Fluent Essays

Writing a “Lens” Essay (Fix My Work)Lens Text: Just MercyTarget Text: theme quotes from Just Mercy (Systematic Control, inequality, & dehumanization)Focus Text(s): 13th DocumentaryPlanning the Essay:Word Requirement: 1000-1200 (about 4-5 pages) Sources: Just Mercy and one or two “focus” textsMLA format with full realized work citedGenerally, the lens should reveal something about the original or “target” text that may not be otherwise apparent. Alternatively, your analysis may call the validity of the arguments of the lens piece into question, extend the arguments of the lens text, or provoke some other reevaluation of the two texts. Either way, you will be generating a critical “dialogue between texts.”Reading the Texts:First, read the lens text to identify the author’s core arguments and vocabulary. (We have been doing this in the discussion boards)It is helpful to develop an outline of the author’s primary points. (Brainstorm) In a lens essay you will concentrate on the central ideas/themes of the lens text, rather than dealing with isolated quotes. As such, it’s important to make sure you truly understand and can articulate the author’s main points before proceeding to the target text(s).Next, quickly read the target text to develop a general idea of its content. Then, ask yourself as you look at the focus text: Where do I see general points of agreement or disagreement between the texts?Which of the lens text’s main arguments could be applied to the target text (Similarities)?It may be easier to focus on one or two of the lens text’s central arguments. What are the main components of the lens that you also see in the focus text(s)?Are there instances where the lens text’s arguments do not agree?Why is this? It is helpful to keep a careful, written record of page numbers, quotes, and your thoughts and reactions as you read.Outlining the Essay:Since this type of paper deals with a complex synthesis of multiple sources, it is especially important to have a clear plan of action before you begin writing. It may help to group quotes or events by subject matter, by theme, or by whether they support, contradict, or otherwise modify the arguments in the lens text. Hopefully, common themes, ideas, and arguments will begin to emerge, and you can start drafting!Writing the Introduction and Thesis:As your paper concerns the complex interactions between multiple texts, it is important to explain what you will be doing the introduction. Make sure to clearly introduce the lens text and its specific arguments you will be employing or evaluating. Then introduce the target text(s) and its specific themes or events you will be addressing in your analysis. These introductions of texts and themes should lead into some kind of thesis statement. Make sure it states the points of interaction you will be discussing and explains what your critical analysis of the target text reveals about the texts.Writing the Body:The body is where you apply specific arguments from the lens text to specific quotes or instances in the target text(s).Topic Sentence: In each case, make sure to discuss what the lens text reveals about the target text (or vice versa). Use the lens text’s themes/topics to examine the focus text(s), but make sure to be clear about where ideas in the paper are coming from (the lens text, the focus text, your own interpretation etc.) so the reader doesn’t become confused.Quote from the Lens Text:Explain the relevance of the quote to the topic sentenceTransition phraseQuote from the Focus Text(s) What are the similarities/differences in the stances taken – detailed discussion – conversation between the textsTemplates That May Help By engaging in this type of analysis, you are “entering an academic conversation” and inserting your own ideas. As this is certainly easier said than done, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s concept of “Templates” may prove useful. In their book, They Say, I Say, the authors lay out numerous templates to help writers engage in unfamiliar forms of critical academic discourse. They encourage students to use the templates in any capacity they find useful, be it filling them in verbatim, modifying and extending them, or using them as an analytical entry point, then discarding them completely.Here I modify their basic template (They say ________. I say ________.), to create lens essay-specific templates to help you get started:The author of the lens text lays out a helpful framework for understanding instances of ________ in the target text. Indeed, in the target text, one sees ________, which could be considered an example of ________ by the lens author’s definition. Therefore, we see a point of commonality concerning ________. This similarity reveals ________.According to the lens text _______ tends to occur in situations where _______. By the lens author’s definition, ________ in the target text could be considered an instance of _______. However, this parallel is imperfect because _______. As such, we become aware of ________.One sees ________ in the target text, which calls the lens author’s argument that ________ into question because ________.If the author of the lens text is correct that ________, one would expect to see ________ in the target text. However, ________ actually takes place, revealing a critical point of disagreement. This discord suggests that ________. This issue is important because ________.Wrapping Things up and Drawing ConclusionsBy this point in your essay, you should be drawing conclusions regarding what your lens analysis reveals about the texts in questions, or the broader issues the texts address. Make sure to explain why these discoveries are important for the discipline in which you are writing. In other words, what was the point of carrying out your analysis in the first place? Happy lens writing! essay_three__22lens_22_prompt_124.docx exploring_how_to_write_a_lens_paper__1_.docx first_copy.docx Unformatted Attachment Preview Writing a “Lens” Essay Lens Text: