Please make sure that is is your own work and not copy and paste off of someone else work or article

7From Finding to Evaluating Sources

In this chapter, we look at strategies for expanding the base of sources you work with to support your argument. The habits and skills of close reading and analysis that we have discussed and that you have practiced are essential for evaluating the sources you find. Once you find sources, you will need to assess the claims the writers make, the extent to which they provide evidence in support of those claims, and the recency, relevance, accuracy, and reliability of the evidence. The specific strategies we discuss here are those you will use to find and evaluate the sources you locate in your library’s electronic catalog or on the Internet. These strategies are core skills for developing a researched academic argument.

Finding sources is not difficult; finding and identifying reliable, relevant sources is challenging. You know how simple it is to look up a subject in an encyclopedia or to use a search engine like Google to discover basic information on a subject or topic. Unfortunately, this kind of research will take you only so far. What if the information you find doesn’t really address your question? True, we have emphasized the importance of thinking about an issue from multiple perspectives — and finding multiple perspectives is easy when you search the Internet. But how do you know whether a perspective is authoritative or trustworthy or even legitimate? Without knowing how to find and identify good sources, you can waste a lot of time reading material that will not contribute to your essay. Our goal is to help you use your time wisely to collect the sources you need to support your argument.

IDENTIFYING SOURCES

We assume that by the time you visit the library or search the Internet to find sources, you are not flying blind. At the very least you will have chosen a topic you want to explore (something in general you want to write about), possibly will have identified an issue (a question or problem about the topic that is arguable), and perhaps will even have a working thesis (a main claim that you want to test against other sources).

Let’s say, for example, that you are interested in the topic of nutrition and obesity. Perhaps you have begun to formulate an issue: Trends show that obesity is increasing at a time when published reports are also showing that the food industry may have been complicit by engineering processed foods with high fat, sugar, and salt content. In fact, these reports point to the lack of nutritional value of processed foods. The issue might be between what you see as an unfortunate trend that affects the health of a growing population of children and adults in the United States and the extent to which food manufacturers contribute to the problem. You may have begun to formulate a question about who is responsible for addressing this problem. Should individuals be more responsible for making good choices? Should food manufacturers monitor themselves and be more responsible to consumers? Should the government intervene to ensure that processed foods provide adequate nutrients and less fat, sugar, and salt? The closer you are to identifying an issue or question, the more purposeful your research will be and the more you will be able to home in on the materials that will be most useful. As you read, your research will help you refine your idea, formulate a question, and develop a working thesis.

However, a working thesis is just a place to begin. As you digest all of the perspectives that your research yields, your interest in the topic or issue may shift significantly. Maybe you’ll end up writing about the extent to which the government should have a role, any role, in regulating the food industry rather than about obesity. Perhaps you become interested in trends in food distribution and end up writing about what some call the “locavore” movement. Be open to revising your ideas and confronting the complexities inherent in any topic. Pursue what interests you and what is timely and relevant to your readers. The question, then, is what are you trying to learn and demonstrate?

If you are unsure about where to start, we provide a list of standard resources for conducting research in Table 7.1. For example, you could begin by looking up abstracts, a tool researchers use to get a brief snapshot of the field and summaries of potentially relevant articles. You can simply do a Google search, type in “abstracts,” and add the topic that interests you (“abstracts in health sciences”). You can also look up book reviews to see how others might have responded to a book from which you first learned about the problems of obesity, nutrition, food production, and the like. More specialized searches will take you to databases available on a given library’s Web site.

TABLE 7.1Standard Resources for Conducting Research
SOURCE	TYPE OF INFORMATION	PURPOSE	LIMITATIONS	EXAMPLES
Abstract	Brief summary of a text and the bibliographic information needed to locate the complete text	To help researchers decide whether they want to read the entire source	May be too brief to fully assess the value of a source	Biological Abstracts Historical Abstracts New Testament Abstracts Reference Sources in History: An Introductory Guide
Bibliography	List of works, usually by subject and author, with full publication information	For an overview of what has been published in a field and who the principal researchers in the field are	Difficult to distinguish the best sources and the most prominent researchers	Bibliography of the History of Art MLA International Bibliography
Biography	Story of an individual’s life and the historical, cultural, or social context in which he or she lived	For background on a person of importance	Lengthy and reflects the author’s bias	Biography and Genealogy Master Index Biography Resource Center Biography.com Literature Resource Center Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Book review	Description and usually an evaluation of a recently published book	To help readers stay current with research and thought in their field and to evaluate scholarship	Reflects the reviewer’s bias	ALA Booklist Book Review Digest Book Review Index Bowker Books in Print
Database	Large collection of citations and abstracts from books, journals, and digests, often updated daily	To give researchers access to a wide range of current sources	Lacks evaluative information	EBSCOhost Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) Humanities International Index Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings United Nations Bibliographic Information System
Data, statistics	Measurements derived from studies or surveys	To help researchers identify important trends (e.g., in voting, housing, residential segregation)	Requires a great deal of scrutiny and interpretation	American FactFinder American National Election Studies Current Index to Statistics Current Population Survey U.S. Census Bureau National Data Book
Dictionary	Alphabetical list of words and their definitions	To explain key terms and how they are used		Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Oxford English Dictionary The Oxford Dictionary of Current English
Encyclopedia	Concise articles about people, places, concepts, and things	A starting point for very basic information	Lack of in-depth information	The CQ Researcher Encyclopedia Brittanica Online McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology
Internet search engine	Web site that locates online information by keyword or search term	For quickly locating a broad array of current resources	Reliability of information open to question	Google Google Scholar
Newspaper, other news sources	Up-to-date information	To locate timely information	May reflect reporter’s or medium’s bias	America’s Historical Newspapers LexisNexis Academic Newspaper Source ProQuest Historical Newspapers World News Connection
Thesaurus	Alphabetical list of words and their synonyms	For alternative search terms		Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus Pro Quest Thesaurus

◼ Consult Experts Who Can Guide Your Research

Before you embark on a systematic hunt for sources, you may want to consult with experts who can help guide your research. The following experts are nearer to hand and more approachable than you may think.

Your writing instructor.

 

Your first and best expert is likely to be your writing instructor, who can help you define the limits of your research and the kinds of sources that would prove most helpful. Your writing instructor can probably advise you on whether your topic is too broad or too narrow, help you identify your issue, and perhaps even point you to specific reference works or readings you should consult. He or she can also help you figure out whether you should concentrate mainly on popular or scholarly sources (for more about popular and scholarly sources, see pp. 170–73).

Librarians at your campus or local library.

 

In all likelihood, there is no better repository of research material than your campus or local library, and no better guide to those resources than the librarians who work there. Their job is to help you find what you need (although it’s up to you to make the most of what you find). Librarians can give you a map or tour of the library and provide you with booklets or other handouts that instruct you in the specific resources available and their uses. They can explain the catalog system and reference system. And, time allowing, most librarians are willing to give you personal help in finding and using specific sources, from books and journals to indexes and databases.

