Video Essay General Format
Length: Each Video Essay will probably be about three to five pages long in most cases. There is no “set length,” however.
Labeling : Your professor likes organization, and generally rewards those who label the various parts of their written work in such a way as to help the reader follow your train of thought. At the very least each of the Parts outlined below should be labeled, but there are usually opportunities for sub-labeling (headings).
Parts of the Essay: In most cases, your essay should contain at least the following parts….
- Identification of the Video and speaker (You need not use further citations to indicate the source material for your Essay, unless you bring in other material.)
- A statement as to what information is contained in the assigned video which is of importance to marketers.
- A statement as to why that information is important. It is important because…. For example: it may alter, clarify, or strenthen our thinking about one or more marketing tenets. E.g. Dr. Moscowitz’ ideas on market segmentation.
- A description of how the information might be used in a marketing situation.
- Your Summation/Conclusion. If a reader were to read only this section they should come away with a basic understanding of what you have said.
Signs of Trouble
(Source:https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/essay-structure ©2000, Elizabeth Abrams, for the Writing Center at Harvard University)
A common structural flaw in college essays is the “walk-through” (also labeled “summary” or “description”). Walk-through essays follow the structure of their sources rather than establishing their own. Such essays generally have a descriptive thesis rather than an argumentative one. Be wary of paragraph openers that lead off with “time” words (“first,” “next,” “after,” “then”) or “listing” words (“also,” “another,” “in addition”). Although they don’t always signal trouble, these paragraph openers often indicate that an essay’s thesis and structure need work: they suggest that the essay simply reproduces the chronology of the source text (in the case of time words: first this happens, then that, and afterwards another thing . . . ) or simply
lists example after example (“In addition, the use of color indicates another way that the painting differentiates between good and evil”).
Video Essay Assignments: You should write an Essay about each of the following videos…
- Rory Sutherland: Life Lessons from an ad man
