Intros and Abstracts

Intros and Abstracts

In this seminar we talked about intros and abstracts. I think that intros to your work is very important because you need to have a catching opening to your work, whether its the whole paragraph or its the first sentence of the paragraph to your work, that you have written. However before we looked into Intros and Abstracts in more detail, we firstly had to recap on the topic of last weeks seminar, where we looked at the topic of Expanded Genealogy.

Genealogy Recap

Firstly we had to get into groups from 2 to 5 people. We then had to compare the notes that we took away from last weeks seminar with each other in the group. Once we had done this we then had to create a list of 5 keywords that we very important from the seminar last week. We also had to have a definition for at least one of the keywords that we thought of. Our five keywords were:

- Subjective

- Methodology- "a system of methods used in a particular area of study or activity"

- Method

- Objectivity

- Genealogy

Once we had thought of our 5 keywords and one definition, we then went around the class saying one keyword per group, however towards the end we noticed that the keywords that were being said were the exact same as each other. The keywords that were said by other people were:

Pre-Conceived- to examine something that is pre thought.

Method- A path to follow

Establishing shot- using as a metaphor to explain things like an introduction

Eternal Truth- the world is ever expanding

Fabrication- It is a positive form of production and creativity, which means that it is something.

Genealogist- Someone that looks at preconceived.

We then talked about wha we are doing in the studio at the moment and the proposal that we have come up with. We also looked what instructions we were given to do complete our project and how our proposal would help to do that. 

After this we talked about what abstract was and what was the point of an abstract. 

What is an Abstract?

It is a brief summary of the content of your work or the piece of writing. 

The point of an abstract is to explain your ideas to other people so that they understand what your writing is about and what you are going to have by the end of the project. 

After this we then watched a 2 minute clip from the film called Withnail and I, this clip was called washing up. Within this part of the seminar we were split into six section the lecture theatre. After we had been split into six sections we were there asked to watch a specific part of the film depending on which group you was apart of and write a descriptive sentence about what was happening in that section of the film. The film was then split into six parts of the film for each of the groups to write about, the number that I was given was the number 4. This meant that I had to write a descriptive sentence about clip number 4. As I was in group 4, I had to wait a little while however I thought about descriptive sentences that I could have wrote if I was in any of the other groups, after a while my turn to write something was here. In this part of the clip the men were staring at the washing up that was piling up in the sink in the kitchen, where the men start to argue with each other about the washing up, the man then picks up a kettle not realising that it is really hot so he burns his hands on the steaming kettle. 

The sentence that I came up with for clip that was shown to our group was:

"The men are just staring at the mountain of washing up that is piled in the sink, the man then picks up a scorching hot kettle that he burns himself on."

Once we had been through the whole clip we then went around the groups where we then created a long descriptive paragraph of what was happening in the film, I felt that doing this was a really good idea because allowed us look at what an abstract or intro would like. I learnt a lot from this task, which I could use in the future by looking at my proposal in sections that I could write about. The task that we had just looked as a group was called Clipped Writing, I found that this idea was really good because it helped me to understand what it was and how I could use it in the future to make my work better. I think clipped writing is very important because every word has a purpose or a direction, it has pace, content and no pith. 

                


After this we then watched the intro to a film called Cassablanca, I have heard of the film before however I have never watched it. I knew that the film was quite old, so I thought that the film may have been a black and white film. Whilst watching this clip we where asked to think about a few points, whilst watching the film these were:

• Where does the dialogue take us
• What does it reveal

My response to this was :

The Dialogue had lots of facts and allows us to see the personality and the relationships between the characters. You get to know more about the woman and why she is important. In one of the line they describe just one character. Another sentence you get given the history. The dialogue in the film wasn't very fast. All the necessary questions were asked for the viewer.

We were then shown another film clip from the film called the Room, the scene that we were shown was known as the 'The Flower Shop'. I found that the clip that we were shown didn't make much sense, as I felt that parts of the film was missed from the scene which made the clip very confusing that made no sense at all. Within the scene the car stopped three times,

also the dialogue isn't in sink with the characters movement. 

In this seminar, I learn't a lot about how to structure my intros and abstracts that I will include in my work, as I feel that this seminar has helped me to produce descriptive pieces of writing. The pointers that I leant from this seminar were to have a strong opening, with descriptive words that can create a path for people to follow when reading your work.