Experts in other fields.

 

Perhaps the idea for your paper originated outside your writing course, in response to a reading assigned in, say, your psychology or economics course. If so, you may want to discuss your topic or issue with the instructor in that course, who can probably point you to other readings or journals you should consult. If your topic originated outside the classroom, you can still seek out an expert in the appropriate field. If so, you may want to read the advice on interviewing we present in Chapter 13.

Manuals, handbooks, and dedicated Web sites.

 

These resources exist in abundance, for general research as well as for discipline-specific research. They are especially helpful in identifying a wide range of authoritative search tools and resources, although they also offer practical advice on how to use and cite them. Indeed, your writing instructor may assign one of these manuals or handbooks, or recommend a Web site, at the beginning of the course. If not, he or she can probably point you to the one that is best suited to your research.

◼ Develop a Working Knowledge of Standard Sources

As you start your hunt for sources, it helps to know broadly what kinds of sources are available and what they can help you accomplish. Table 7.1 lists a number of the resources you are likely to rely on when you are looking for material, the purpose and limitations of each type of resource, and some well-known examples. Although it may not help you pinpoint specific resources that are most appropriate for your research, the table does provide a basis for finding sources in any discipline. And familiarizing yourself with the types of resources here should make your conversations with the experts more productive.

◼ Distinguish between Primary and Secondary Sources

As you define the research task before you, you will need to understand the difference between primary and secondary sources and figure out which you will need to answer your question. Your instructor may specify which he or she prefers, but chances are you will have to make the decision yourself. A primary source is a firsthand, or eyewitness, account, the kind of account you find in letters or newspapers or research reports in which the researcher explains his or her impressions of a particular phenomenon. A secondary source is an analysis of information reported in a primary source.

If you were exploring issues of language diversity and the English-only movement, you would draw on both primary and secondary sources. You would be interested in researchers’ firsthand (primary) accounts of language learning and use by diverse learners for examples of the challenges nonnative speakers face in learning a standard language. And you would also want to know from secondary sources what others think about whether national unity and individuality can and should coexist in communities and homes as well as in schools. You will find that you are often expected to use both primary and secondary sources in your research.

◼ Distinguish between Popular and Scholarly Sources

To determine the type of information to use, you also need to decide whether you should look for popular or scholarly books and articles. Popular sources of information — newspapers like USA Today and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and large-circulation magazines like Time Magazine and Field & Stream — are written for a general audience. This is not to say that popular sources cannot be specialized: The Chronicle of Higher Education is read mostly by academics; Field & Stream, by people who love the outdoors. But they are written so that any educated reader can understand them. Scholarly sources, by contrast, are written for experts in a particular field. The New England Journal of Medicine may be read by people who are not physicians, but they are not the journal’s primary audience. In a manner of speaking, these readers are eavesdropping on the journal’s conversation of ideas; they are not expected to contribute to it (and in fact would be hard pressed to do so). The articles in scholarly journals undergo peer review. That is, they do not get published until they have been carefully evaluated by the author’s peers, other experts in the academic conversation being conducted in the journal. Reviewers may comment at length about an article’s level of research and writing, and an author may have to revise an article several times before it sees print. And if the reviewers cannot reach a consensus that the research makes an important contribution to the academic conversation, the article will not be published.

When you begin your research, you may find that popular sources provide helpful information about a topic or an issue — the results of a national poll, for example. Later, however, you will want to use scholarly sources to advance your argument. You can see from Table 7.2 that popular magazines and scholarly journals can be distinguished by a number of characteristics. Does the source contain advertisements? If so, what kinds of advertisements? For commercial products? Or for academic events and resources? How do the advertisements appear? If you find ads and glossy pictures and illustrations, you are probably looking at a popular magazine. This is in contrast to the tables, charts, and diagrams you are likely to find in an education, psychology, or microbiology journal. Given your experience with rhetorical analyses, you should also be able to determine the makeup of your audience — specialists or nonspecialists — and the level of language you need to use in your writing.

TABLE 7.2Popular Magazines versus Scholarly Journals
CRITERIA	POPULAR MAGAZINES	SCHOLARLY JOURNALS
Advertisements	Numerous full-page color ads	Few if any ads
Appearance	Eye-catching; glossy; pictures and illustrations	Plain; black-and-white graphics, tables, charts, and diagrams
Audience	General	Professors, researchers, and college students
Author	Journalists	Professionals in an academic field or discipline
Bibliography	Brief acknowledgment of sources in text, usually without complete citation information	Extensive bibliography at the end of each article; footnotes and other documentation
Content	General articles to inform, update, or introduce a contemporary issue	Research projects, methodology, and theory
Examples	Newsweek, National Review, PC World, Psychology Today	International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, New England Journal of Medicine
Language	Nontechnical, simple vocabulary	Specialized vocabulary
Publisher	Commercial publisher	Professional organization, university, research institute, or scholarly press
Information from materials at the Hesburgh Library, University of Notre Dame.

Again, as you define your task for yourself, it is important to consider why you would use one source or another. Do you want facts? Opinions? News reports? Research studies? Analyses? Personal reflections? The extent to which the information can help you make your argument will serve as your basis for determining whether a source of information is of value.

Steps to Identifying Sources

1. Consult experts who can guide your research. Talk to people who can help you formulate issues and questions.

2. Develop a working knowledge of standard sources. Identify the different kinds of information that different types of sources provide.

3. Distinguish between primary and secondary sources. Decide what type of information can best help you answer your research question.

4. Distinguish between popular and scholarly sources. Determine what kind of information will persuade your readers.

A Practice Sequence: Identifying Sources

We would now like you to practice using some of the strategies we have discussed so far: talking with experts, deciding what sources of information you should use, and determining what types of information can best help you develop your paper and persuade your readers. We assume you have chosen a topic for your paper, identified an issue, and perhaps formulated a working thesis. If not, think back to some of the topics mentioned in earlier chapters. Have any of them piqued your interest? If not, here are five very broad topics you might work with:

· higher education student loans

· the media and gender

· global health

· science and religion

· immigration

Once you’ve decided on a topic, talk to experts and decide which types of sources you should use: primary or secondary, popular or scholarly. Consult with your classmates to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different sources of information and the appropriateness of using different types of information. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Talk to a librarian about the sources you might use to get information about your topic (for example, databases, abstracts, or bibliographies). Be sure to take notes.

2. Talk to an expert who can provide you with some ideas about current issues in the field of interest. Be sure to take detailed notes.

3. Decide whether you should use primary or secondary sources or some combination of the two. What type of information would help you develop your argument?

