Essay Guidelines Each Unit Essay should be 1,000–1,500 words and fully address t

Essay Guidelines
Each Unit Essay should be 1,000–1,500 words and fully address the chosen topic for that Unit. Essays should be typewritten, double-spaced, properly punctuated, and correctly spelled. Students should draw their own conclusions and observations and not merely recite what someone else has written about the topic. Each essay should demonstrate thoughtfulness, originality, clarity, and general writing effectiveness and should include specific examples and quotations from the work(s) in question. This essay is an opportunity to react thoughtfully to material read and viewed.
Source citations are required for each Unit Essay: Andrew Spicer’s Film Noir MUST be a cited source as well as one additional source from the assigned course readings. Essay format and citations should conform to APA style guidelines (consistency is the key). All cited sources should be identified in text and at the end of the essay in a References section. Note: An abstract is not required.
Each essay must have a VERY SPECIFIC TITLE—it should include the name of the selected film or novel, a focused topic or theme, and one or more preview details related to the Essay’s specific area(s) of focus. Subtitles with a colon may help convey all these criteria.
WEAK: “Lighting in Double Indemnity” or “Femme Fatales in Film Noir”
STRONG: “Themes of Entrapment in the Lighting Motifs of Double Indemnity” or “Pandora, Cassandra, Eve, and Lilith: Variations on the Femme Fatale in Kiss Me Deadly”
Choose one of the following topics:
Film noir was directly influenced by the rise of hardboiled fiction published from the late 1920s through the 1940s. Identify, describe, and discuss the ways in which specific hardboiled elements of narration, scenes, pacing, and language contribute to one or more character portrayals in Cain’s novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. Make sure to integrate direct quotes from the novel to demonstrate and support key insights.
Examine Billy Wilder’s film Double Indemnity in terms of lighting or sound techniques (do not address both). Research and integrate information about the key artistic and/or technical traits of the specific lighting or sound technicians who worked on the film. Identify, describe, and discuss ways in which symbolic elements of lighting or sound design contribute to one or more character portrayals in the film.
Some course lecture video LINKS: