal entries, blog-style writing, or stream-of-consciousness reflections. Essays should be tightly organized, with main points logically ordered. The whole should be framed by a creative, short introduction and an engaging conclusion (do not wrap up by summarizing your main points).
• evince creativity: writing within the humanities is all about effective, persuasive argumentation, and not at all about giving the instructor the easiest, most obvious answer.
• pursue a narrowly argued, debatable thesis: your essays should move in a very specific direction. Do not attempt to touch on all tangentially related ideas.
• provide adequate evidence: use your own ideas, textual references (with MLA-style page citations), and--only when prompted--properly cited, relevant material from secondary sources. Whether I happen to agree with your thesis or not matters not at all--just ensure that it is sufficiently supported and logically, persuasively rendered.
• demonstrate familiarity with the assigned works: your essays should indicate intimate, comprehensive awareness of the literary and/or visual texts involved in your argument.
• evince polish: essays should show signs of careful revision.
• Marchbanks' Pet Peeves
  • when recounting events from a story, please use the present (not past) verb tense to bring the events to life; definitely do not switch back and forth between present and past verb tenses without good reason
  • avoid such vague, nondescript adjectives as the following, since they add nothing specific to your claim: "interesting," "amazing," "incredible," "fascinating," etc.
  • avoid references to yourself (no first-person singular pronouns); allow your claims to sell themselves to the reader
  • the titles of novels, plays, paintings, and films should be italicized; the titles of short stories, poems, and essays should be placed within quotation marks
  • always include the year of publication/release in parentheses following the first (and only first) mention of a given work's title
  • place the period following a quoted passage after the page citation in parentheses, not before the parentheses. By the same token, never place a comma at the end of a quoted passage unless the structure of the sentence demands one.
  • spell correctly all names (characters, authors, artists, etc.).
  • use "who" instead of "that" or "which} when referring to people
  • employ a hyphen between two adjectives working together as a single modifier of a noun
    

Term Paper Office Conference (5%)

Students will construct a 2-3 page outline of their argument which identifies a working thesis statement, each of their main points, and supporting claims and evidence. Outlines will be sent to Dr. M and those students in your group prior to the each Path 2 group's joint, 45-60 minute paper conference. Fifteen minutes will be allocated to discussion of each student's paper, during which time students will demonstrate their familiarity with not only their own argument but the two films in question. Go here to find, together, an available slot (look for the gray cells), and email me your group's preferred time. Be sure to show up on time, and actively, thoughtfully contribute to the discussion. Students who do not complete these requirements cannot turn in their term paper. Paper conferences will occur between Friday, Feb. 25 and Friday, Mar. 4.

Term Paper (20%)

Purpose: to determine whether the two films in question reach similar or disparate conclusions concerning a similar topic or theme
Audience: readers and viewers familiar with the works you consider
Writing foci: organization at the paragraph and essay level; convincing reasoning and evidence; appropriate diction

This assignment requires you to consider the ways in which the two films assigned to your Path 2 group engage one particular topic or theme. Do their individual approaches constitute a meeting of the minds, or do they differ widely in their agendas and conclusions? You must find some creative way of weaving these films together into a tightly organized, narrowly defined, debatable position--one which concludes that the two works either congrue or diverge. You may wrap your argument around one of the topical touchstones I used to pair your Path 2 groups film if you wish, but need not do so . . .

I recommend focusing your arguments around close interpretation of no more than two scenes per film, if that many. Be sure to--where appropriate--demonstrate your familiarity with the film techniques, concepts, and movements covered in The Rhetoric of Film. Screen captures of particular frames discussed in the paper must be included in an appendix at the end --before the Works Cited page--though neither will contribute towards the required 5-6 page length.

You are free to incorporate, briefly, other films studied this quarter; referencing additional works might help you set up your argument, create a powerful conclusion, or clarify various claims made throughout the essay. The essay should, however, focus its attention on the two films assigned to your group here. You may briefly employ secondary sources grounded in biography or history, or may pull from DVD supplemental material about the making of a film, but do not employ any literary criticism or film criticism: rely on your own interpretive skills.

Essays should be 4-6 pages in length, and follow MLA guidelines for formatting and creating appropriate citation entries in a separate Works Cited page. Provide time stamps (as parenthetical citations) for particular frames, shots, or scenes referenced in the essay.

The Highway (1977)
Poul Anker Bech

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu