My Primary Source is of the official trailer for the movie Gladiator. It runs around a minute and a half long.
The secondary sources I plan on using thus far are a movie review about the movie, the book "The Colosseum" by Keith Hopkins and Mary Beard, and some journal article I still am yet to find.
Using these sources to expand my Primary Source Analysis should be fairly simple. I believe my PSA had too many different views of how the trailer portrayed/delivered different things, and with these SSA pieces I believe I can narrow down on what I think the trailer is really saying/how it's saying it. The novel I chose should help me understand what the colloseums of that day mean in todays age. Also, the review should give me ideas of how some other individual saw the trailer, and further my understanding of what was shown. In the end, I should have a more concrete idea of what I think the reader should see in the trailer.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Claims, Evidence, and So Much More...
Claims and evidence are essentially two different things; however, they are very inter-related. In order to have convincing claims, you must have convincing evidence. Without sufficient evidence, how can you prove to someone that the way you view something is the right way? Honestly, you can't. Not without sufficient, reliable, and accurate evidence that the reader can understand. On the other end, stating a bunch of evidence, but not using it to come to some abstract claim, is irrelivant. You don't want to go in depth about some obvious answer to the question at hand. Thus we have the relationship between claims and evidence, where you can't really have one without the other.
This relationship is important because often times in writing we are trying to convince someone that our view is best. We can't convince someone of this without supporting evidence that is bold enough to swipe a readers attention, and pull them in. Also, if we just make some open ended claim, we might be walking the line between 'claims' and 'unsubstantiated claims', two very different things. Unsubstantiated claims lack that convincing/bold evidence that sets the two apart.
Applying these concepts to academic writing will be a crucial step in my writing this year. In regards to our secondary source analysis, painting the picture between evidence and claims will play a huge role. Thus far, I've come to conclude that we are supposed to "pick a side"(although there are countless sides) during this analysis, and make some claim. If I just stated a claim based on just my primary source analysis, things might not look so convincing. Evidence is the key, but not just any evidence. I need to write more about less, and convince these readers that my claim is the best possible claim. Sufficient evidence will drive this force, and put my plan into action.
This relationship is important because often times in writing we are trying to convince someone that our view is best. We can't convince someone of this without supporting evidence that is bold enough to swipe a readers attention, and pull them in. Also, if we just make some open ended claim, we might be walking the line between 'claims' and 'unsubstantiated claims', two very different things. Unsubstantiated claims lack that convincing/bold evidence that sets the two apart.
Applying these concepts to academic writing will be a crucial step in my writing this year. In regards to our secondary source analysis, painting the picture between evidence and claims will play a huge role. Thus far, I've come to conclude that we are supposed to "pick a side"(although there are countless sides) during this analysis, and make some claim. If I just stated a claim based on just my primary source analysis, things might not look so convincing. Evidence is the key, but not just any evidence. I need to write more about less, and convince these readers that my claim is the best possible claim. Sufficient evidence will drive this force, and put my plan into action.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Primary Source Summary
The primary source I have chosen is the official Gladiator movie trailer. The trailer gives the main parts of the story, as a General in the Roman empire is made a slave. Then he is made a Gladiator, or someone who fights in the Colosseum. And finally, he defies an empire, as one would assume, he fights the power that was stripped from him (one would guess based on just the trailer). We are told that Russel Crow's character 'Maximus' has his wife and son murdered. We assume this happened because of the Emperor, as Maximus is walking towards him with a terrifying glare, and tells us/him he is the husband of a murdered wife, and the father of a murdered son.
The music in the trailer sounds very adventurous, but also angry and complex. It sounds like the way Maximus looks to be feeling. When the people cheer and the music goes silence, that seems to be an important part of the trailer. Obviously the people turn to Maximus's side sometime during all these events. The feeling I got from the trailer was one of defiance, anger, and hope. All very different feelings, so the director of this trailer clearly knew what they were doing. Another sense I got from watching this was the whole...rooting for the under-dog thing. This small, insignificant gladiator, seems to capture the gaze of an entire population, and get them to cheer his name. This is not something that would ever go on ignored. The trailer has a very dense foundation. One that I look forward to picking apart and analyzing.
The music in the trailer sounds very adventurous, but also angry and complex. It sounds like the way Maximus looks to be feeling. When the people cheer and the music goes silence, that seems to be an important part of the trailer. Obviously the people turn to Maximus's side sometime during all these events. The feeling I got from the trailer was one of defiance, anger, and hope. All very different feelings, so the director of this trailer clearly knew what they were doing. Another sense I got from watching this was the whole...rooting for the under-dog thing. This small, insignificant gladiator, seems to capture the gaze of an entire population, and get them to cheer his name. This is not something that would ever go on ignored. The trailer has a very dense foundation. One that I look forward to picking apart and analyzing.
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