Antelope Valley College

                                          English 099—Essay #3 Topics

                                                      A. Berkley


1. John Grisham and Michael Zimecki advocate legal action against filmmakers whose films
    inspire “copycat” crimes. Write an essay supporting or opposing their view.

2. Although violence in the media may inspire some unbalanced individuals to “act out,” 
    restricting the content of movies is an infringement on our right to enjoy the free flow of ideas
    guaranteed in the First Amendment. Support your views with reasoning and references to the
    readings.

3. Camille Paglia and Susan Jacoby present differing views on date rape. Compare and  
    contrast their views by identifying the central, unifying ideas of their respective essays and
    evaluating how well they support these ideas with reasoning, examples and the opinions of
    experts. (What are the underlying assumptions of each view?)

4. Discuss the view that one weakness in the arguments of those who criticize media violence is
    their failure to demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship between viewing violence and
    acting violently. 

5. Although critics of violence in the media, such as Grisham and Zimecki, freely attack films
    such as Natural Born Killers, it is rare that they attack such equally violent films as Saving
    Private Ryan and Braveheart. Compare the first of these films with one of the other two
    and try to isolate the differences that provoke the attacks against the former and make the
    latter acceptable, in spite of their violence. 


Suggestions and Guidelines

· Brainstorm and cluster your ideas. Save all pre-writing.
· Limit and focus your topic so that it can be developed and main points be supported by
  relevant and specific examples and/or references.
· Give your essay a clearly stated thesis that should appear somewhere within the first
  paragraph.
· Your evidence need not be limited to the views and information provided by the readings
  assigned in class. You may support your points with readings from outside sources (if you can
  show that they are objective and/or authoritative).
· Your essay must include and cite material from at least two essays from the textbook unless
  otherwise stated in the topic and must be 2-3 pages in length.
· Do not forget to include a “Works Cited” page at the end of the paper. Use MLA style.