4. Decide whether you should use popular or scholarly sources or whether some of each would be appropriate. What type of information would your readers find c

SEARCHING FOR SOURCES

Once you’ve decided on the types of sources you want to use — primary or secondary, popular or scholarly — you can take steps to locate the information you need. You might begin with a tour of your university or local library, so that you know where the library keeps newspapers, government documents, books, journals, and other sources of information. Notice where the reference desk is: This is where you should head to ask a librarian for help if you get stuck. You also want to find a computer where you can log on to your library’s catalog to start your search. Once you have located your sources in the library, you can begin to look through them for the information you need.

You may be tempted to rely on the Internet and a search engine like Google. But keep in mind that the information you retrieve from the Internet may not be trustworthy: Anyone can post his or her thoughts on a Web site. Of course, you can also find excellent scholarly sources on the Internet. (For example, Johns Hopkins University Press manages Project MUSE, a collection of 300-plus academic journals that can be accessed online through institutional subscription.) School libraries also offer efficient access to government records and other sources essential to scholarly writing.

Let’s say you are about to start researching a paper on language diversity and the English-only movement. When you log on to the library’s site, you find a menu of choices: Catalog, Electronic Resources, Virtual Reference Desk, and Services & Collections. (The wording may vary slightly from library to library, but the means of locating information will be the same.) When you click on Catalog, another menu of search choices appears: Keyword, Title, Author, and Subject (Figure 7.1). The hunt is on.

The menu reads as follows:

Search types: Keyword anywhere, Title begins with…, Title keyword, Author (last name first), Author Keyword, Subject begins with…, Subject keyword, Call Number begins with…, and More Search Options.

FIGURE 7.1Menu of Basic Search Strategies

◼ Perform a Keyword Search

A keyword is essentially your topic: It defines the topic of your search. To run a keyword search, you can look up information by author, title, or subject. You would search by author to locate all the works a particular author has written on a subject. So, for example, if you know that Paul Lang is an expert on the consequences of the English-only movement, you might begin with an author search. You can use the title search to locate all works with a key term or phrase in the title. The search results are likely to include a number of irrelevant titles, but you should end up with a list of authors, titles, and subject headings to guide another search.

A search by subject is particularly helpful as you begin your research, while you are still formulating your thesis. You want to start by thinking of as many words as possible that relate to your topic. (A thesaurus can help you come up with different words you can use in a keyword search.) Suppose you type in the phrase “English only.” A number of different sources appear on the screen, but the most promising is Paul Lang’s book The English Language Debate: One Nation, One Language? You click on this record, and another screen appears with some valuable pieces of information, including the call number (which tells you where in the library you can find the book) and an indication that the book has a bibliography, something you can make use of once you find the book (Figure 7.2). Notice that the subject listings — Language policy, English language–Political aspects, English-only movement, Bilingual education — also give you additional keywords to use in finding relevant information. The lesson here is that it is important to generate keywords to get initial information and then to look at that information carefully for more keywords and to determine if the source has a bibliography. Even if this particular source isn’t relevant, it may lead you to other sources that are.

The biblography reads as follows:

“Full view of Record

Record 12 out of 18

Sources – Author: Lang, Paul (Paul C.); Title: The English language debate: onr nation, one language?/ Paul Lang; Published: Springfield, N, J. : Enslow Publisher, c1995. 112. : lll. ; 24 cm.

ND Has: All Items, Hesburgh Library General Collection P.119.32 U6 E55 1995 [call number

Notes: Includes biblographical references (p. 107-109) and index. ] Indicates book has a biblograaphy

Series: Multicultural issues

Subjects: Language policy – United States – Juvenille iterature; English language – Political aspects – United States – Juvenile literature.

Additional lits of related subjects ] English-only movement – United States – Juvenile literature; Education, Bilingual – United States – Juvenile literature; ] English-only movement; English langualge – Political aspects; Education, Bilingual.

FIGURE 7.2Full-View Bibliographic Entry

◼ Try Browsing

Browse is a headings search; it appears in the menu of choices in Figure 7.1 as “Subject begins with . . .” This type of search allows you to scroll through an alphabetical index. Some of the indexes available are the Author Index, the Title Index, and the Library of Congress Subject Headings, a subject index. Browse

· displays an alphabetical list of entries;

· shows the number of records for each entry;

· indicates whether there are cross-references for each entry.

What appears in the window is “Browse List: Choose a field, enter a phrase and click the ‘go’ button.” Figure 7.3 shows the results of a preliminary browse when the words “English-only” are entered. Notice that a list of headings or titles appears on the screen. This is not a list of books, and not all of the entries are relevant. But you can use the list to determine which headings are relevant to your topic, issue, or question.

The screenshot reads as follows:

Browse list: Subjects

No. of Recs: Nil; Entry: English one-act plays – [LC Authority Record]; see: One-act plays;

No. of Recs: Nil; Entry: English; English-only debate – [LC Authority Record]; See: English-only movement

No. of Recs: 4; Entry: English-only movement – [LC Authority Record]

No. of Recs: 1; Entry: English-only movement – California – Case studies

No. of Recs: 1; Entry: English-only movement – Colorado

No. of Recs: 4; Entry: English-only movement – United States

No. of Recs: 1; Entry: English-only movement – United States – Juvenile literature; English-only queestion – [LC Authority Record]; See: English only movement

No of Recs: 1; Entry: English – Ontario – Correspondence

No of Recs: 1; Entry: English oration

FIGURE 7.3Preliminary Browse of “English-only” Subject Heading

For your paper on the English-only movement, the first two headings seem relevant: English-only debate and English-only movement. A further click would reveal the title of a relevant book and a new list of subject headings (Figure 7.4) that differs from those of your initial search. This list gives you a new bibliography from which you can gather new leads and a list of subject headings to investigate.

The screenshot reads as folows:

No, 1; A check box; Year, 2008; Author, United States; Title, Englosh as the official language : hearing before the subcommittee on EducationReform of the Co, Click for ONLINE ACCESS {Text version:}, Documemnts Center Owned; 1 Checked Out: 0, Display full record

No, 2; A check box; Year 1996; Author, Untited States; Title, S. 356 – Language of Government Act of 1995 : hearing befor the committee on governmental Affai, Document Center, display full record

No, 3; A check box; Year, 1996; Author, United States; Title, hearing on English as the common language ; Hearing before the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Documents Center, Display full record

No, 4; A check box; Year, 1995; Author, United States; Title, hearing on English as the common language, hearing before the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Yo, Documents Center, Display full record.

FIGURE 7.4Results of Browsing Deeper: A New List of Sources

We suggest that you do a keyword search first and then a browse search to home in on a subject. Especially when you don’t know the exact subject, you can do a quick keyword search, retrieve many sets of results, and then begin looking at the subjects that correspond to each title. Once you find a subject that fits your needs, you can click on the direct subject (found in each bibliographic record) and execute a new search that will yield more relevant results.

