Taking Notes, Citation

 

Taking Notes:

Take notes during screenings.  Take notes every time, and get in the habit of taking notes compulsively as you watch films.  I know, it’s dark and you can’t see—you think you can’t take notes.  You can.  Get a big yellow legal pad and scrawl crudely whenever you see an unusual camera angle or lighting scheme, or when an actor says a line that seems to speak to larger social, historical or political issues.  

 

The real challenge to note taking isn’t the lack of illumination—it’s that the films we watch are really interesting and engaging. It’s easy to get caught up in them—and forget about taking notes.  Resist this urge.  The more interesting the scene, the more you should be taking notes. Eventually you’ll learn how to watch and enjoy, but also keep a critical eye and mind.

 

Citing:

Students often want to know how to cite the books and articles we’re reading in class.  As a general rule in college classes, you don’t need to use footnotes, endnotes or a bibliography for short papers (often longer papers, 10-12 pp. or more, do carry an expectation that there will be more formal citation).  For the readings assigned in class, it’s perfectly fine to give the title (or a short version of the title), and a page number.  For example,

 

Bondanella notes that Cabiria is “the acknowledged masterpiece of Italian silent costume film” (Italian Cinema, 3), going on to argue that this was due in part to high production values, such as specially commissioned music (4), but also technical innovation, such as the invention of the dolly (4).

 

You can do that because we’re all using the same edition of the same books.  If you wanted to use a quote from another work, something that isn’t part of the class reading list, you’d need to give a more full citation (like this:  Todd McGowan, The End of Dissatisfaction? (New York: SUNY University Press, 2004), p 238).  But why would you do that?  You only have 6-7 pages to make your argument, so you’re better off sticking to the texts you have to discuss, and discussing them in depth, rather than spending time on texts that you don’t have to discuss!