Quick Write

What monster are you thinking or writing about? Narrow it down to 2 or 3 that you would be interested in learning more about.

Monster Evaluations

Evaluation: Monster Prompt

An evaluation is simply a review. We review lots of things regularly, movies, books, restaurants, and even professors.

IGN Dracula Untold Review

This is a great example of a movie review. It doesn’t spoil the movie but it does give us enough to understand what they think about it. They tell us what was good and what was bad. They give us their perspective and teach us something about it. If you do something like this you will do a great job.

Gathering Monster Data

You will need to decide on the monster you want to evaluate, and investigate the subject thoroughly. You will need to find your primary sources and scholarly sources.

For Example: Dracula or Vampires

Primary Sources:

  • Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula (1898) – Book
  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) – Film

Watch or read the representations of your monster and take notes. Look for important scenes and lines that you can use in your essay.

Scholarly Sources:

Search the Crafton Hills library database for your monster or category of monster. Also, Google Scholar is a great search engine for scholarly stuff. Possible search terms.

Read and annotated your sources. Look for quotes and explanations to help with understanding the monster. Locate the conversation around your monster to help understand it.

In the Crafton Hills Library Databases  find your sources. a good starting point would be on academic article from EBSCO Academic Search Complete and one Encyclopedia source from Credo reference. Both sources are links 1 and 2 on the Crafton Hills Library Databases.

  1. Academic Article
  2. Encyclopedia Entry on Monster

Monster Theory Source:

Cohen – Monster Culture: Seven Theses PDF (p. 3-20)

Go through the seven monster theories to see which ones apply to your monster? Connect at least three is not more.

  1. Theory 1 because . . .
  2. Theory 2 . . .
  3. Theory 3 . . .
  4. Theory 4 . . .

All this data will give you a much deeper understanding of your monster than most people have. A good way to compile all this data is to do the Annotated Bibliography. It creates the Works Cited which you need to have as well as helps you organize your sources and thinking.

Monster Theory and Frankenstein

In small groups, look at the seven theories to see which apply to Frankenstein and his Monster.

Sample Evaluation

I am Fire, I am Death, I Smell a Barbeque