"For class 8/23, write a short (no more than 4 pages) paper about your

[eyesroll]

favorite movie. I will explain the details of this paper during classo on 8/21."

This is a (vague) assignment for my Legal Writing and Research class. I'm not concerned about actually doing it in the time allotted (if four pages in two days was a problem, law school would be a problem), but I'm wondering:
1. What I'll have to do with it
2. Why on earth I need to write about my favorite movie in a Legal Writing class.

Any guesses?

[Chan790]

1. It's reasonable

I used to lead workshops on creative writing so this is familiar...you assign a writing project topic which is outside of the normal bounds of the subject (something easy yet mildly off-kilter to the course) so that you can judge the writing ability of the students in a neutral environment. If your paper was on the law, the students who were better law students would score higher that those who might be just outright better writers. It provides a better assessment tool of your writing abilities.

[eyesroll]

2. Makes sense -- I still wonder exactly what she wants us to write about

our favorite movie...if it's just a straight "tell me about this movie and why you like it," I'd pick one movie; if it was more complex than that, I'd pick a different movie.

I suppose she's not telling us in advance so we won't give her a polished, super-edited, multiple-drafts writing sample; with two days to do it, it'll be closer to our natural abilities.

[JVS]

3. write about Taxi Driver

[jmowreader]

4. Why? They want to know if you can write!

So here's what you do: Claim that Soylent Green is your favorite movie, but discuss some of the themes in the film outside the obvious involuntary cannibalism one. The rather casual attitude toward prostitution would be a good one. Discuss how rampant fundamentalism in the late-20th/early-21st century timeframe could set the stage for the massive overpopulation problems seen in the time of Soylent Green. Or the use of front-end loaders as riot-control tools. Maybe the practice of voluntary euthanasia of healthy elderly people that goes by the name "going home." (This, as we know, is how they acquire the cadavers from which Soylent Green is made.)

Or choose The Stuff as your favorite movie, and discuss the underlying advertising-is-evil message contained therein.

You could have fun with this one.