Cheat Sheet for PHIL 298 Film-Text Essay:

You can print and then work/write on this Cheat Sheet before the exam, and bring the printed copy with
you to the exam and consult it for guidance while wri>ng your exam essay. (No digital copies allowed in
the exam.) The boxes on the Cheat Sheet are designed to help you prepare and organize your essay in
accord with the essay instruc>ons and scoring criteria. There is also space on the back side of the page for
you to outline your essay. Nothing on this sheet will be graded.

1. Star>ng Point: Before you write or prac>ce any part of your essay, you need to back up and think
about what you want to write, and how. To begin this planning, pick a planning star*ng point. This
could be either (a) one of your submiHed Discussion Ideas or some other promising idea you had
about one of the films or texts, or (b) a specific argument from a text that we’ve discussed, or (c) a
philosophical topic iden>fied in one of the films or texts. In the box immediately below, state and
summarize your chosen star>ng point for planning:

2. Development: Next you should further develop your star>ng point, in ways that insigh.ully relate
the film & one or more corresponding texts. In the box below, summarize your plans for rela>ng the
film and text(s) in such ways:

3. Thesis: While developing your ideas, you should be working towards the ar>cula>on of a clear thesis
statement, as specified in the instruc>ons. All of your essay will revolve around this thesis statement.
Once you’ve zeroed in on your thesis statement, write it here.

4. Exposi>on: Once you’ve seHled on your thesis, you need to decide which views/arguments from the
film and texts you need to accurately summarize in your essay (in the Exposi>on) in order to then
clarify and defend your thesis. Use the box below to summarize one or more of these
views/arguments (from the film and/or texts) you’ll discuss:
5. Your Argument(s): You need to construct one or more main arguments you’ll use to defend your
thesis. You can but don’t have to use the explicit methods/formats for doing this that I oXen used in
class; in any case your arguments need to be clear and well-reasoned, and you should support the
premises. Use this box to begin this work.

6. Objec>on-Reply: Use this box to summarize the strongest objec>on that could be raised against your
argument(s) or thesis, and to outline how you’ll reply to this objec>on.

7. You can use the remainder of this space to outline your whole essay. Remember that one possible
method for organizing your essay is to divide it into the sec>ons indicated on the scoring rubric.