Wednesday's quiz moved

Those of you who were going to have a quiz on Wednesday, you're in luck. I moved the quiz to Friday because you have a writing assignment due Wednesday.

I know, I know . . . (and other news)

I should probably post that glossary of film terms for you to study, right? Right. I'm working on it now. It will be up later this evening. The test will most likely be a straightforward list of definitions requiring you to give the proper terminology. Simple.

There will be some additional homework (though some people still haven't given me their papers on Double Indemnity). You'll be writing a brief response piece on Psycho. After that, you'll be given an article about Psycho, and I'll ask you to respond to the film in light of it.

Important: For those of you who have no other English class this semester, you must give me immediately a draft of your yearbook blurb. The yearbook staff needs to have these.

I missed a few

If you didn't get the handout from me (I forgot to hand it out at the end of class on Wednesday), please see me.

Double Indemnity: The Assignment

When you've finished watching the film, read both Ebert's essay on the film as well as the Studlar essay I handout out in class. (The handout lacks an attribution: it's from Film Analysis: A Norton Reader, eds. Geiger and Rutsky.) The readings should provide you additional insight into the film while also giving you the chance to hear how two writers talk about it.

You're to write a reaction piece on the movie. It's not a review, per se, but a formal argumentative essay of approximately 500 words that analyzes your response to the movie by focusing on three scenes in the film. (Each body paragraph would deal with a particular scene.) You'll want to consider scenes that had an impact on you, scenes that are at the heart of why the film struck you and why the film is successful. You can use the Ebert and Studlar essays as touchstones and reference sources. You might refer to what they say and comment on it. Whether you merely reference them or directly quote them, you still have to cite them properly in the paper. I don't require a bibliography, so it's enough to write something like "(Ebert, p. xx)" or "(Studlar, p. xx)." Cite their ideas, don't plagiarize them.