Juan Monroy

Courses in Film, Television, and Media Studies at New York University

Guidelines for Written Work

The following guidelines will help you in acheiving a standard necessary for producing university-level research papers.

Take Your Time

Writing a first-class, university-level paper requires months of research and contemplation. You should not attempt to write a paper in a day or two. Writing does not simply involve finding facts and reporting them in your paper. You will need time to addreess possible counter arguments, consider contradictions in your argument, find nuances, and compose engaging prose. You will also need to proofread a hard copy to produce an error-free paper.

Investigative Method

Research involves the following steps: ask an informed question, formulate some possible results, gather relevant materials, test your data, and finally answer your research question. To some degree that method works for researching film and television.

Ask an Informed Question
For example: How and why did Canadian broadcasting policy shift from a public to a commercial system in the 1950s?
Gather Relevant Materials
Historical research involves two kinds of sources: primary sources generated by the event itself and secondary sources produced outside of the original context. The difference between these two lies with the assumption that historical conditions change, thus influencing people's perspectives and explanatory frameworks differently in one period versus another.
Test your Data
Once you have located your research materials, ask it some questions. What is it? What is its agenda and its bias? Be critical (see below). Also, consider some questions for yourself. How will you use this in your paper?
Report Your Findings
Your research paper is essentially a report on your research. To some extent, you will address the entire process but that should not be more than a 1-1½ pages of your paper, usually located at the beginning of your paper. Instead, a convincing explanation of your findings will constitute the majority of your paper.

Reporting Your Research

Describe
You should always introduce your research to your reader. What are you examining? What questions do you have initially? Why is your topic important? Never assume your reader has the same knowledge of your topic that you do.
Analyze
After you've described your topic and your research materials, you should analyze them. Here you move beyond answering simple questions, such as who, what, where. Focus instead on how and why. How does something occur? Why did something happen the way it did?
Be Critical
Being critical does not mean liking or not liking something, as a critic does. Being critical is being skeptical. Never take what your sources say at face value. Why is someone saying something? Does that party have something to gain? If so, consider that bias and keep in mind that having a bias doesn't make something false. Also, never be satisfied with your inital answer. Put your sources through a tough testing process: learn their biases, corroborate their facts, consider their purposes, examine its rhetorical strategies. Do this until you feel satisfied that you're actually producing an original report and not simply functioning as a stenographer.

Thesis Statement: Have an Argument

A research paper must have an argument. An argument is usually provocative because it provides your reader with a new, specific, and nuanced way of looking at your topic. An argument is not a polemic. You don't have to prove one side at the expense of another. This is not talk radio.

Your argument is best expressed through a thesis statement. A thesis statement should be one sentence in length and demonstrate causality. Sample thesis statements include:

The remainder of your paper should be focused on illustrating your argument. You will often have to reformulate your thesis statement throughout the writing of your paper. Don't worry: that's normal. The thesis statement is the most difficult, time-consuming, and revised sentence of your paper to write. It may also be the last sentence of your paper that actually you write.

Without an original, thoughtful and thought-provoking thesis statement, your paper will earn no grade higher than a B.

Properly Cite Your Sources

Research invariably depends on previous scholarship, and proper research protocol requires that you consistently cite your sources. Properly citing sources will enable others to duplicate and continue your research. Generally speaking, you should cite a source when you are stating something that is both:

To cite your sources, use one of the following systems:

For a more detailed explanation of these systems, consult Research and Documentation Online (Requires NYU NetID).

To facilitate collecting, arranging, and formatting your citations, you might consider using bibilographic management software. Two programs that run on your desktop or notebook computer are ProCite and EndNote. In addition, you may use RefWorks, which has a web interface and is available at no cost to current NYU students. These programs require some patience in learning to use, so I don't recommmend this for everyone.
For more information, see Bobst Library's page on Bibliographic Management Software.

Proper Typesetting

In Figure 1 below, you will see a sample cover page. Your cover page should include the following:

  1. An original title, set in boldface, a reasonably large type size, and centered, indicating its prominence as the principal heading.
  2. Your name, the course title, the term, and the due date for the assignment.
  3. Do not print a page number on the cover page.

Below, Figure 2 shows a generic page of your paper's body. Note the following:

  1. Indent the first line of a paragraph.
  2. Full justify your paragraphs and use a serif, proportional-space font.
  3. Decades do not have apostrophes (e.g., 1960s not 1960's).
  4. Indicate the author, especially when quoting.
  5. In-text parenthetical citations are formatted as follows: open parenthesis, author name, year if citing more than one work by an author, comma, page number(s), close parenthesis. The period always goes at the end of the sentence.
  6. Titles of major works (books, feature films, television series, legal cases) are emphasized, either set in italics or underlined.
  7. Number every page of your paper, except for the cover page. The first page of your body should be page 1. Page numbers may be either at the top or bottom of your page.

In Figure 3 below, you will see a works cited page.

  1. Title your Works Cited page. Other options for title include References, Bibliography, Sources, and Works Consulted.
  2. Unlike your body paragraphs, do not indent the first line of your citation, but indent each subsequent line (hanging indent).
  3. Number your pages and continue the numbering from the body of your paper.

Proper Spelling and Grammar

I won't go over any of these rules in detail because by the time you are in college, you should have a mastery of English spelling and grammar. If not, you have some remedial work to do.

Proper Tone

The following passages are from actual papers turned in to our class and my suggestions for rephrasing.
Keep it Professional
That said, Premiere Women in Hollywood, celebrity wankfest that it was, did seem to serve as a good segue for the vapidity that followed.
After
Premiere Women in Hollywood, a sycophantic celebration of Hollywood celebrities, was only the beginning of programming obsessed with personality.
Avoid Colloquial Expressions and Phrases
The timeslot is presumably a throw away for Nickelodeon.
After
The end of the daytime daypart is presumably a loss-leader for Nickelodeon's early fringe audience.
Beware of the Press Release
"ABC Family is the destination of choice for today's families, featuring a blend of original programming, acclaimed series, hit theatrical movies, and high-profile sports..."
After
ABC Family is, as their press kit boasts, "the destination of choice." During my viewing, however, I saw only repurposed programming from the Disney Channel.

Finally, Your Paper Should Have

An Introduction
Introduce your topic. What is it? What is its setting (time and place)? Who were the principle agents?
A Description of Research Materials or Data Set
What materials will you be using to discuss your topic? Will you be using primary sources, secondary sources, or a more desirable combination of the two? Why did you select those sources?
A Methodology
How will you be treating these sources in order to construct an argument?
A Thesis Statement
A thesis statement is the most important part of your paper. It is a one-sentence, causal statement that argues a specific point about your topic. See below for more specific guidelines.
A Conclusion
A conclusion is not merely a summation of what you've discussed. Part of your conclusion should summarize your paper. You should also try to make a small leap forward with your topic. Often, a good conclusion will be an introduction for a paper that has yet to be written.
A Works Cited / Bibliography
You will need to list your sources according to one of the approved citation systems you used.

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