Homework 1:

Analyzing the Media & Public Housing: HBO's THE WIRE
&
Researching with the New York Times Historical File

(don't do this assignment if you missed the first class, go directly to this assignment)

note: the research portion of this assignment will require knowing your John Jay username and password if you are doing the research from an off-campus computer. If you don't know your username & password, see below under Part II.
Don't wait until the last moment to get this information. Keep in mind the help desk closes at midnight!


Note:

(1) assignments appear in the syllabus on the day assigned and are due the next class, unless noted otherwise -- so this homework (assigned Tues., 8/30) is due NEXT class, Wed. 9/06

(2) This assignment, like ALL assignments in this class, must be typed. Handwritten work will NOT be accepted. See handout on class expectations.

(3) This homework is due at the start of class and can NOT be turned in late. This homework is worth 10% of you final semester grade, or 10 Fritz Points

 

Part I: Analyzing the Media & Public Housing

In this assignment, you will be watching a brief segment from the HBO series The Wire to explore how this television show might help shape the popular perception of of public housing and its residents.

The Wire is a police procedural series set and produced in Baltimore, Maryland. Created by former police reporter David Simon, The Wire begins its fourth season in September 2006. The plot centers around the ongoing interactions between police units and drug-dealing gangs in the city's west side, and is told from both points of view.

Evidence

But before we can begin watching (and analyzing ) this example of American popular culture, we need to revisit some fundamentals regarding presenting evidence in support of your argument.

So, while you will get to the T.V. show, we need to detour briefly into a discussion of this important skill for both college and the workplace.

Without evidence, an argument is a windy, flimsy statement of one person’s opinion. With evidence, an argument is grounded in facts and given shape. Evidence is the critical link that helps you prove your points. You might want to think of the mental skill employed by both analysis and the expression of that analysis as remarkably similar to the mental skills employed by the police detectives in the Wire.


Making & Supporting Logical Arguments

Much of this class will be focused on a central skill of both college and workplace writing: making an argument. An argument generally involves three elements.

1. The Claim -- What you want your readers to believe; the "point" you hope to persuade your reader of

2. The Evidence -- What you will use to support the claim; your "proof" -- often a direct or indirect quotation from a text, but sometimes a statistic or the like

3. The Warrant -- A general principle that explains why you think your evidence is relevant to your claim

You might want to think of making a point with evidence in a paper as a conversation with a friend in which you attempt to persuade that friend of a particular perspective.

Listed below are the questions your friend might ask as you tried to make your argument, followed by the element described above that would answer your friend's questions:

QUESTION
ELEMENT
What are you trying to demonstrate? CLAIM
What proof do you have? EVIDENCE
Why do you think that your proof is relevant to your claim? WARRANT

 

You must always state both your claim and your supporting evidence explicitly; one without the other is either pointless evidence or an ungrounded opinion.  Taking a fairly straightforward example:

" (claim) I know it rained last night because (evidence) the streets are wet ."

It rained last night  
<-->
 the streets are wet

It would be difficult to take issue with this claim-evidence relationship.

But most evidence-claim relationships are not so simple.

They require an additional element: a warrant.

A warrant is a general principal that serves as a bridge between your claim and your evidence -- it explains how your evidence is both accurate and relevant to your claim.  If one claims, say:

"(claim) The emancipation of Russian peasants was merely symbolic because (evidence) it didn't improve the material conditions of their daily lives."

the reader might ask:

"Even if I grant that your evidence regarding the quality of life for Russian peasants did not improve, why should that lead me to believe your claim that their emancipation was merely symbolic?"

This questions underscores that even if both your claim and your evidence are entirely accurate, it is possible to make a weak argument.

You must explain why the evidence you are presenting supports the claim you are making. In short, you need to establish a warrant between your claim and your evidence

In this example, the warrant might be:

"Whenever a political action fails to improve the lives of those it is alleged to help, we judge that reform to have been only symbolic."
The whole argument, then, would read:


"The emancipation of Russian peasants was merely symbolic because it didn't improve the material conditions of their daily lives. Whenever a political action fails to improve the lives of those it was supposed to help, we judge that reform to have been only symbolic rather than substantial."


