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midterm.md
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# Midterm Paper
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## Analytical Summary
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**Due March 1, 2024, by 11:59pm.**
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Upload the paper to the #work channel on our Matrix chat.
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### Formal parameters
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* Formatted according to standard manuscript style, according to the _Chicago Manual of Style_:
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- Double-spaced
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- Sans-serif font, 12 pt.
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- Ragged-left (not full justification)
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- Chicago style footnotes (MLA is acceptable)
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- Page numbers, plus headers with author & title
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* Between 1,500 and 2,000 words
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- I will stop reading at 2,500 words
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- This word count does *not* include notes
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NB: You can access the Chicago manual [here](https://www-chicagomanualofstyle-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/book/ed17/frontmatter/toc.html).
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### Prompt
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Select one (1) essay from [_The Oxford Handbook of Film Theory_, ed. Kyle Stevens (OUP, 2022)](https://academic-oup-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/edited-volume/44429).
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You should be the sole student who has selected this essay.
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Write an analytical summary of this essay, answering the following questions:
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* What is the argument this essay makes?
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* How does the author situate its argument in the field?
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* What are the _questions_ and _problems_ this essay poses?
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* What is the archive/what are the cases this essay convenes?
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* How does the author make the argument?
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* What does the argument help you understand?
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* What does the argument help you think?
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* What is new in this argument? (To you, to the field...)
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* What are the limitations of the argument?
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* What is your sense of the importance of this argument for film theorists in 2024 and beyond?
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You need not answer these questions step-by-step, and you need not address all of them explicitly.
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Instead, you should write this as a helpful guide to a reader who is (literally and actually) a fellow MA student at the University of Toronto who may want to work with this essay as part of their research.
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### Stylistic considerations
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This essay should, in the first instance, be an aid to understanding for somebody else.
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That means it should _clarify_, and thus be written with as little indirection as you can muster.
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To the extent that you can (and these will be clarified in our writing workshop):
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* Write short sentences
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* Put subjects and verbs next to each other
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* Develop clear and cosistent characters and themes
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* Repetition is not the enemy
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* Use the first person pronoun judiciously
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In addition, while this is not a research or argumentative essay (and thus will likely not develop its own questions and problems), be as explicit as you can be about the questions and problems (à la Booth & co.) the essay poses in its own terms.
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In other words, your task here is to track the posing and development of questions and problems in another scholar's essay.
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(You will use your newfound abilities to talk about, describe, and track questions and problems to help you pose your own in your final research paper.)
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You should bring your own concerns and insights into this essay, and do so specifically with news that you want to share with your colleagues.
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The piece of writing I've published that is closest in form and style to this paper is ["Faith in Abstraction."](https://www.provocationsbooks.com/2020/02/14/faith-in-abstraction-a-response-to-scott-fergusons-declarations-of-dependence/)
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It's longer and more in command of a variety of fields than I expect you to be, but it's a good working model where the questions articulated above are worked through in something other than a paint-by-numbers approach.
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It's also perhaps, a bit more "book review"-ish than you may wish to be; I'm not sure you'll want to call your essay "preposterous."
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Your taste is your own business; we do, however, want your judgment.
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### Evaluation and marking
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I will not offer a formal rubric for graduate students, since evaluation at this level ought to be more holistic.
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However, I tend to evaluate across three categories:
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* Style and clarity
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* Technical argumentation and correctness
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* Conceptual sophistication and ambition
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(If we were reading films, I would also include analytical verve.)
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Mid-term papers are worth 25% of your final mark.
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Marks will be on a letter scale.
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I mostly don't believe in A+es.
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In graduate school, B-level marks are cause for concern.
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A mark of B- or below is cause for grave concern, and looks like a failing mark.
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### Other details
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* I will mark your paper within two weeks of submission.
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* I will offer written comments if you submit your paper before April 1.
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* There is no late penalty, but if you're more than 10 days late with your paper, I will expect you to have a meeting with me.
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