This paper involves responding critically to the film Did Yo…

Pre-writing for Paper 1: fact and opinion, isolating verbal from visual / aural rhetoric.

Paper 1 draft due via Canvas 2/18; conduct peer editing

Paper 1 final draft due 2/22 via Canvas, 11:59pm

This is the paper in which you will be analyzing the Travis Wilkerson documentary, Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun.

Here is the prompt, which is posted on Canvas:

This paper involves responding critically to the film Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? In the film, Travis Wilkerson describes his research into his own family history and how it intersects with the broader history of the American South.

In this paper, please identify one example of how Wilkersons personal stake in the project permits him to see or discover some element of the inquiry that a more objective investigator might have missed or ignored. Then, if you can, identify an aspect of the investigation that may have been more successfully examined by an investigator who was less personally invested that Wilkerson.

In both cases, you must communicate the facts as presented in the film; your understanding of how Wilkerson uses those facts; and how those facts impact his overall argument.

Your paper may include aspects of your own opinion. But it is more important that you point to concrete evidence as presented in the film.

Your paper should be 3-5 pp in length. Double-spaced, 1 margins. 12-point font.

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A few additional words about this assignment:

1) This first assignment is an extension of the final analytical paper you presumably wrote at the end of ENG 1301. The purpose here is to make a claim (or two related claims), and defend them with concrete evidence from the film.

2) This assignment is partly diagnostic. It allows me to see what skills we need to work on improving, and what skills we can expand on. So I am more interested in your process than in the product, per se.

3) This paper will also permit me to identify your own strengths and weaknesses, so I can help you improve before going forward. I tend to mark this paper more extensively than the later papers / projects, so that you can see what you need to improve on. But that heavy marking does not necessarily translate to a bad grade. It is just to help you see what you should focus on.

4) This is also our first peer editing paper, where you will read and comment on each other’s papers. This will help you understand what your goals should be in your own paper, and help you see what I am looking for as well. Peer review is helpful because you can often see things in your peers’ papers that I would not necessarily see in the same way.