Contextual Reflection
Why British New Wave?
Research
My research started with electronic resources, as
this was readily available. Looked at blogs, online newspapers and reliable
websites like the NHS. I accumulated a lot of useful information, fact and
points from these sites.
What I was also able to get my hands on rather
quickly was documentary DVDs; Carry on Ken, and Typically British. From these
DVDs I was able to obtain not only factual information but also opinionated
information about Britain in the 1950's and 60's and the British new wave
movement.
My next venture for information was the Coventry
University library, as they offered a large range of books on new wave in
general and the British new wave. Before going there I looked on Google books
for some books that may come in useful and be in the library, and wrote down
the name of them. When I arrived at the library I was able to straight away
find some of the books, some they did not have at all and I was able to find
some other books that I did not initially write down. The other books that I
was not able to look at in the library I bought and they all came in very
useful.
Writing the Essay
When writing my essay I made sure I had all the
books, internet pages and films/documentaries at the ready to be able to use
direct quote correctly, know where they were from, so I would be able to
reference them later and also so I could look back over them if I need double
check information.
I started by separating my essay
into sections; the introduction, the 30's and 40's, 50's and 60's,
the influences of today and the conclusion. When I started
writing this I read back over I realised
that I was not referring to my three case study films (Saturday Night
and Sunday Morning, Blow-up and if....) as much
as I should have been, and I was not comparing the social
issues raised in the films to those from the research I collected.
So I took another approach to my essay. Instead of
looking at my research first, watched my three chosen films again and wrote
down the issues as they appeared. Once I had done this I compared the films
social issues to find any comparisons or differences. Then I applied those raised
in the film to the contextual research to explain why the directors had chosen
to include them in their films.
What I found was that over the short period of
time -from the late 50's to late 60's- the film reflected the dramatic changes
that were happening, from abortion, contraception and homosexuality. The
earlier film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning focused on issues of abortion
whereas the other to did not, as this topic was more of an issue at the times,
however later on the contraceptive pill was introduced so affairs could be
covered up more, with less consequences and abortion was not as much as a
problem as there were less unwanted pregnancies; if... did not mention either
as abortion was going through the process of becoming legalised.
Harvard Referencing
I have now learnt how to reference my essay
accurately and neatly. It is important that I identified
in my assessment when I used the words or ideas of another author and by
using Harvard referencing I was able to include direct quotes and power phased
quotes without plagiarising any of the
authors. If I hadn't referenced properly it may have come across to the
reader that I was cheating, trying to claim someone else’s work as my
own.
Using Harvard referencing I was able
to demonstrating that I had read widely on the topic of British New Wave and it
also help to lend credibility to my work as I was supporting my hypothesis
with comments from expert and legit authors.
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