Let's take a look at another fairly simple example from the world of sports:
claim


Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player who ever lived

 
evidence
Jordan was selected as the greatest basketball player of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated magazine
warrant
Since professional basketball has only been played in the 20th century, and since no basketball player was rated higher than Jordan in the survey, Jordan must be the greatest player who
ever lived.

 

Need More Examples?
here is a chart of several arguments with claim/evidence/warrant structures. If you are confused, concrete -- but simple -- examples can sometimes help

Let's look at an example of a point supported by a quotation that might have come from a student paper.

If I wanted to argue that Gandhi thought modern Western civilization was corrupt specifically because of its promotion of material greed, I might write the following:

(CLAIM) Gandhi sees modern civilization as a threat to the Indian people because it promotes an endless cycle of selfish want. (EVIDENCE) He says, "the railways, machineries and the corresponding increase of indulgent habits are the true badges of slavery of the Indian people" (p. 118). In Gandhi’s mind, such things are unnecessary because happiness -- he asserts -- is "largely a mental condition" (p. 123). (WARRANT) For Gandhi, accordingly, if acquiring material goods will not make us happier, then the money and energy we devote to do so should be considered a form of slavery.

Some things to note about the paragraph:

1) Note that in the sentences with quoted material, I use an introductory phrase such as "he says," or "he asserts" to introduce the quotation. The quotation is, therefore, part of my own sentence. Again, a quotation must always form part of your own sentence. It cannot stand alone.

2) MOST IMPORTANTLY, note that the last sentence explains and interprets the quoted material in the context of my claim that I wish to support. This last sentence does NOT merely repeat the claim; instead it interprets the evidence and demonstrates how it is relevant to the claim.

3) If you want to see yet another example from a student paper, click here. If you would like to see several examples in the context of a paper along with detailed explanations, click here.

 

Introducing a quotation

Avoiding "drop quotations"
Incorrect:

Community Policing works in most places. "Crime dropped fifteen percent in precincts that employed the strategy."
correct:

Community Policing works in most places, as a recent FBI study observed, precincts that "employed the strategy" found their crimes rates "dropped fifteen percent." (citation)

One of your jobs as a writer is to guide your reader through your text. Don't simply drop quotations into your paper and leave it to the reader to make connections.


Integrating a quotation into your text usually involves two elements:

• A signal that a quotation is coming--generally the author's name and/or a reference to the work
• An assertion that indicates the relationship of the quotation to your text.

Often both the signal and the assertion appear in a single introductory statement, as in the example below. Notice how a transitional phrase also serves to connect the quotation smoothly to the introductory statement.

Historian Angel Ross (1993), in her study of poor and working-class mothers in London from 1870-1918 [signal], makes it clear that economic status to a large extent determined the meaning of motherhood [assertion]. Among this population [connection], "To mother was to work for and organize household subsistence" (p. 9).



The signal can also come after the assertion, again with a connecting word or phrase:

Illness was rarely a routine matter in the nineteenth century [assertion]. As Historian Angel [connection]Ross observes [signal], "Maternal thinking about children's health revolved around the possibility of a child's maiming or death" (p. 166).


Writing Activity With The Wire

What's a "cold open"?

A cold open (also referred to as a teaser) in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. Shows which air some form of titles before jumping in to the story and then running a formal opening sequence are also considered cold opens.

For this activity, you will need to watch the "cold open" that on the course's DVD. If you have not gotten a copy of this DVD from your Prof., there are additional copies on 3-Hour reserve at John Jay's library that you can watch there. But keep in mind that because the assignment requires using direct quotations from the clip, if you watch it at the library you will also likely have to write your homework there as well.

 

 

In an upcoming reading for this course, the historian Lawrence J. Vale says of the popular perceptions of public housing:

“The power of the media to dwell on the most egregious failures (such as the decline and demolition of Pruitt-Igoe), and thereby to consolidate negative images of public housing and its residents, is immense.”

