The seminar started looking at key words from last week. We were separated into groups and James went round the room and got a key word and definitions from each group.
We then looked at 'What is the point of abstract?'. Ab abstract is something existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence. An essay will start with an abstract therefore it is a good skill to have. When writing a 5000 -10000 word essay 250 - 500 words will be expected for an abstract which is 1 paragraph or 10 to 20 sentences. It is important to keep the start of the essay clear and concise, and interesting enough to make the reader want to continue.
We then looked at a short clip called; Withnail and I. Each group had to write a sentence about 20 seconds of the clip. My group had the 20 - 40 seconds part of the clip. My sentence was 'A character who hadn't slept in 60 hours was very annoyed and quite aggressive, with the smaller character attempting to calm him down over the washing of dishes.'
What I took from this task was that I should be able to summarise something in one sentence without any access. This is called clipped writing. When putting all of the sentences together from the group, there ended up being a paragraph to summarise the clip.
We then looked at Casablanca in regards to where the dialogue take us and whats revealed. It wasn't to fast and didn't drag and introduced a relationship between two characters. The whole character profile was described in one sentence 'In a cynical shell and inside a sentimentalist.' It involved a lot of content which creates intrigue leaving the viewer wanting to watch more. What I took from this is that it is the same with the start of an essay. Ask the correct questions for the reader and summarise what needs to be said in a clear and concise fashion as clipped writing does not mean in has to be inconsequential.
