Skip to Main Content
Rider University Libraries

CMP-125 (Titus, Spring 2021)

Hints

To get the most relevant results the quickest:

1. Put the name of your TV show or film in quotes and select SU Subject Terms.

 

  • For shows with one word or a common phrase, add "TV OR Television" on a second line to disambiguate from other novels or movies with the same name.
  • For films, add "movie OR film."

 

  • The case of "The Office" is a lot trickier, because words like "box office" and "television" often are subject headings. After looking at the results a bit, we find out one the subject headings for The Office is this:

  • In the MLA International Bibliography, the subjects are The Office (British television program) and The Office (American television program)

 

You can also use the Subject limiter on the left-hand menu to find the correct title of the show or film and limit your search. For example, the search for the film The Hours will still find movies that have more words  in it, like 127 Hours.

Search box 1: "the hours" in quotes AND second search box "film OR movie"

 

Opening and then expanding the Subject limiter with "Show More," you can see all the relevant films. There are two entries here, because some databases use the subject form "Hours, The (Film)" where others use "Hours" (Film). Choose all that apply.

Subject Limiter is expanded to list all topics. Hours, The (Film) (469) and Hours (Film) (45) are highlighted with red boxes.

 

2. To see more results, change the dropdown back to "Select a Field." This will find the name of your show in other fields besides the subject heading, such as in the title and the abstract, or in the table of contents of a book/ebook.

search box 1: sherlock, joined by AND; search box 2 television OR TV with OR capitalized

3. Use the categories on the side to limit your results. For example, you can limit to particular source types, such as "Academic Journals."

 

4. Also, search by broad topic in your selected media or genre.

 

Search box 1 contains femininity OR women OR sex roles OR gender roles AND second search box contains crime OR police OR cop AND third search box contains television OR TV. ORs are capitalized.

 

Library One Search will cross-search all the specialized and interdisciplinary databases that contain articles, reviews, and criticism on TV shows and film.

Related databases:

CMP 125 Essay 3: Lens Paper: Analysis of a Scholarly Article on Your Film/TV Series

Important Dates:

Monday, 3/22: Library Session with Professor Hofmann

Monday, 3/29: First Draft of Essay 3 Due

Monday, 4/5: Mid-Process Draft of Essay 3 Due

Wednesday, 4/7: Final Draft of Essay 3 Due to Canvas

Over the next few weeks, we will study the genre of the scholarly film and television analysis, situating it within the context of the TV miniseries Lost in Austen, and scholarly work surrounding that series. We will have written our response to Jessica Cox’s article “‘A Strange Post [Feminist] Moment’?”, which is a scholarly article about Lost in Austen.

Now it is time to turn our attention to the film/television series that we are analyzing this semester. The goal of this essay is to write a summary/response of one scholarly article about your chosen film/television series, and apply the writer’s ideas to 1-2 film/television episodes (can be either or both of the ones you have written about thus far). This is what we would call a lens essay, where you are applying one theory/argument to a larger context.

Here are the requirements for this essay:

  • An introduction that includes:
    • the title and author of your scholarly article (as well as where it was originally published)
    • the title of the film/television series you’re analyzing
    • the main idea of the article
    • how you see the main idea of the article applied to your chosen series (thesis)
  • A 1-2 paragraph summary of the article
    • This should adhere to the guidelines set out by the Bean article; I will be looking to see that you are including those elements
  • Application of the main ideas to your chosen film/television series.
    • Look at your thesis; identify the main elements of the article that you want to discuss in relation to your series that connect back to your thesis
    • Use specific textual evidence, from both the article and your series, in your discussion
  • A conclusion (1-2 paragraphs) that includes:
    • An evaluation of the scholarly article; to what extent does the argument set forth in the article work? What are its strengths, and what are its weaknesses? Overall, what value does this article have for you in your research?

I would also like to see you applying the film vocabulary we have been developing. Thus, I would like to see you apply at least three terms in your analysis:

  • Themes
  • Characters
  • Narrative
  • Point of View
  • Realism
  • Mise-en-scene

This paper should be 1250-1500 words, double-spaced, with proper headings and formatting as per MLA guidelines, and is required to include a Works Cited page (which does not count towards the word count—failure to include a Works Cited page will result in automatic 5 point deduction). Any questions about plagiarism, please see me or Courtney.