◼ Perform a Journal or Newspaper Title Search

Finally, you can search by journal or newspaper title. For this kind of search, you will need exact information. You can take the name of a journal, magazine, or newspaper cited in your keyword or browse search. The journal or newspaper title search will tell you if your library subscribes to the publication and in what format — print, microform or microfilm, or electronic.

Suppose you want to continue your search for information on the English-only movement by looking for articles in the New York Times. You would run a basic search under the category “Periodicals”: “Periodical Title begins with . . .” That would give you access to a limited number of articles that focused on the debate surrounding the English-only movement. To find more recent articles, you could go to the New York Times Web site (nytimes.com), where you could find many potentially useful listings. Newspaper articles will lack the depth and complexity of more scholarly studies, but they are undeniably useful in helping you establish the timeliness and relevance of your research. You can usually preview the articles because the Web site will include a few sentences describing the content of each article. If a site requires that you subscribe or pay a nominal fee before viewing the full text of an article, check to see if you already have free access through your school’s library.

Steps to Searching for Sources

1. Perform a keyword search. Choose a word or phrase that best describes your topic.

2. Try browsing. Search an alphabetical list by subject.

3. Perform a journal or newspaper title search. Find relevant citations by limiting your search with the exact title of a journal or newspaper.

A Practice Sequence: Searching for Sources

If you tried the practice sequence on identifying sources (pp. 172–73), explore your topic further by practicing the types of searches discussed in this section: a keyword search; a browse; and a journal or newspaper title search (or a subject search).

EVALUATING LIBRARY SOURCES

The information you encounter will vary in terms of its relevance and overall quality. You will want to evaluate this information as systematically as possible to be sure that you are using the most appropriate sources to develop your argument. Once you have obtained at least some of the sources you located by searching your library’s catalog, you should evaluate the material as you read it. In particular, you want to evaluate the following information for each article or book:

· the author’s background and credentials (What is the author’s educational background? What has he or she written about in the past? Is this person an expert in the field?)

· the author’s purpose

· the topic of discussion

· the audience the author invokes and whether you are a member of that audience

· the nature of the conversation (How have others addressed the problem?)

· what the author identifies as a misinterpretation or a gap in knowledge, an argument that needs modifying, or a hypothesis

· what the author’s own view is

· how the author supports his or her argument (that is, with primary or secondary sources, with popular or scholarly articles, with facts or opinions)

· the accuracy of the author’s evidence (Can you find similar information elsewhere?)

If your topic is current, chances are your searches are going to turn up a large number of possible sources. How do you go about choosing which sources to rely on in your writing? Of course, if time were not an issue, you could read them all from start to finish. But in the real world, assignments come with due dates. To decide whether a library source merits a close reading and evaluation, begin by skimming each book or article. Skimming — briefly examining the material to get a sense of the information it offers — involves four steps:

1. Read the introductory sections.

2. Examine the table of contents and index.

3. Check the notes and bibliographic references.

4. Skim for the argument.

◼ Read the Introductory Sections

Turn to the introductory sections of the text first. Many authors use a preface or an introduction to explain the themes they focus on in a book. An abstract serves a similar purpose, but article abstracts are usually only 250 words long. In the introductory sections, writers typically describe the issue that motivated them to write and indicate whether they believe the work corrects a misconception, fills a gap, or builds on and extends the research of others. For example, in the preface to her book Learning and Not Learning English: Latino Students in American Schools (2001), Guadalupe Valdés explains that even after two years of language instruction, many students remain at a low level of language competence. In this passage, Valdés makes clear the purpose of her work:

This book examines the learning of English in American schools by immigrant children. It focuses on the realities that such youngsters face in trying to acquire English in settings in which they interact exclusively with other non-English-speaking youngsters the entire school day. It is designed to fill a gap in the existing literature on non-English-background youngsters by offering a glimpse of the challenges and difficulties faced by four middle-school students enrolled in the United States for the first time when they were 12 or 13 years old. It is my purpose here to use these youngsters’ lives and experiences as a lens through which to examine the policy and instructional dilemmas that now surround the education of immigrant children in this country. (p. 2)

If you were looking for sources for a paper on the English-only movement, in particular the consequences of that movement for young students, you might very well find Valdés’s words compelling and decide the book is worth a closer reading.

◼ Examine the Table of Contents and Index

After reading the introductory sections, you will find it useful to analyze the table of contents to see how much emphasis the writer gives to topics that are relevant to your own research. For example, the table of contents to Learning and Not Learning English includes several headings that may relate to your interest: “Educating English-Language Learners,” “Challenges and Realities,” “Implications for Policy and Practice,” and the “Politics of Teaching English.” You also should turn to the back of the book to examine the index, an alphabetical list of the important and recurring concepts in a book, and the page numbers on which they appear. An index also would include the names of authors cited in the book. In the index to Valdés’s book, you would find references to “English-language abilities and instruction” with specific page numbers where you can read what the author has to say on this subject. You would also find references to “English-only instruction,” “equal educational opportunities,” and “sheltered instruction.”

◼ Check the Notes and Bibliographic References

Especially in the initial stages of your writing, you should look closely at writers’ notes and bibliographies to discern who they feel are the important voices in the field. Frequent citation of a particular researcher’s work may indicate that the individual is considered to be an expert in the field you are studying. Notes usually provide brief references to people, concepts, or context; the bibliography includes a long list of related works. Mining Valdés’s bibliography, you would find such titles as “Perspectives on Official English,” “Language Policy in Schools,” “Not Only English,” “Language and Power,” and “The Cultural Politics of English.”

◼ Skim for the Argument

Skimming a book or an article entails briefly looking over the elements we have discussed so far: the preface or abstract, the table of contents and the index, and the notes and bibliography. Skimming also can mean reading chapter titles, headings, and the first sentence of each paragraph to determine the relevance of a book or an article.

Skimming the first chapter of Learning and Not Learning English, you would find several topic sentences that reveal the writer’s purpose:

“In this book, then, I examine and describe different expressions that both learning and not-learning English took among four youngsters.”

“In the chapters that follow . . .”

“What I hope to suggest . . .”

These are the types of phrases you should look for to get a sense of what the author is trying to accomplish and whether the author’s work will be of use to you.

If, after you’ve taken these steps, a source still seems promising, you should reflect on whether it might help you answer your research question. Keep in mind the critical reading skills you’ve learned and see if you can discern the author’s overall situation, purpose, claims, and audience. Assess the evidence used to support the claims — is it recent, relevant, accurate, reliable? What kinds of evidence does the author use? Primary or secondary? Popular or scholarly? What kind of data, facts, or statistical evidence? Note whether facts or opinions seem to predominate. Ultimately you have to determine whether to set the source aside or commit yourself to a thorough understanding of its argument and all the note taking and critical thinking that will entail.

Steps to Evaluating Library Sources

1. Read the introductory sections. Get an overview of the author’s argument.

2. Examine the table of contents and index. Consider the most relevant chapters to your topic and the list of relevant subjects.

