Getting Started: How to put together your FREEWRITE

Hola Estudiantes,

Let's call this a "pre-writing activity:"

Before we start with the movie defintion essay, we will begin with a movie definition freewrite.

To begin with, all you need is these two things:

a.) A term to define ( everyone in the group will be defining the same term)

b.) A scene from a movie ( each group member could choose his/her own movie, or they could be different scenes from the same movie. Both ways work great!

Here are a few things you should consider when you write your paragraph:

a. Definition

b. Clarification

c. Cause and effect

d. Analogy

e. Intro (transisiton) to your scene

f. Character

g. Setting

h. Movie scene

i. Conclusion

Here is how I would go about it:

a. I chose the term “fear”

b. I chose a scene from the film “No Country For Old Men.”

I had fun with it. You will too. I mean, it’s free. Let yourself go. I’ll help you revise your paragraph into something beautiful on Wednesday. Like I said, try to go for 300 words.

1. Definition: Fear is the danger of not knowing what happens next.

2. Clarification: There is no one to tell you what to do. There is nothing to believe. Something is coming, and you have no control over it.

3. Cause and Effect: Your eyes widen. Your breathing shortens. The hair stands up on the back of your neck.

4. Analogy: It’s like you are a sitting duck.

5. Intro to your scene: In the movie, “No Country for Old Men,”

6. Character: Sherriff Tom Bell has no understanding for the psychotic nature of criminals today. He comes from a long line of Texas lawmen, but he realizes what he sees today is much different than what his father or grandfather saw. There is no logic or reason for all the killing. He wants to utilize his courage and experience, but how can you stop crime if you just can’t believe what you are seeing.

7. Setting: He works in a small town in South Texas where everyone knows each other. He eats pancakes and drinks coffee in the same restaurant every day. People call each other Sir and Maam. It doesn’t look that much different from the small towns we have seen in movies from the Fifties. That is, until the Narcotrafficantes come to town. Then, all the rules change.

8. Movie Scene Example: Early in the movie, Tom Bell has to investigate a murder scene on the outskirts of town. He arrives upon the scene where a drug deal has gone bad. Bullet-ridden, Pickup trucks are positioned in a circle. There are dead bodies everywhere. Even the dogs have been shot. It looks like a place straight out of hell. Tom Bell tell his deputy of a young boy who he had once arrested for murder and watched die in the electric chair. The newspapers had explained it was a crime of passion, but Tom Bell will never forget what the boy told him before was executed: “he tolt me there weren't nothin' passionate about it. Said he'd been fixin' to kill someone for as long as he could remember. Said if I let him out of there, he'd kill somebody again. Said he was goin' to hell. Reckoned he'd be there in about 15 minutes."

9. Conclusion: Tom Bell knew he soon would quit his job. The times were changing. He wasn’t a coward, but fear is not something you see or don’t see. It’s something you can’t understand.

Here is how mine looks when I put it all together:

Fear is the danger of not knowing what happens next. There is no one to tell you what to do. There is nothing to believe. Something is coming, and you have no control over it. Your eyes widen. Your breathing shortens. The hair stands up on the back of your neck. It’s like you are a sitting duck. In the movie, “No Country for Old Men,” Sherriff Tom Bell has no understanding for the psychotic nature of criminals today. He comes from a long line of Texas lawmen, but he realizes what he sees today is much different than what his father or grandfather saw. There is no logic or reason for all the killing. He wants to utilize his courage and experience, but how can you stop crime if you just can’t believe what you are seeing? He works in a small town in South Texas where everyone knows each other. He eats pancakes and drinks coffee in the same restaurant every day. People call each other Sir and Ma’am. It doesn’t look that much different from the small towns we have seen in movies from the Fifties. That is, until the Narcotrafficantes come to town. Then, all the rules change. Early in the movie, Tom Bell has to investigate a murder scene on the outskirts of town. He arrives upon the scene where a drug deal has gone bad. Bullet-ridden, Pickup trucks are positioned in a circle. There are dead bodies everywhere. Even the dogs have been shot. It looks like a place straight out of hell. Tom Bell tell his deputy of a young boy who he had once arrested for murder and watched die in the electric chair. The newspapers had explained it was a crime of passion, but Tom Bell will never forget fixin' to kill someone for as long as he could remember. Said if I let him out of there, he'd kill somebody again. Said he was goin' to hell. Reckoned he'd be there in about 15 minutes." In the end, Tom Bell knew he soon would quit his job. He just couldn’t take it anymore. The times were changing. He wasn’t a coward, but fear is not something you see or don’t see. It’s something you can’t understand.

This is going to be great. You watch.

Paz,