Just Mercy Focus Text(s): One or two other texts you have chosen (no more than two) Planning the Essay: Word Requirement: 1000-1200 (about 4-5 pages) Sources: Just Mercy and one or two “focus” texts MLA format with full realized work cited Generally, the lens should reveal something about the original or “target” text that may not be otherwise apparent. Alternatively, your analysis may call the validity of the arguments of the lens piece into question, extend the arguments of the lens text, or provoke some other reevaluation of the two texts. Either way, you will be generating a critical “dialogue between texts.” Reading the Texts: First, read the lens text to identify the author’s core arguments and vocabulary. (We have been doing this in the discussion boards) It is helpful to develop an outline of the author’s primary points. (Brainstorm) In a lens essay you will concentrate on the central ideas/themes of the lens text, rather than dealing with isolated quotes. As such, it’s important to make sure you truly understand and can articulate the author’s main points before proceeding to the target text(s). Next, quickly read the target text to develop a general idea of its content. Then, ask yourself as you look at the focus text: • • • • • • Where do I see general points of agreement or disagreement between the texts? Which of the lens text’s main arguments could be applied to the target text (Similarities)? It may be easier to focus on one or two of the lens text’s central arguments. What are the main components of the lens that you also see in the focus text(s)? Are there instances where the lens text’s arguments do not agree? Why is this? It is helpful to keep a careful, written record of page numbers, quotes, and your thoughts and reactions as you read. Outlining the Essay: Since this type of paper deals with a complex synthesis of multiple sources, it is especially important to have a clear plan of action before you begin writing. It may help to group quotes or events by subject matter, by theme, or by whether they support, contradict, or otherwise modify the arguments in the lens text. Hopefully, common themes, ideas, and arguments will begin to emerge, and you can start drafting! Writing the Introduction and Thesis: As your paper concerns the complex interactions between multiple texts, it is important to explain what you will be doing the introduction. Make sure to clearly introduce the lens text and its specific arguments you will be employing or evaluating. Then introduce the target text(s) and its specific themes or events you will be addressing in your analysis. These introductions of texts and themes should lead into some kind of thesis statement. Make sure it states the points of interaction you will be discussing and explains what your critical analysis of the target text reveals about the texts. Writing the Body: The body is where you apply specific arguments from the lens text to specific quotes or instances in the target text(s). Topic Sentence: In each case, make sure to discuss what the lens text reveals about the target text (or vice versa). Use the lens text’s themes/topics to examine the focus text(s), but make sure to be clear about where ideas in the paper are coming from (the lens text, the focus text, your own interpretation etc.) so the reader doesn’t become confused. Quote from the Lens Text: Explain the relevance of the quote to the topic sentence Transition phrase Quote from the Focus Text(s) What are the similarities/differences in the stances taken – detailed discussion – conversation between the texts Templates That May Help By engaging in this type of analysis, you are “entering an academic conversation” and inserting your own ideas. As this is certainly easier said than done, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s concept of “Templates” may prove useful. In their book, They Say, I Say, the authors lay out numerous templates to help writers engage in unfamiliar forms of critical academic discourse. They encourage students to use the templates in any capacity they find useful, be it filling them in verbatim, modifying and extending them, or using them as an analytical entry point, then discarding them completely. Here I modify their basic template (They say ________. I say ________.), to create lens essayspecific templates to help you get started: The author of the lens text lays out a helpful framework for understanding instances of ________ in the target text. Indeed, in the target text, one sees ________, which could be considered an example of ________ by the lens author’s definition. Therefore, we see a point of commonality concerning ________. This similarity reveals ________. According to the lens text _______ tends to occur in situations where _______. By the lens author’s definition, ________ in the target text could be considered an instance of _______. However, this parallel is imperfect because _______. As such, we become aware of ________. One sees ________ in the target text, which calls the lens author’s argument that ________ into question because ________. If the author of the lens text is correct that ________, one would expect to see ________ in the target text. However, ________ actually takes place, revealing a critical point of disagreement. This discord suggests that ________. This issue is important because ________. Wrapping Things up and Drawing Conclusions By this point in your essay, you should be drawing conclusions regarding what your lens analysis reveals about the texts in questions, or the broader issues the texts address. Make sure to explain why these discoveries are important for the discipline in which you are writing. In other words, what was the point of carrying out your analysis in the first place? Happy lens writing! Exploring how to Write a Lens Paper How to Write a Lens Essay Look closely at memoir, and you may see a new world below the surface. A lens essay is a type of comparative paper that analyzes one text through the viewpoints expressed in