3. Check the notes and bibliographic references. Identify other writers an author refers to and the titles of both books and articles (are the names and titles cited in many other works?).

4. Skim for the argument. Read chapter titles, headings, and topic sentences to determine the source’s relevance to your research. Go deeper to assess the type and quality of evidence the author uses. Note whether the author uses credible evidence to support the argument.

A Practice Sequence: Evaluating Library Sources

For this exercise, we would like you to choose a specific book or article to examine to practice these strategies. If you are far along on your own research, use a book or an article you have identified as potentially useful.

1. Read the introductory sections. What issue is the author responding to? What is the author’s purpose? To correct a misconception? To fill a gap? To build on or extend the work of others? To address a hypothesis?

2. Examine the table of contents and index. What key words or phrases are related to your own research? Which topics does the author focus on? Are you intending to give these topics similar emphasis? (Will you give more or less emphasis?)

3. Check the notes and bibliographic references. Make a list of the sources you think you want to look up for your own research. Do certain sources seem more important than others?

4. Skim for the argument. What is the author’s focus? Is it relevant to your own topic, issue, question, working thesis? What kinds of evidence does the author use? Does the author use primary or secondary sources? Popular or scholarly articles? Statistics? Facts or opinions? Do you want to commit yourself to grappling with the author’s argument?

EVALUATING INTERNET SOURCES

Without question, the Internet has revolutionized how research is conducted. It has been a particular boon to experienced researchers who have a clear sense of what they are looking for, giving them access to more information more quickly than ever before. But the Internet is rife with pitfalls for inexperienced researchers. That is, sites that appear accurate and reliable may prove not to be. The sources you find on the Internet outside your school library’s catalog pose problems because anyone can post anything he or she wants. Although Internet sources can be useful, particularly because they are often current, you must take steps to evaluate them before using information from them.

◼ Evaluate the Author of the Site

If an author’s name appears on a Web site, ask the following: Who is this person? What credentials and professional affiliations qualify this person to make a legitimate argument in the field being investigated?

One of our students googled “English only” and clicked on the first result, “Language Policy — English Only Movement,” which eventually led her to James Crawford’s Language Policy Web Site & Emporium. On the site, Crawford explains that he is “a writer and lecturer — formerly the Washington editor of Education Week — who specializes in the politics of language.”i He notes that “since 1985, I have been reporting on the English Only movement, English Plus, bilingual education, Native American language revitalization, and language rights in the U.S.A.” Between 2004 and 2006, he also served as executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education. Perhaps most important, Crawford has authored four books and a number of articles and has testified before Congress on “Official English Legislation.” From this biographical sketch, the student inferred that Crawford is credentialed to write about the English-only movement.

Less certain, however, are the credentials of the writer who penned an article titled “Should the National Anthem Be Sung in English Only?” which appeared on another Web site our student visited. Why? Because the writer’s name never appears on the site. An anonymous posting is the first clue that you want to move on to a more legitimate source of information.

◼ Evaluate the Organization That Supports the Site

You have probably noticed that Internet addresses usually end with a domain name extension: .edu, .gov, .org, or .com. The .edu extension means the site is associated with a university or college, which gives it credibility. The same holds true for .gov, which indicates a government agency. Both types of sites have a regulatory body that oversees their content. The extension .org indicates a nonprofit organization; .com, a commercial organization. You will need to approach these Web sites with a degree of skepticism because you cannot be sure that they are as carefully monitored by a credentialed regulatory body. (In fact, even .edu sites may turn out to be postings by a student at a college or university.)

Our student was intrigued by James Crawford’s site because he appears to be a credible source on the English-only movement. She was less sure about the reference to the Institute for Language and Education Policy. Is the institute a regulatory body that oversees what appears on the site? How long has the institute existed? Who belongs to the institute? Who sits on its board of directors? As a critical thinker, the student had to ask these questions.

◼ Evaluate the Purpose of the Site

Information is never objective, so whenever you evaluate a book, an article, or a Web site, you should consider the point of view the writer or sponsor is taking. It’s especially important to ask if there is a particular bias among members of the group that sponsors the site. Can you tell what the sponsors of the site advocate? Are they hoping to sell or promote a product, or to influence opinion?

Not all Web sites provide easy answers to these questions. However, James Crawford’s Language Policy Web Site & Emporium is quite explicit. In fact, Crawford writes that “the site is designed to encourage discussion of language policy issues, expose misguided school ‘reforms,’ ” and, among other goals, “promote [his] own publications.” (Notice “Emporium” in the name of the site.) He is candid about his self-interest, which does raise a question about his degree of objectivity.

What about a site like Wikipedia (“The Free Encyclopedia”)? The site appears to exist to convey basic information. Although the popularity of Wikipedia recommends it as a basic resource, you should approach the site with caution because it is not clear whether and how the information posted on the site is regulated. It is prudent to confirm information from Wikipedia by checking on sites that are regulated more transparently rather than take Wikipedia as an authoritative source.

◼ Evaluate the Information on the Site

In addition to assessing the purpose of a Web site like Wikipedia, you need to evaluate the extent to which the information is recent, accurate, and consistent with information you find in print sources and clearly regulated Web sites. For example, clicking on “The modern English-only movement” on Wikipedia takes you to a timeline of sorts with a number of links to other sites. But again, what is the source of this information? What is included? What is left out? You should check further into some of these links, reading the sources cited and keeping in mind the four criteria for evaluating a claim — recency, relevance, reliability, and accuracy. In general, it is wise to treat Wikipedia as only a potential starting point. Most instructors don’t allow students to cite Wikipedia entries as sources, but looking at relevant entries may lead you to trustworthy sources. Because you cannot be certain that Internet sources are reviewed or monitored, you need to be scrupulous about examining the claims they make: How much and what kind of evidence supports the author’s (or site’s) argument? Can you offer counterarguments?

In the last analysis, it comes down to whether the information you find stands up to the criteria you’ve learned to apply as a critical reader and writer. If not, move on to other sources. In a Web-based world of information, there is no shortage of material, but you have to train yourself not to settle for the information that is most readily available if you cannot determine that it is credible.

Steps to Evaluating Internet Sources

1. Evaluate the author of the site. Determine whether the author is an expert.

2. Evaluate the organization that supports the site. Find out what the organization stands for and the extent of its credibility.

3. Evaluate the purpose of the site. What interests are represented on the site? What is the site trying to do? Provide access to legitimate statistics and information? Advance an argument? Spread propaganda?

4. Evaluate the information on the site. Identify the type of information on the site and the extent to which the information is recent, relevant, reliable, and accurate.

A Practice Sequence: Evaluating Internet Sources

For this exercise, we would like you to work in groups on a common topic. The class can choose its own topic or use one of the topics we suggest on page 172. Then google the topic and agree on a Web site to analyze:

Group 1: Evaluate the author of the site.