In this assignment, you will be watching a brief segment from the HBO series The Wire to explore how this television show might help “consolidate negative images of public housing and its residents.”

 

Mayor Royce from The Wire

1) QUESTION: Using the Mayor’s (Clarence Royce) words from the scene on the DVD as evidence, in what way does The Wire portray the history of public housing as a government program in America? That is, what would a viewer of the The Wire think to be true about public housing in America based off this episode?

Be sure that your answer:

A) contains a claim

B) supports your claim with relevant evidence in the form of direct quotations of no more than 10 words from the show’s dialogue. If you aren't sure how to reduce a quotation, see here (very helpful).

C) Uses a warrant to explain how and why the evidence supports the claim. THE WARRANT WILL BE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS ASSIGNMENT. Some tips: (A) your warrant is NOT a repetition of your claim (B) your warrant is NOT another place to introduce new evidence. Your warrant needs to explain how and why your evidence supports you claim -- a good warrant will interpret your evidence, not rephrase it.


To get you started, I’ve provided you with a template for your paragraph:

(Claim): The HBO series the Wire presents the history of public housing in America as _________. Evidence for this can be seen in a speech delivered by the character of Baltimore’s mayor. (evidence) Mayor Royce, for example, says______________. (warrant) These words present the image of public housing as_______because________.

How will Fritz grade this part of the assignment?

I will ask the following questions as I grade your paragraph

1) Do you have clear claim that makes a logical argument?
2) Have you supported your claim with relevant evidence?
3) Have you introduced your quotation properly (no "drop quotes"?)
4) Have you reduced your quotation to ten or fewer words?
5) MOST IMPORTANTLY: DOES YOUR WARRANT CLEARLY EXPLAIN HOW AND WHY YOUR EVIDENCE SUPPORTS YOUR CLAIM?

 

Part II: Researching with the New York Times Historical File

 

Help With Library Research:

This library research uses an on-line database from the library, so you DO NOT need to be at the library to use the database -- but you do need access to the internet.

A) Click here for an ms-word file that describes how to locate the database.

B)click here for a web-version of how to locate and use that database (with screenshots)

 

The Database you will be using for this assignment requires knowing your John Jay username and password if you are doing the research from an off-campus computer. If you don't know your username & password, you can get it from eSIMS.

To log onto eSIMS:
http://esims.cuny.edu/NotLoggedInServlet?CurrentCommand=CollegeProcess&CollegeCode=JJ

User Name: For students, your username is consisted of your full first name.(dot) full last name(no spaces), e.g., john.smith@jjay.cuny.edu.
.
Password: Your default password for eSIMS will be jj followed by the last four digits of your social security number. So if your social security number ended in 6660 your default password would be:

jj6660

Questions?

Contact the Help Desk, please call 212-237-8200 any day between 8 AM and 12 Midnight or email helpdesk@jjay.cuny.edu

The library also runs a help line at the reference desk during library hours, Phone: (212) 237-8246

 

 

IMPORTANT HINTS:

When you do this research with the database, many article will come up. Be sure that you at least skim every article to assess its relevance to the question at hand. Just because an article is about the Amsterdam Houses does NOT mean it's useful for answering the question the assignment asks. Most articles won't be relevant to the question. Your task as a researcher is to decide which articles can help answer the question and which you should ignore.

Historical Research Question

Use the New York Times Historical File database (see above) to answer the follow question:

1)What was, in many ways, NEW about the racial dynamics of the Amsterdam Houses? Using the New York Times Historical File, look for articles from January 1st, 1948 -- until December 31, 1950 using the search phrase"Amsterdam Houses"

What conclusions can you come to? Describe your conclusions and how you reached them in a brief paragraph.


You are not required to use and identify cl/ev/wa when answering these historical research questions (as you were with the question on The Wire above), but you will receive up to 5% extra-credit if you do so.


GETTING A HEAD-START ON THE NEXT ASSIGNMENT: If you have extra time because of the long-weekend, you might want to get a head start on the next homework to save time next week (when you may be more hectic). If so, STEP II of Homework 2 is very much like this research question, so it will save you time in the long run to do it now.