another. it is an incredible intellectual exercise through which you will not only improve your writing skills but your critical reading and thinking skills as well. Read the Lens Text Begin by reading the text you plan to use as your viewpoint (Just Mercy). Take note of strong opinions, assumptions and justifications. Clear, concise notes about this section will help when using this text as a lens and when writing your final essay, so make sure your notes are accurate. Read the Focus Text Read the second work once, making note of its important details. Look back at your notes from the lens text and read the focus text again with the lens text in mind. Use active reading skills such as writing questions in the margins and determining the purpose of each paragraph. Take a Closer Look • • • • Here are a few questions to consider when analyzing the content of your focus text: How does the lens text serve to shed light on the second text? Does it criticize it or support it? o If the two pieces were written during different periods in history, consider the era in which the lens was written and how it affects the opinions or points made in the second. Consider the lives of the authors and how their differences might inform their writing. Construct Your Thesis With your notes in hand, construct your thesis statement. • Using details from the both texts as context clues, determine: o how the author of the lens text would view the assertions of the focal text. o Construct this view as a statement that includes the details expounded upon in the body paragraphs of your essay. o At the same time, keep your thesis statement as clear and simple as you can. Your thesis statement is the roadmap to the rest of your paper. o Its clarity and concision will help your reader understand what to expect. Compose the Body of Your Essay Write the body. A lens essay is typically constructed on a text-by-text basis. Concentrate on presenting the lens in the first paragraphs. • • • In the following, present the second text as viewed through the lens. How do your points support the thesis? Make sure to include evidence for your assertions. Sum Up Your Ideas Write the conclusion. • • • Restate your thesis first, then sum up the main points of your paper. Be sure to make what you have said meaningful. Dont let the paper fizzle out, but dont introduce new information either. Revise and Edit Read over your work at least once: • • • • first paying attention to content and inconsistencies in your argument. Make additions and corrections, and then proofread your work. Correct errors in style and grammar, and make sure your prose reads fluently. Sometimes another set of eyes can catch mistakes that yours dont. 1 English 124 Essay 3 Just Mercy Analysis Its more dignified to die striving for freedom than to breath as a silenced prisoner for life. There are many depictions of injustice, along with inhumane conducts toward naive individuals and bigotry toward someone for past radical experiences. The inequalities of the criminal justice system are not restricted to biased law makers, heartless lawyers or corrupt law enforcement agents: the nature and patterns of the Standard legal system portray Social values and history as a whole, and thus too many people are intimately involved in such a radical extreme mentality and roadmap. Such systemic disparities have stripped citizens of the color and many of poor communities from their most fundamental human rights, causing the restructuring criminal justice a modern and exceptional problem. Bryan Stevensons “Just Mercy” was written based on a true story highlights several of the problems concerning the American criminal justice system. Stevenson’s eagerness and education in the field of law-making expose that criminal and social justice, ethnicity, and compassion are mostly deeply intimately linked in American society. Just Mercy shows the necessity for the American Society for identifying the racial inequality that is gained traction in Americas judicial courts can orientate to the racial injustice of vulnerable communities, such as Black people, minorities, elderly, and disables, which is demonstrating empathy and kindness in the battle against oppression. Determining the validity of the author’s assertion with other foundations is crucial to certify the accuracy of the claims and the integrity of the author. In comparison of Just Mercy and Ava DuVernays the 13TH documentary regarding oppression and dehumanization towards African Americans and other poor decent communities are heavily utilized through rhetorical appeal to establish extensively endorsed 2 debated, however “13TH” extends and over complicates the matter of systematic control and biases within the law proclaiming the complexity of the criminal justice system. 13TH approves and clarifies allegations of inequality and dehumanization occurrence in American History the way Just Mercy mentions through racial profiling, humiliation and sentencing without reasonable evidence, destroying black movement, and law enforcement brutality. 13th reflects on demonstrating how slavery in America hasnt ever ended, and it asserts that such a threat of exploitative black men, starting with Reconstruction era, turn old slavery model into a modern massively profitable commercial prison facility. Correspondingly, Just Grace illustrates the various forms in which the judicial system will intentionally deceive those whom are supposed to defend, and the reality which justice is not free from human abuse and brutality. For instance, McMillian, a black man who has been falsely accused of murder and condemned to death, encountered challenges such as inept court-appointed prosecutors, government manipulation, ethnic bias and racism, and press misinformation. Stevenson appeals to equality and justice by quoting McMillian saying, “I feel like they done put me on death row, too. What do we tell these children about how to stay out of harm’s way when you can be at your own house, minding your own business, surrounded by your entire family, and they still put some murder on you that you ain’t do and send you to death row?