Group 2: Evaluate the organization that supports the site.

Group 3: Evaluate the purpose of the site.

Group 4: Evaluate the information on the site.

Next, each group should share its evaluation. The goal is to determine the extent to which you believe you could use the information on this site in writing an academic essay.

WRITING AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

In this chapter, we have suggested some strategies that you can use to locate information to help you learn more about a topic, issue, or question and to assess the extent to which this information can help you develop a legitimate, credible, and well-supported argument. As you read, it is important to write down the citation, or bibliographic information, of each source, including the author’s name, date of publication, the title of an article or book, the journal title where an article appears, page numbers, and publishing information for a book.

Collecting the basic information about each source is useful, but we also suggest that you write an annotated bibliography to record your preliminary evaluation of the information you find. In writing an annotation, you should include the key ideas and claims from each source. You can also identify where you see gaps, misconceptions, and areas that you can build upon in developing your own argument. That is, in addition to stating what a given source is about, you can address the following questions: What is the issue the author responds to? What is the author’s purpose? To what extent is the argument persuasive? Does it overlook any issues that are important? Finally, you can explain the relevance of this work to your own research, given your own purpose for writing and what you want to demonstrate.

You can limit each annotation to a few sentences in which you present the author’s key claims and ideas, briefly analyze the author’s argument, and then explain how you will use that information in your own researched argument. The annotation below provides one such example, using APA format for the citation.

Loftstrom, M., & Tyler, J. H. (2009). Finishing high school: Alternative pathways and dropout recovery. The Future of Children, 19(1), 77–103. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27795036

This article provides a good history and analysis of the present dropout problem facing our nation. Researchers examine the discrepancy in statewide high school completion requirements that have led to debates about reality of dropout rates. The authors also examine social and economic consequences of failure to complete high school and the inadequacy of a GED certificate as a replacement for a high school diploma. The researchers conclude by examining some dropout prevention programs and by calling for more research in this area. In doing so, they identify a gap that my research at an alternative high school can help to fill, especially my interviews with students currently enrolled in the program and those who have dropped out.

Steps to Writing an Annotated Bibliography

1. Present key ideas. Describe in just a few sentences what this research is about and what you have learned.

2. Analyze. Explain the situation the author responds to, the purpose of the research, possible gaps in reasoning or misconceptions, and adequacy of evidence.

3. Determine relevance. Discuss how you might use this research in developing your own argument. As background for your own work? To explain how you fill a gap or correct a misconception? Will you build upon and extend this work?

A Practice Sequence: Writing an Annotated Bibliography

Write an annotation of a book, book chapter, or article that you have read for your research. Follow the steps in the previous box by first discussing the content of what you have read and analyzing the author’s argument. Then determine the relevance of this research to your own work. If you have not chosen a topic yet, we invite you to write an annotation of a book, book chapter, or article related to any of the following broad topics:

· higher education student loans

· the media and gender

· global health

· science and religion

· immigration

8From Synthesis to Researched Argument

Asynthesis is a discussion that forges connections between the arguments of two or more authors. Like a summary (discussed in Chapter 3), a synthesis requires you to understand the key claims of each author’s argument, including his or her use of supporting examples and evidence. Also like a summary, a synthesis requires you to present a central idea, a gist, to your readers. But in contrast to a summary, which explains the context of a source, a synthesis creates a context for your own argument. That is, when you write a synthesis comparing two or more sources, you demonstrate that you are aware of the larger conversation about the issue and begin to claim your own place in that conversation.

Comparing different points of view prompts you to ask why they differ. It also makes you more aware of counterarguments — passages where claims conflict (“writer X says this, but writer Y asserts just the opposite”) or at least differ (“writer X interprets this information this way, while writer Y sees it differently”). And it starts you formulating your own counterarguments: “Neither X nor Y has taken this into account. What if they had?”

Keep in mind that the purpose of a synthesis is not merely to list the similarities and differences you find in different sources or to assert your agreement with one source as opposed to others. Instead, it sets up your argument. Once you discover connections among texts, you have to decide what those connections mean to you and your readers. What bearing do they have on your own thinking? How can you make use of them in your argument?

WRITING A SYNTHESIS

To compose an effective synthesis, you must (1) make connections among ideas in different texts, (2) decide what those connections mean, and (3) formulate the gist of what you’ve read, much like you did when you wrote a summary. The difference is that in a synthesis, your gist should be a succinct statement that brings into focus not the central idea of one text but the relationship among different ideas in multiple texts.

To help you grasp strategies of writing a synthesis, read the following essays from activist Paul Rogat Loeb, who writes about building community through grassroots activism; educators Anne Colby and Thomas Ehrlich, whose work with the Carnegie Foundation for Teaching and Learning focuses on the reasons why young people, especially undergraduates, need to be more civically engaged in their communities; and Laurie Ouellette, a professor of communication studies who writes about media and the recent trend toward the media’s efforts to do good works in local communities at a time when the federal government in the United States has cut social programs and continues to rely on private entities to support families in need. We have annotated these readings not only to comment on the ideas that these authors have put forth, but also to model some of the ways that you might annotate texts as a useful first step in writing a synthesis.

PAUL ROGAT LOEB

Making Our Lives Count (from Soul of a Citizen)

Paul Rogat Loeb is an American social and political activist. A graduate of Stanford University, he has published widely in both newspapers and journals. Hope in Hard Times is one of several books that he has written and depicts ordinary Americans involved in grassroots peace activism, while Soul of a Citizen seeks to inspire civic engagement activism. His book The Impossible Will Take a Little While, an anthology of the achievements of activists in history who faced enormous obstacles, was named the #4 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association and won the Nautilus Book Award for the best social change book that year.

The First paragraph beginning with a saying “Souls are like athletes that need opponents worthy of them if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers – THOMAS MERTON” reads “Heart,” “spark,” “spirit”– whatever word we use for the mysterious force that animates us, its full potential cannot be realized in isolation. Indeed, according to developmental psychologists, individual growth is possible only through interaction with the human and natural world, and through experiences that challenge us. “Souls are like athletes,” wrote the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, “that need opponents worthy of them if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites research to emphasize the value of human interaction.”

The second paragraph reads, “Many of us may already know the value of stretching our souls in personal life. We know the virtue of learning to voice our needs, fight for our choices, and recover from psychological intimidation. This process may require acknowledging painful truths, withstanding conflict, standing firm on what seems like shaky ground. We may need to question familiar habits, overcome self-doubt, and begin to separate who we really are from the roles we’ve been taught. Jungian analysts like James Hillman would say that by taking these steps we reconnect with what the Greeks called the daimon, the “acorn” of character at the core of our being. Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck described spiritual healing as “an ongoing process of becoming increasingly conscious.””

The annotation for this paragraph reads “Acknowledges that many of us are aware of the value of voicing our own needs and taking care of ourselves, and sets up the argument about community building.”

