The Farewell, take notes for the Notes on the Elements assignment
A rhetorical analysis does not criticize or summarize a movie. That is the job of movie critics and reviewers. The job of someone writing a rhetorical analysis of a movie is to be like a scientist or objective observer who explains how the movie “moved.”
Read this websiteLinks to an external site. to differentiate between summary and analysis
Organize the Elements and Write
Begin your paper by identifying the movie and the director, and the main idea or plot in a short paragraph. This introduces the reader to the subject of your rhetorical analysis.
Use these questions to guide your analysis:
How does it work?
What does it mean?
Why is it significant?
Let your notes from the Notes on the Elements assignments provide you with vocabulary for this assignment. The elements can inform your analysis – for example, when writing about the first analytical question, “how does it work” – you could talk about the “level of conflict” and how the characters illustrate this.
Avoid just transferring your answers to the Notes assignment to this – use them as support, but this must be in essay form with an introductory paragraph that provides a thesis and a brief overview of the essay (see Writing Introductory ParagraphsLinks to an external site.), followed by the body of your essay, which should be organized thematically using the three questions noted above.
Proofread carefully to make sure that you are not summarizing or reviewing the movie. For assistance with clarifying the difference between analysis and summary, visit Analysis vs. SummaryLinks to an external site.. You should describe the movie’s elements and why they were used. You should not make value judgments of the movie’s quality or recite the plot. Avoid repeating yourself – if an element such as setting serves to answer more than one analytical question, it should have different reasons why.
Use Grammarly and/or the EOU writing center to get feedback on your paper – submit a polished, proofread paper, following the Document Formatting Requirements.
