CSI reading & writing

1. Claim: Underline or annotate a few key words and write "C" in the margin next to it the main idea of what the author wants the reader to think. Click here for directions on annotating test using google docs.

Hints:

1. The title and context found in the blurb contained above the passage are often helpful, too, so read those first.
2. The claim is usually in the first two or three paragraphs, but sometimes it is revealed near the end or in the conclusion.

2. Supports: Underline or annotate a few key words and write "S" in the margin next to evidence, examples, and impact analysis the author includes to support the claim.

Hints:

1. supports are usually found in the middle of the texts. Body paragraphs and sections are typically organized around individual examples or sub claims.
2. Analysis is how the author builds links between their supports and their claim.

3. Impacts: Underline or annotate a few key words and write "I" in the margin next to what the author hopes will change when the reader accepts their claim.

Hints:

1. All essays ultimately seek to persuade, even science articles. Yes, there is always an agenda in operation.
2. To find the impact, you first need to identify the audience and purpose. Audience is who is the document for. Purpose is what the author wants that audience to do.
3. Sometimes the writer doesn't explicitly name their audience is or specifically say what they want so will you have to "read between the lines" and infer it.
4. Often you can find the impact in the conclusion and sometimes in the intro.

EXAMPLE: A first pass reading the American Declaration of Independence should reveal something like this. Note how I use tiny quotes as support:

1. Claim: Jefferson's claim is that the American colonies are right to seek independence, or “dissolve the political bands” described in the first paragraph.
2. Supports: Jefferson's supports are “these truths” he described about rights and the long list of grievances like "imposing taxes on us without our consent" that compose the body of the text.
3. Impact: Jefferson's purpose was to persuade his audience, American colonists to join their cause, to stick together, and be prepared to make sacrifices for independence, or to “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” at the very end. At very least, there is an implied hope that the reader will at least not get in their way or help the loyalists.

But in everything we read, the author tells us a ton of different things. How can I tell which one is the claim and which ones are supports?

Let's look at an example. The most famous phrase from the American Declaration of Independence is that “all men are created equal.” Surprisingly, that is NOT actually the claim, it was actually a support to support the idea “That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.” How can you tell the difference? The core claim is an opinion broad enough that it connects to every part of the writing. By contrast, supports are only linked to the claim but not to all the other supports. For example, "all men are created equal" does not not link directly to Jefferson's complaints about taxation without representation. Yet both of his points about taxes and equality do link to his argument for independence. In this way we know that independence is his core claim and the rest are supports.

One more thought: I get it, some of the readings we assign are hard and some are poorly written. Still, I think you should cut authors some slack. Many of the readings you get in school were chosen because they were the first time anyone ever tried to explain a brand-new idea. How likely is it that it would be crystal clear on the first go? How good did you do the first time you tried to write your name, tie your shoes, or ride a bike? The adults in your life didn't give up on you, so you shouldn't give up on trying to figure out what authors are saying. If you have the patience, I promise that there's something of value in there for you. I bet the idea in the text has had a direct impact on your life. If you can't explain how, you need more practice at reading.

2. The second pass - a closer read looking for answers and evidence for these questions…

Read the passage again, answering these prompts. You can fashion your responses in imitation of the models I provide for each. Support each answer with short quotes from the document. In addition, you can use cited, short quotes from any resource from your research to prove your points. Please limit yourself to no more than three sentences for each question:

1. Audience: Who was the author of the passage writing to? Sometimes the document names their audience, but when they don't, you might have to infer from your understanding of the society who the most likely reader would be.

Example: The Declaration of Independence was speaking to "the good People of these Colonies," people who were either opposed to these or undecided about whether or not to support the fight to create a new government.

Here's another:

The Urukagina Liberty Cone does not name a specific audience, but one can infer that people living in Lagash who believed in "Ningirsu, warrior of Enlil" would find the description of his career persuasive. Since it also lists lots of different occupations including farmers, boatmen, brewers, shepherds, singers, herdsmen, bakers, land-holding slaves called "shublugals" and many others, one can infer this was intended for the laborers of Lagash.

2. Purpose: What did the author or authors hope their audience would think, say, or do after reading or hearing the document? There can be more than one purpose, too.

Examples: At best, the signatories of the Declaration of Independence hoped the colonists would join the revolution and "mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." At very least, they hoped the reader would be in "support of this Declaration," and not side with the British against the revolutionaries.

Here's another:

It seems to me that the goal of the writer was to convince the reader that Urukagina's reforms were religiously-motivated return to order. By declaring that "the fates of former times he restored, and the commands which his master Ningirsu had spoken to him he seized upon," the writer likely hopes they will accept Urukagina's laws and not rebel against them.

3. Polemics: All documents seek to change minds. What people and ideas was the passage created to attack? In addition to a quote or two from the document, you can use cited quotations from other research you've done to answer this question. Keep in mind that even science articles have some level of polemic directed against people who don't accept the findings of the research. Can you drill down to who the author's opponents are in terms of status, age, gender, wealth, education, ethnicity, belief, location, etc?

Examples: The Declaration of Independence polemicized King George III by listing dozen of crimes. Among them, the authors alleged that he "plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people."

Here's another:

The Liberty Cone attacks Urukagina's predecessor, Lugalanda for his abuses of power. One notable one is this, enslaving blind people to dig ditches and wells: " When a royal subordinate on the narrow side of his field built his well, blind workers were appropriated for it, and for the irrigation channels(?) located within the field blind workers were (also) appropriated."

