Essay About the Documentary Film "Hate Crimes in the Heartland"

Essay writing is one of the most popular ways to assess the students ability to think critically, gather pieces of evidence, and lay them out in a written form. During high school and college years, students get various kinds of essays to write, and below we are going to give you some effective tips on how to write an essay on documentary movies like "Hate Crimes in the Heartland".

Do the research

Before you even start watching your documentary, dive deeply into its subject. Racial tensions in America is a prolonged issue in society, and you need to know how it emerged, who contributed to it, and how it is going now. Read reviews of the most famous cinema critics, their attitude to the "Hate Crimes in Heartland" tape, and whether they think it was a community outreach project of great scale. Do not forget to check what the essay writer has to tell about this documentary: custom writing companies and independent writers often provide sample documentary essays for you to get inspired. 

Get familiar with filmmaking vocabulary

This is to make sure you understand everything stated in the documentary reviews, research papers, and other sources that you want to refer to while writing your essay. Using them correctly will help your essay sound more professional and to the point. Also, the ability to differentiate cinema jargon from the ordinary vocabulary will allow you to understand the core meaning of words without turning to the vocabulary all the time. 

Watch the assigned film

Now, it’s time to watch the documentary. We already know that “Hate Crimes in Heartland” is a tape that was thought to be education key to post-racial society. So, when watching, concentrate on the points that support this notion. Since it is not a feature film, you will probably need to watch it several times to get its core ideas and understand human relations among the main characters. Do not hesitate to take notes while watching: this activity helps students to write better movie essays as well. 

Be critical

When you have watched the movie, approach it critically: think about the main concepts that screenwriters wanted to reveal in the plot, whether they managed to do that, and give your evaluation on the way they reached the documentary goal. To see the examples of proper critical movie analysis, do not hesitate to check essay writing service tutors’ sample papers. 

Outline your essay

Once you get your thoughts together, go on to outline your piece of writing. At this point, create a detailed plan that will remind you of everything you wanted to say about the documentary, including quotes, facts, and arguments. You can try to formulate your essay heading, as well as names of the chapters if you were assigned to write a comprehensive research paper. If you cannot do it on your own, hire an essay writer for this part of your writing. 

Introduce the tape

In the first part of your essay, start with presenting your topic. Mention the documentary name, its director name, screenwriters, producers, etc. You can also add some tape features, e.g. the year of creation, the setting of the documentary, and other details that you consider important: the composer name (if you like the soundtrack), the videographer name (if the visual quality of the tape impressed you), or any other technical staff whose effort contributed to the movie creation a lot. 

Add a summary

This essay part intends to help your audience to get familiar with the documentary film that you would like to discuss. Add only the major points here without retelling the plot in detail. Remember, your audience may not know the entire scenario of the documentary, but your task is to provide your own analysis of the tape instead of recalling the plot. Thus, make sure that your summary is precise, clear, and to the point before you move to the next essay part. 

Provide your analysis

Since it is the largest and the most important part of your essay, make sure you have all your notes by your side, and the movie tab opened on your laptop. This is to not forget anything crucial for proper analysis, lay out all the facts you wanted, and support them with strong evidence from the documentary. Do not be in a hurry when working on these paragraphs. Present your ideas one-by-one, dedicating one paragraph to only one thought. 

Conclude your paper

Finally, wrap up your story naturally. In this essay part, you need to be extra careful with choosing the concluding words. Do not repeat your thoughts from the introduction and body paragraphs in the same phrases. Instead, find other constructions to express the same ideas and persuade your readers in your point of view.