Reparations

The paper will begin with a one-to-two paragraph introduction that outlines the idea of reparations for readers. To be clear, this is not an argumentative paper. At no point will the student writer indicate their view on the issue. It is summative and analytical. The introduction should define reparations in function manner, in such a way that a reader might understand how the concept could potentially function in any culture whose citizens argue about justice and its relationship to history. It’s really important that you avoid static definitions. Please do not use a dictionary to define reparations. Define it as you understand it, having read/viewed the materials provided in this class (but not necessarily by getting too steeped in the specific examples from those materials at this point). After you define reparations for your reader, make a brief statement about why it might be important to have a conversation about reparations—what drives thinkers like those we’re examining to discuss the issue. Again, this is not an invitation to discuss what YOU think about reparations; I insist that you keep a neutral tone and inform your reader why OTHERS find this conversation important (without getting into their specific arguments). This should take no more than 2/3 of a page.   The Body In the body of the paper, students will provide a precise summary and analyses of the following works: Coates’ “The Case for Reparations” https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share McWhorter’s “The Case against Reparations” & attached as pdf Carracedo and Bahar’ The Silence of Others (I’m identifying these two directors of the film as the third and fourth “thinkers” I mentioned up near the top of this document. please watch on Netflix  Here’s how the summary and analysis for each thinker’s position should work: Begin with a paragraph (or two, if that suits you) which takes the six-point summary strategy and moves it forward into sentence-level writing. Make sure that you include the first five objective points in the summary and include any context you have for those five points (any information or theories as to how each of those elements might affect a reader/viewers experience with the piece). Make sure that when you shift to the sixth point (the identification of the author/director’s main point) that you 1) articulate the main point in a complex manner—in a manner that expresses multiple levels; and 2) that you cite two examples from the text/film to back up your identification of the main point (something to make your readers say to themselves, “okay, based on these two examples, it seems likely that that was the point of this article/film.” After that initial summary of the author/director’s text/film, move on to several paragraphs that provide analysis of the approach the author/director took in order to support that main point. The first thing you do in each of these analytical paragraphs is to identify an approach (let’s say, just as an example, narration). After you name an approach the creator took, move on to provide an example of that approach. After you provide an example of the approach, discuss how that example was meant to support some aspect of the main point. Next, provide a second example of that same approach named in the paragraph’s topic sentence. Connect that example to some aspect of the main point. Important: at least once during each analytical paragraph, I want you to write an “in order to reach [name an audience or reader type] before a piece of evidence you cite. I want, as you analyze, to constantly think about how a writer chooses evidence to develop a point but also because they think that an approach will work on a specific type of person they hope to reach with that particular point. This is how you construct an analytical paragraph, following the summary paragraph. Provide a few analytical paragraphs for the first thinker. Then start the process over again for the second thinker. Then the third. Each of these summary-analysis paragraph sets should be at least 1 ½ pages long, for a total of at least 4 ½ pages. So far, with the introduction and body, you will have just a little over 5 pages. The Conclusion In conclusion, student writers will cite one conversation about reparations that have not been covered by the materials I’ve provided. Find a source that identifies a reparations conversation that is, or has been, going on outside the scope of what we’re reading/viewing in this class. Again, I do not want you to use this as a chance to weigh in on the reparations conversation. I simply want you to explore and identify, briefly, how and where the conversation continues. You can use a six-point summary paragraph (or stretch it over two paragraphs) to identify this conversation. This should take ½ to 2/3 of a page). You do not have to use the school’s research database to find this outside article. I rely on you to use discretion in finding a good source here