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The Assignment Analyze how your film represents an issue related to our course focus- the American Dream. Consider how aspects of the scene (or scenes) speak to this specific issue. Engage two essays to craft lenses that help you make an argument for the scene’s representation of this issue. Then, explain how the understanding of the scene changes once both lenses are applied. End your argument with a “So What” about how the scene adds important information to the audience’s understanding of the film or representation of the issue in cinema.     Strategies * Return to SA3 to consider how the film scene you’ve chosen represents an issue related to our course focus. Develop an insightful lens-based (pulling from the essays) claim about your scene, and make this your essay’s thesis statement. Review the textbook’s section on “Thesis Statements” for suggestions about how to make your claim stronger. * For your analysis paragraphs, choose representative, interesting, and complex filmic evidence from your scene. Apply “10 on 1” to the evidence you choose in order to say more about less. * Use “Tools for Visual Analysis” and “The Method” on the film scene(s) to make observations about specific, concrete details. In your analysis, be sure to make the implicit explicit. Ask, what does the use of cinematic details convey? This analysis will be the basis for your interpretive conclusions. * Once you’ve analyzed the details of the film scene(s) to make a claim about how you read it, apply a key concept from each author’s text to show how they help us better understand (interpret) what is happening in the film scene in relation to your specific issue. Each author’s lens should be explored in at least one paragraph, with at least one additional paragraph bringing together the ideas about the film scene(s) analysis from both lenses. * In your conclusion, reflect on the “so what” of this analysis. What does this “re-seeing” of the film scene(s) through the lens of ideas in the essay show us about the film as a whole in regard to its portrayal of your issue or topic?  Criteria for Evaluation 1. Is the argument informed and driven by ideas present in the chosen essays? Does the argument use a concept from the essay(s) as a lens to develop an interpretation of the film that goes beyond matching and summary? 2. Does the essay develop an insightful claim about how the film represents an issue related to our course focus? Does the essay draw interpretive conclusions by asking and answering “So What?” 3. Does the essay support its main points through analysis of specific filmic elements?  4. Does the essay exhibit clarity and coherence by staying focused on developing one controlling idea? Do its ideas progress logically through the use of transitions, attributive tags, and appropriate word choice? Does it adhere to MLA format and citation standards and contain few, if any, grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors?

Background:
Generally speaking, a research proposal “is a concise and coherent summary of your proposed research. It sets out the central issues or questions that you intend to address. It outlines the general area of study within which your research falls, referring to the current state of knowledge and any recent debates on the topic” (University of Birmingham). In this sense, you can think of your proposal as a very rough draft of an introductory paragraph- the paragraph that guides your essay. Keep in mind that during the process, there can and will be changes.   The proposal is a starting point.  As you research, select your articles and think about your paper, you might uncover something you did not think of earlier. 
Components of a Research Proposal:
The informal research proposal should include a discussion of your proposed topic, a rationale for studying this topic, and a tentative plan for how you will conduct the research. The proposal should be no less than 1 page and no more than 2 pages in length. It should include the following:
Introduction and Rationale: This is brief and general info about the subject/field/area in which you are exploring. Explain why you believe this particular issue is significant, or important for us to know. You want to explain here why this is something people should consider, know, learn more about, etc.
Background (Exigence) of the phenomenon, problem, movement, group, idea, etc. Explain who was impacted or affected by the topic. This may be related to our society socially, politically, and/or economically.
Research Question (if you have one at this point)
Methodology: How do you plan to pursue this inquiry? 
Requirements:
MLA/APA formatted document
Length: 300-500 words
Appropriate use of italics or quotations for text titles 
Appropriate use of parentheticals when applicable 

Introduction
The point of primary document-driven historical research is actually fairly simple: what does an artifact we can actually experience now tell us about how someone else experienced it in the past? The “stuff” of our experience becomes in small form of what the French historian, Pierre Nora refers to as a “place of memory”—a thing that becomes a symbolic connection of our experience to the past.
The focus of this project will be one of the following artifacts:
You may choose a food or meal that is important to your family (the artifact in this case will be a recipe, or an interview with someone who makes the dish, or a photograph of the meal being prepared). Now you need to figure out what larger familial, community, or cultural concerns it represents, and where it came from.
Another option is a household item or technology that was once part of your family’s everyday life but is no longer. This might be a piece of equipment or technology that is now obsolete—like an 8-track cassette player or an old-fashioned TV set or stereo, or a butter churn, or a potato ricer, or a wash board, or a corded phone, for instance. All of these items were once indispensable items in many homes, but newer technologies have replaced them.
Tracing a History
The big difference between working with primary sources vs. secondary sources is that tracing history from a primary source usually includes looking at objects that are intimately connected to a person who has somehow attached value to it. What you’re looking for is how that value became attached. What’s the story leading to that?
Think about the things that are important you, for instance the things to which you have the greatest emotional attachment: you probably already have a personal or family history connected with it. A game because you played it with siblings or friends. A song someone sang for you. A tool because someone taught you how to use it. A kind of food or recipe because someone you liked made it for you.
But such items also likely have a broader, community or cultural value. Maybe the game taught you coordination skills and numbers. Maybe the song has a long history and tells something about the culture whose people still sing it. Perhaps that tool was something necessary for harvesting crops or building furniture. Perhaps that recipe mattered because it was a way of celebrating a holiday or preparing fresh ingredients to last through the winter season.
Research
Once you identify your primary source (the artifact), you should decide on your remaining sources. You may include one additional primary source if you wish; this might involve an interview with a family member, or a photograph or letter.   Then, you will set about doing your secondary source workshop. You’ll need to learn about this object you have chosen, and you may need to search books, encyclopedias, and older newspapers to accomplish this.
You should use at least two secondary sources in this search, and should quote and/or summarize from both, with special attention to correct documentation.  
The Essay
The essay will trace the history and significance of this object in its own time, and that time may come up to the present, or not, depending on the object and whether it is still a part of your life.  
Technical requirements:
Length: About three pages, typed and double spaced. You should include a (reasonably sized) photograph of the object as part of your essay. Put it near the beginning, so that you can refer to it as necessary.
At least one primary source, and at least two secondary sources.
Thorough and correct MLA documentation.