I have a project about Jean Luc Godard’s movie. Two paragraphs proposal are due tomorrow and 10 to 12 written pages are due in 10 days. The attachment should give you an idea about the proposal and the final paper.
The paper proposal should be no more than two pages total. Structurally, you can divide the proposal into two sections (or paragraphs). First, I want you to tell me what your topic is (the film or films you’re working on, the specific topic you’ll be exploring, etc.). Second, tell me why this topic interests you. Why did you choose this particular film (or films) to address the topic? What do you hope to learn from your study of Godard? Recall Sontag’s remarks about Godard’s films inviting a “theoretical treatment.” How will writing and thinking about Godard’s films help you to develop your own thoughts? Will your thoughts concern cinema? society? philosophy? Godard’s films exist to help us think. In your proposal, I want you to indicate exactly what you hope to think about “alongside” Godard’s work.
Finally, your paper proposal should include 3-4 bibliographic citations. The best way to generate a list of appropriate readings is to do a little bit of research. look in the index for the film(s) you’re writing on. Read those pages to get a sense of what the author has written about the film. Does the author’s perspective intersect with yours at all? Can the reading help you to think more about your chosen topic? As I indicated in class, you may also include assigned readings from D2L in your bibliography, if you feel they are appropriate for your topic.
You can also find quite a bit of information online. A keyword search on Google Books will turn up a number of scholarly sources, which you may (or may not) be able to read in “Preview” mode. I also recommend that you search on JSTOR and/or Project Muse for additional sources. Links to these and other databases can be found on the PSU library website:
http://library.pdx.edu/findit.html
I expect your citations to be in proper MLA or Chicago style format. Links to sites explaining proper citation formatting can also be found via the PSU library:
http://library.pdx.edu/citing_sources.html