“ (Ch 5). McMillians study, similar to the rest of the case studies in the story, is intended to personalize the perception of injustice and lack of justice to assist readers apprehend the enormous human misery that occurs from misuse of authority. 13ths goal is to send a message that exposes government insisting that prisons be occupied, regardless if nobody commits a crime. 13th quotes Glenn E. Martin, who is known as criminal justice reform advocate, saying “When I think of systems of oppression historically and in this country, they’re durable. They tend to reinvent themselves, and they do it 3 right under your nose.” () The effect of such a claim is appealing because injustice and dehumanization is negative and destructive for the rest of the community. Now, the question is to what extend injustice was implemented? 13TH Documentary extends terms discused in Just Mercy about minorities and mentally disables people pleading guilty at the court based on false promises and political dominancy. Stevenson is a lawyer who enacts to defend individuals in prison completely for free. Most of Stevenson’s rhetorical cases demonstrate how racism plays an unequal part in the criminal justice system. Not just that minorities were being handled harshly, but so are mentally disabled and young children. Stevenson in Just Mercy gives several stories of children or mentally disabled individuals in search of comprehensive care who find themselves trapped in segregation, destitute and defenseless. Crime prevention dehumanizes people who do not follow social norms that they have designed into detention facilities including people who had mental disables and were gay and resisted gender norms. As in the case of Avery Jenkins who had sevir trauma returning from war zone , Stevenson, “argued to the judge that not taking Avery’s mental health issues into consideration at trial was as cruel as saying to someone who has lost his legs, ‘You must climb these stairs with no assistance, and if you don’t your just lazy.’ Or to say to someone who was blind, ‘You should get across this busy interstate highway, unaided, or you’re just cowardly’” (Ch 10). He believes the criminalization of mentally ill individuals is illogical and inhuman. Similarly, 13th expands the argument of dehumanizing toward those with mental disorder and minor ages argues of law enforcement pressures citizens to plead guilty and to set bail bond large enough so they can’t afford it. Like in the case of Kalief Browder, who was incarcerated for three years pending trial on dubious accusations of theft at the age of 16. He was incapable to bail a bond priced at $10,000. Two years after the case termination and discharge, 4 Kalief committed suicide by hanging himself. In the documentary displays footage saying, “The courts basically punished [Kalief Browder] for having the audacity to not take a plea deal, and to want to take it to trial. And in that time, in those three years he was sitting there, and not being charged for anything, that’s when the mental health issues started to deteriorate, and he started to get into fights.” Here the video provides more information and drawbacks regarding the US prison program, systemic disparities in the criminal justice system, mental wellbeing, and problems linked to compulsory punishment and plea bargaining. Deprivation of disables, homosexuals, and minors is not only a degrading behavior but also leading to extreme mental break down and suicidal. 13th film exposes how the systematic power and racial profiling has been redesigned legislation measurements by many governmental agencies to compel criminal justice system to implement racial profiling and incarcerate poor communities as a modern way of slavery. Just Mercy discusses the era of slavery and the transitioning afterward, but 13th documentary reveals facts about how the idea of slavery is being redesigned in way that exploiting black and poor communities by imprisoning them to make a profit out of those massive prisons by charging government for the serves and putting prisoner to work for almost free. Stevenson argues that the systemic oppression of the legal system is deeply embedded in oppressive systems which date back to slavery. As slavery era, certain legislative and judiciary systems had the explicit or indirect effect of restricting the influence of African Americans and dividing disadvantaged and marginalized groups from privilege whites. For example, the writer highlights the theme of Systemic Power and Dehumanization by mentioning Trinity s story, “To the dismay of the judge who has to follow the court procedures that result from her poor legal defense, he is sentenced to life imprisonment. She is raped while in prison by a prison guard, has a child as a result, but then 5 has her child immediately taken from her.” She was abused by the prison guard and he felt that he had the right to do whatever he needed to do to the women in prisons. when high legislation authority heard the case, they refused to take action against the guard and took away the kid. However, the documentary “We have in this country people pleading guilty to crimes they didn’t commit just because the thought of going to jail for what the mandatory minimums are is so excruciating.” (Cory Booker) “There are thousands of people in jails right this moment that are sitting there for no other reason than because they’re too poor to get out.” (Michelle Alexander) 6 Works Cited Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: a Story of Justice and Redemption. Spiegel & Grau, 2015.Cox, Robynn JA. Where do we go from here: Mass incarceration and the struggle for civil rights? Economic Policy Institute, 2015, pp.1-10. 13th. Directed by Ava DuVernay, Netflix Studios, 2016. Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/80091741?trackId=13752289 &tctx=0\%2C1\%2C ... Purchase answer to see full attachment