Learning Goal: I’m working on a english writing question and need the explanation and answer to help me learn.
Paper 1: Analysis of a Music Video
2-3 pages
You do not need citations/footnotes for this paper
For this paper, you are going to choose a music video and discuss how it communicates its message to the viewer, what is the relationship of the words to the visuals and is it successful at what it is trying to say.
1. Pick a music video that tells a story as this will be the easiest to work with. Try to find one that has a message or addresses a societal issue. This will enable you to talk about it within a larger context and to evaluate its efficacy.
2. To start, give a brief synopsis of what your video is about (its content) as well as a bit about what you see. For example, where is it set? Is there a lot of light or is it dark? Who are the characters that are portrayed?
3. Decide what you want to talk about in your paper. To do this, you need a thesis statement (we are going to be talking more about these as the course goes on). An example would be as follows:
In this paper, I will discuss how Madonna uses her song, Like a Prayer to highlight the notion of racial profiling by the police. I will do this by examining both the storyline as well as the symbolism used in the video.
You would then go on to explain what happened in the video (the background story) and to pick out specific symbols (for example, the burning cross) that stand for the idea of racism and inequality.
4. Make sure that the connections between your claims and your evidence are explicit. You can, for example, describe visual elements, dialogue, lighting, camera angles, etc., that you feel helps the artist get the message through.
5. I would suggest that you write your essay by going through the video point by point. You do not need to mention everything that happens in it, but do pick out what you feel the most important parts are and discuss each one of those in a separate paragraph.
6. End your paper with a conclusion that brings what you have written together and that makes a point that specifically relates back to your thesis statement.
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