Guide to spelling, punctuation and grammar

Closing paragraph
Thus, 
(1)
the central flaw in the auteur theory is this
need to identify the director as the sole presiding
genius over the creation of a film. 
(2)
A novelist can
write alone, creating a novel from the raw material
he/she provides. A film director, working in the
commercial world of the film industry, can never
work alone. Any film is the sum total of all the
talents that contributed to it. The critics who first
pushed the auteur theory were intent on raising the
profile of film directors per se and they were
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14 –S
AMPLE ESSAY
9:
A FILM STUDIES ESSAY

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successful in doing this. However, they made
exaggerated claims for many individual directors,
claims which only the most diehard of auteurists
would now endorse. 
(3)
The auteur theory was flawed
from the beginning and as structuralist and post-
structuralist theory has revealed the commonality of
all artistic endeavour, it can be granted even less
critical credence than before. 
(4)
A
NALYSIS
Opening paragraph
(1) Using the term ‘auteur theory’ as the opening words of the essay
signals to the reader that you are addressing the topic immediately.
(2) This is an emphatic opening sentence saying something specific
about the subject by explaining how the theory arose and mentioning
some of the leading supporters of auteurism. ‘Waffle’ is avoided.
(3) Specific examples of directors favoured by the auteur critics are
provided, but no detail is gone into at this stage of the essay.
(4) This last sentence of the opening paragraph points the way for what
is to come in the body of the essay.