Presenting Evidence in Deepening Sequence
This assignment asks you to draft two paragraphs that might appear early in the body of the upcoming essay. Keep both ¶s brief for purposes of this HW, so we can focus on the ¶ structure and not get lost in the body of either ¶.
The first ¶ should be a brief version of the 2-3 source mashup we did for the previous class (D4|D5|D6). For the first ¶ of today’s HW, you can create a new ¶ OR revise your old one:
- Start with the collection of sources that make up your body of evidence. What pattern do you see? Write a topic sentence that names that pattern.
- Follow up with sentences presenting 2-3 samples in quick succession, one sentence each. Aim to name each piece of evidence briefly (“”In a 1967 editorial”) to give some sense of the granularity of your evidence. Use the rest of each sentence to provide a quick description that shows how this piece of evidence fits the pattern.
- End the ¶ with a conclusion that leaves a blank, “_______,” to be filled in once you’ve written your second ¶.
The second ¶ should do one of two things:
- Zoom in to examine a similar example from your body of evidence, in an effort to explain the pattern identified in ¶1;
- Identify a contrary trend using a different set of 2-3 sources from the same collection, complicating our understanding of the pattern identified in ¶1.
In either case, deepening understanding comes from giving a second look to the same body of evidence.
Once you know where you plan to take analysis in ¶2, you can go back and fill in the blank you left in the conclusion of ¶1. Sum up what ¶1 argued while at the same time setting up the new insight offered in ¶2. Avoid naming the new insight—naming the new insight is the job of ¶2’s topic sentence. It’s like a comedy routine: the concluding sentence plays the role of straight man, while the topic sentence of the following ¶ gets to voice the punchline.
Paste your 2-¶ sequence into the comment below. Be sure to give two ¶ breaks between paragraphs, so as to help the website format your HW properly.
Quick Video for Class Discussion
In an effort to make some connection to current discussion in Hum and Soc Sci, please watch this short clip from a BBC documentary, Racism: a History and come to class ready to discuss.