4. Apologetics: Who or what is the passage defending? What was the narrative that the document is seeking to respond to? In addition to a quote or two from the document, you can use cited quotations from other research you've done to answer this question. Keep in mind when looking at your article that authors often use apologetics to defend themselves, but they can also do it to defend groups to which they belong or sympathize with. Can you drill down to who the author supports in terms of status, age, gender, wealth, education, location, ethnicity, belief, etc?

Examples: The authors of the Declaration of Independence also engaged in apologetics for revolutionaries by simply not mentioning anything about the Boston Tea Party, the Sons of Liberty, the Worcester Revolution and other violent incidents and groups involving revolutionaries, many of which are described in Adam Soward's abc-clio article "American Revolution." This conspicuous silence in the Declaration was probably designed to counter the narrative that said that the revolutionaries were just a bunch of mindless criminals or ungrateful, disloyal traitors.

Here's another:

In a strange way, the text arguably tries to rescue the reputation of not just Urukagina, but also the gods Enlil and Ningirsu who arguably could be blamed for allowing Lugalanda to abuse his power in the first place. The author wishes us to believe that Urukagina was the instrument of divine justice, and through him they ordained "that the orphan or widow to the powerful will not be subjugated, with Ningirsu Urukagina made a binding agreement as to that command."

Writing with CSI:

You can use this realization to make yourself a better writer, too. Let's start by doing a hypothetical CSI reading of your OWN writing in school. What would it reveal? My guess is that the underlying purpose of most student writing is one of the following: 1. to get a good grade to get into college and avoid poverty, 2. to satisfy the expectations of the adults in your life and thereby get rewards or avoid punishment, or 3. to meet your own expectations for achievement. I was no different as a student writer. The underlying purpose of the work I did boiled down to one unstated purpose, "please teacher, gimme an A, I really don't wanna flunk and have to listen to my mom yell at me." And who wants to read that? Yawn. No wonder I got bad marks. I didn't have the skill to say anything more meaningful at that point.

Can we do better? Sure we can! Let's start by trading places. Let's imagine you're me, and it's your job is to read student writing. Who honestly wants to read a bunch of essays where the only change they're trying to make is to move an integer in PowerSchool? Not you. Not me. Nobody.

So how can we do better? Look at the greats to learn their secrets. For instance, Thomas Jefferson was writing for a greater purpose, the ability of a people to determine their own future independent from foreign interference. He got his ideas from READING, too. Jefferson didn't write about John Locke in order to pass a class or get into Yale, he wrote about him in order to liberate humanity from tyranny. That's why we still read Jefferson's declaration today. Alas, it's also the same reason my high school civics essays have been justifiably forgotten.

Okay, Jefferson was a man with a mission. But what if I'm not? If I'm in the habit of only writing for grades, how can I find a greater purpose to speak to? What if all I know how to do is report? Let's look to a more recent expert for advice. In a 2001 lecture at Lincoln Center, Columbia education professor Maxine Green argued that “[e]ducation is a process of enabling persons to become different.” So ask this: how should I be different as a result of what I read? Your answer to either question would be a meaningful claim. To be clear, this doesn't mean that you have to agree with the author's claim or that you believe in the impact they were trying to achieve. You can both agree and disagree with an author at the same time as you can see an example in my model at the bottom of the page.

Another path to a meaningful thesis is to think about what the reading make you want to DO. And yes, I get it. For some, the only thing the reading makes you want to do is sleep. But I argue that in most cases, that's only because you haven't put in the energy to figure out what they're trying to say. Would you think it was fair for people to judge you without at least listening to you first? Surely not. By definition, you can't care about anything unless you first know something about it. In my experience, there are exactly zero meaningful things in life that require little or no effort.

CSI reading is a tool for helping you to find that purpose and to give it powerful expression. Try following these steps on your next journal or essay responding to a reading. You may then come out of it with not just a good grade, but a greater sense of purpose in yourself and some good ideas about what to do next.

Please use this system to respond to the reading or document(s) you just read:

1. Claim: Choose an idea from the reading and say whether or not you agree with it.

Hints:

1. Begin with a topic sentence setting out the who, what, where, and when of the document you're responding to.
2. Follow the topic sentence with the quote, explaining whether or not you accept the idea.

2. Supports: Prove your claim with three supports:

Hints:

1. Use at least one quote from the text.
2. Use one or two other examples from outside the text as support. These could be things you've studied before in this or in other classes, or your own experiences.

3. Impacts: End by explaining the impact of your argument.

Hints:

1. Link each support to your claim about whether or not you accept the author's idea.
2. End with a sentence or two explaining how accepting your claim should change what we think and do.

EXAMPLE: A CSI paragraph response to the American Declaration of Independence might look like this. Note how I've colored my claim with purple, my supports with blue, and my impact with gold:

In the famous 1776 American Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson famously argued that "all men are created equal." I agree with this, but the fact that a slave holder wrote this seems hypocritical. The fact was that in his time "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" were actually just for men who owned property. The hypocrisy must have lasted a long time or there would not have been an American Civil War or a civil rights movement, and unfortunately, it didn't end there. And even today, I am reminded of this every time I hear somebody say something bad about a person because of their race, religion, nationality, gender, sexuality, or their beliefs. When you challenge people who say this stuff, they'll deny being racist and tell you by saying that someone is racist, that you're the one who is the hypocrite who doesn't believe in equality. Perhaps the lesson is that it is easier to declare independence from a country than it is to liberate ourselves from our own prejudices. Maybe the next phase in the American Revolution should be for us to have the courage to take a hard look at ourselves and dare to rebel against the bias that's inside all of us.