When Barry student James Bradshaw wrote the first draft of the essay that won him the Helen Connell Film Essay Award, "Analyzing the Doppelganger in Fight Club and Psycho," it was a disappointing effort that earned him a mediocre grade. A year later, though, when he saw an advertisement for the competition, he dusted off the old essay and gave it a makeover. After 9+ hours of editing and fact checking, he still wasn’t sure of his work, but gave it a shot.
“I really wasn’t expecting to win given the paper’s experimental nature. Really, it’s proven to be a big confidence booster!” says Bradshaw. “Maybe the change in writing style did the trick, who knows? But what I do know is that I’m not gonna let my fear of a little experimentation slow me down anymore!”
The award is sponsored by the Department of English and Foreign Languages and Sigma Tau Delta. It was created to promote film as an art form and in honor of Dr. Helen Connell, an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Foreign Languages who served for several years as Chair of the Department. Bradshaw will receive $50, acknowledgement at the Honors Convocation in May, and you can read his winning essay in the Sigma Tau Delta literary journal, What Oft Was Thought.