The third paragraph read, “We are slower to attempt such transformations in the public sphere. Self-assertion there requires us not only to modify our outlook and behavior but also to confront a bewildering and often disorienting maze of institutions and individuals, powers and principalities. So we stay silent in the face of common choices that we know are unwise or morally troubling. We keep our opinions to ourselves, because we doubt our voices will be heard, mistrust our right to speak, or fear the consequences if we do speak out. We feel”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Expresses concern that we may be less likely to think about our well-being as connected to others in the public sphere. Also identifies with those who may be reluctant to be assertive in the public sphere because they fear their voices won’t be heard.”

The First paragraph beginning with a saying “Souls are like athletes that need opponents worthy of them if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers – THOMAS MERTON” reads “Heart,” “spark,” “spirit”– whatever word we use for the mysterious force that animates us, its full potential cannot be realized in isolation. Indeed, according to developmental psychologists, individual growth is possible only through interaction with the human and natural world, and through experiences that challenge us. “Souls are like athletes,” wrote the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, “that need opponents worthy of them if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites research to emphasize the value of human interaction.”

The second paragraph reads, “Many of us may already know the value of stretching our souls in personal life. We know the virtue of learning to voice our needs, fight for our choices, and recover from psychological intimidation. This process may require acknowledging painful truths, withstanding conflict, standing firm on what seems like shaky ground. We may need to question familiar habits, overcome self-doubt, and begin to separate who we really are from the roles we’ve been taught. Jungian analysts like James Hillman would say that by taking these steps we reconnect with what the Greeks called the daimon, the “acorn” of character at the core of our being. Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck described spiritual healing as “an ongoing process of becoming increasingly conscious.””

The annotation for this paragraph reads “Acknowledges that many of us are aware of the value of voicing our own needs and taking care of ourselves, and sets up the argument about community building.”

The third paragraph read, “We are slower to attempt such transformations in the public sphere. Self-assertion there requires us not only to modify our outlook and behavior but also to confront a bewildering and often disorienting maze of institutions and individuals, powers and principalities. So we stay silent in the face of common choices that we know are unwise or morally troubling. We keep our opinions to ourselves, because we doubt our voices will be heard, mistrust our right to speak, or fear the consequences if we do speak out. We feel”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Expresses concern that we may be less likely to think about our well-being as connected to others in the public sphere. Also identifies with those who may be reluctant to be assertive in the public sphere because they fear their voices won’t be heard.”

The First paragraph beginning with a saying “Souls are like athletes that need opponents worthy of them if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers – THOMAS MERTON” reads “Heart,” “spark,” “spirit”– whatever word we use for the mysterious force that animates us, its full potential cannot be realized in isolation. Indeed, according to developmental psychologists, individual growth is possible only through interaction with the human and natural world, and through experiences that challenge us. “Souls are like athletes,” wrote the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, “that need opponents worthy of them if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites research to emphasize the value of human interaction.”

The second paragraph reads, “Many of us may already know the value of stretching our souls in personal life. We know the virtue of learning to voice our needs, fight for our choices, and recover from psychological intimidation. This process may require acknowledging painful truths, withstanding conflict, standing firm on what seems like shaky ground. We may need to question familiar habits, overcome self-doubt, and begin to separate who we really are from the roles we’ve been taught. Jungian analysts like James Hillman would say that by taking these steps we reconnect with what the Greeks called the daimon, the “acorn” of character at the core of our being. Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck described spiritual healing as “an ongoing process of becoming increasingly conscious.””

The annotation for this paragraph reads “Acknowledges that many of us are aware of the value of voicing our own needs and taking care of ourselves, and sets up the argument about community building.”

The third paragraph read, “We are slower to attempt such transformations in the public sphere. Self-assertion there requires us not only to modify our outlook and behavior but also to confront a bewildering and often disorienting maze of institutions and individuals, powers and principalities. So we stay silent in the face of common choices that we know are unwise or morally troubling. We keep our opinions to ourselves, because we doubt our voices will be heard, mistrust our right to speak, or fear the consequences if we do speak out. We feel”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Expresses concern that we may be less likely to think about our well-being as connected to others in the public sphere. Also identifies with those who may be reluctant to be assertive in the public sphere because they fear their voices won’t be heard.”

The forst paragraph reads, “we lack essential political skills. Like … Rosa Parks before her first NAACP meeting, we simply do not know we have it in us.”

The second paragraph reads, “Yet coming out of one’s cocoon in the public sphere is just as necessary to self-realization as it is in the private. I once told a young Puerto Rican activist about the notion, common among many of his fellow students, that they’d lose their identity by getting involved ’ find themselves “swallowed up” by the movements they joined. He laughed and said the reverse was true. “You learn things you never knew about yourself. You get pushed to your limits. You meet people who make you think and push you further. You don’t lose your identity. You begin to find out who you really are. I feel sad for people who will never have this experience.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Elaborates on his point that human connection is necessary. Uses an anecdote to show how getting involved with others helps us better understand who we are as individuals.”

The third paragraph reads, “You begin to find out who you really are. The implication is clear enough: We become human only in the company of other human beings. And this involves both opening our hearts and giving voice to our deepest convictions. The biblical vision of shalom describes this process with its concept of “right relationships” with our fellow humans, and with all of God’s creation. The turning point for the Buddha, writes James Hillman, came only “when he left his protected palace gardens to enter the street. There the sick, the dead, the poor, and the old drew his soul down into the question of how to live life in the world.” As Hillman stresses, the Buddha became who he was precisely by leaving the cloistered life. A doctor I know works in a low-income clinic because, she says, “seeing the struggles of others helps me be true to myself. It helps me find out how people in very different circumstances live out their humanity.” Community involvement, in other words, is the mirror that best reflects our individual choices, our strengths and weaknesses, our accomplishments and failures. It allows our lives to count for something.”

The annotation for the sentences, “You begin to find out who you really are. The implication is clear enough: We become human only in the company of other human beings. And this involves both opening our hearts and giving voice to our deepest convictions. The biblical vision of shalom describes this process with its concept of “right relationships” with our fellow humans, and with all of God’s creation. The turning point for the Buddha, writes James Hillman, came only “when he left his protected palace gardens to enter the street. There the sick, the dead, the poor, and the old drew his soul down into the question of how to live life in the world.” As Hillman stresses, the Buddha became who he was precisely by leaving the cloistered life. A doctor I know works in a low-income clinic because, she says, “seeing the struggles of others helps me be true to myself” reads, “Reiterates his point 5 that interacting with others teaches us about who we are and what we value. Cites the work of a scholar who studies Buddhism and a doctor who believes her work in low-income communities has helped her be a better version of herself.”

Another annotation for sentences, “Community involvement, in other words, is the mirror that best reflects our individual choices, our strengths and weaknesses, our accomplishments and failures. It allows our lives to count for something” reads, “Community involvement helps us see that we matter.”

