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Professor Grupp, IUN,

Film Writing Assignment for Buddhist Philosophy

 

We will watch one of these films for your film assignment:

Truman Show        Solaris        I ♥ Huckabees

Powder        KPAX        Sling Blade        Siddhartha

You will have to write a 4 page paper about the film you saw in class, according to the following rules.

In this writing assignment, I assume you have the task of writing well down by now (due to your midterms), and I merely assume you will write with extreme quality on this assignment. For that reason, I am concerned with other issues on this assignment, in addition to excellent writing. What I want you to do is to think as deeply as possible about the philosophical topics from the semester in writing about the film. The more you contemplate the deep issues of the class for this writing assignment, the better you will do.

Here are some more specific instructions:

 

1. Paper writing rules:

bulletMust be 4 double-space pages, 12 pt. font.
bulletWell written, perhaps in the same technique as I taught you for the tests
bulletSpecifically, what you do is: find an issue or issues in the film that you think are interesting and are relevant to the class, and you are to expand on them by giving your position: specifically what is your issue you are pointing out, why you think they are important, what impact they have one people, what the ramifications are on your life, why is it an important issue in bioethics,  etc.
bulletThe more deep thought and contemplation you show, and the more connections you draw to the issues in the film and in our class, the better your grade will be.

 

2. For your paper assignment, keep the following in mind:

bulletThe paper is due  at the time that our final exam is due, but can be turned in any time before that.
bulletMake sure you are not plagiarizing, and all your ideas are really really just yours ONLY
bulletIn giving your position, make sure you don't write endlessly like this:
bullet"I liked the movie because it was very thought provoking, and it made me think about the issues, and really made me see the light. I can't believe all the interesting things it pointed out and how I did not know them..."
bulletInstead, find your position, and really clarify it, and why you hold it on the issue you've chosen, and write it in the way I showed you for your midterms:
bullet"I hold position x because it seems to be correct for reasons a, b and c. I will next fully clarify what are involved with a, b, and. c.
 

3. You can choose a topic to write on from the film. There were a zillion. Here are some of them:

bulletTBA (these will probably be given in class)