The forst paragraph reads, “we lack essential political skills. Like … Rosa Parks before her first NAACP meeting, we simply do not know we have it in us.”

The second paragraph reads, “Yet coming out of one’s cocoon in the public sphere is just as necessary to self-realization as it is in the private. I once told a young Puerto Rican activist about the notion, common among many of his fellow students, that they’d lose their identity by getting involved ’ find themselves “swallowed up” by the movements they joined. He laughed and said the reverse was true. “You learn things you never knew about yourself. You get pushed to your limits. You meet people who make you think and push you further. You don’t lose your identity. You begin to find out who you really are. I feel sad for people who will never have this experience.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Elaborates on his point that human connection is necessary. Uses an anecdote to show how getting involved with others helps us better understand who we are as individuals.”

The third paragraph reads, “You begin to find out who you really are. The implication is clear enough: We become human only in the company of other human beings. And this involves both opening our hearts and giving voice to our deepest convictions. The biblical vision of shalom describes this process with its concept of “right relationships” with our fellow humans, and with all of God’s creation. The turning point for the Buddha, writes James Hillman, came only “when he left his protected palace gardens to enter the street. There the sick, the dead, the poor, and the old drew his soul down into the question of how to live life in the world.” As Hillman stresses, the Buddha became who he was precisely by leaving the cloistered life. A doctor I know works in a low-income clinic because, she says, “seeing the struggles of others helps me be true to myself. It helps me find out how people in very different circumstances live out their humanity.” Community involvement, in other words, is the mirror that best reflects our individual choices, our strengths and weaknesses, our accomplishments and failures. It allows our lives to count for something.”

The annotation for the sentences, “You begin to find out who you really are. The implication is clear enough: We become human only in the company of other human beings. And this involves both opening our hearts and giving voice to our deepest convictions. The biblical vision of shalom describes this process with its concept of “right relationships” with our fellow humans, and with all of God’s creation. The turning point for the Buddha, writes James Hillman, came only “when he left his protected palace gardens to enter the street. There the sick, the dead, the poor, and the old drew his soul down into the question of how to live life in the world.” As Hillman stresses, the Buddha became who he was precisely by leaving the cloistered life. A doctor I know works in a low-income clinic because, she says, “seeing the struggles of others helps me be true to myself” reads, “Reiterates his point 5 that interacting with others teaches us about who we are and what we value. Cites the work of a scholar who studies Buddhism and a doctor who believes her work in low-income communities has helped her be a better version of herself.”

Another annotation for sentences, “Community involvement, in other words, is the mirror that best reflects our individual choices, our strengths and weaknesses, our accomplishments and failures. It allows our lives to count for something” reads, “Community involvement helps us see that we matter.”

The forst paragraph reads, “we lack essential political skills. Like … Rosa Parks before her first NAACP meeting, we simply do not know we have it in us.”

The second paragraph reads, “Yet coming out of one’s cocoon in the public sphere is just as necessary to self-realization as it is in the private. I once told a young Puerto Rican activist about the notion, common among many of his fellow students, that they’d lose their identity by getting involved ’ find themselves “swallowed up” by the movements they joined. He laughed and said the reverse was true. “You learn things you never knew about yourself. You get pushed to your limits. You meet people who make you think and push you further. You don’t lose your identity. You begin to find out who you really are. I feel sad for people who will never have this experience.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Elaborates on his point that human connection is necessary. Uses an anecdote to show how getting involved with others helps us better understand who we are as individuals.”

The third paragraph reads, “You begin to find out who you really are. The implication is clear enough: We become human only in the company of other human beings. And this involves both opening our hearts and giving voice to our deepest convictions. The biblical vision of shalom describes this process with its concept of “right relationships” with our fellow humans, and with all of God’s creation. The turning point for the Buddha, writes James Hillman, came only “when he left his protected palace gardens to enter the street. There the sick, the dead, the poor, and the old drew his soul down into the question of how to live life in the world.” As Hillman stresses, the Buddha became who he was precisely by leaving the cloistered life. A doctor I know works in a low-income clinic because, she says, “seeing the struggles of others helps me be true to myself. It helps me find out how people in very different circumstances live out their humanity.” Community involvement, in other words, is the mirror that best reflects our individual choices, our strengths and weaknesses, our accomplishments and failures. It allows our lives to count for something.”

The annotation for the sentences, “You begin to find out who you really are. The implication is clear enough: We become human only in the company of other human beings. And this involves both opening our hearts and giving voice to our deepest convictions. The biblical vision of shalom describes this process with its concept of “right relationships” with our fellow humans, and with all of God’s creation. The turning point for the Buddha, writes James Hillman, came only “when he left his protected palace gardens to enter the street. There the sick, the dead, the poor, and the old drew his soul down into the question of how to live life in the world.” As Hillman stresses, the Buddha became who he was precisely by leaving the cloistered life. A doctor I know works in a low-income clinic because, she says, “seeing the struggles of others helps me be true to myself” reads, “Reiterates his point 5 that interacting with others teaches us about who we are and what we value. Cites the work of a scholar who studies Buddhism and a doctor who believes her work in low-income communities has helped her be a better version of herself.”

Another annotation for sentences, “Community involvement, in other words, is the mirror that best reflects our individual choices, our strengths and weaknesses, our accomplishments and failures. It allows our lives to count for something” reads, “Community involvement helps us see that we matter.”

The first paragraph reads, “Twenty years after Harvard Law School hired him as its first fulltime African American professor, Derrick Bell took an unpaid protest leave, refusing to teach until the school hired a minority woman to its faculty. It was not a decision made in haste. Bell had long campaigned for this. But each time a new position opened, the Law School somehow could find not a single minority female candidate in the world who was worthy enough to hire. The school’s resistance continued despite Bell’s stand. After three years, the school forced him to resign. His conscience had cost him a tenured job at the most prestigious law school in America.”

The annotation for this paragrah reads, “Offers an illustration 6 to support the value of activism but also shows that speaking out for what we value can have its costs.”

The second paragraph reads, “Yet Bell didn’t feel defeated. Quite the opposite. His public stance had preserved his core identity and integrity. “It is the determination to protect our sense of who we are,” he writes, “that leads us to risk criticism, alienation, and serious loss while most others, similarly harmed, remain silent.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “What might seem like failure can actually be a factor that bolsters our commitment to make a difference.”

The third paragraph reads, “What Bell means is that silence is more costly than speaking out, because it requires the ultimate sacrifice–the erosion of our spirit. The toll we pay for stifling our emotions in personal life is fairly obvious. Swallowed words act like caustic acids, eating at our gut. If the condition persists and the sentiments are sufficiently intense, we grow numb, detached, dead to the world around us. When, however, we take steps to redress our private losses and sorrows, we often feel a renewed sense of strength and joy, of reconnecting with life.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Helps readers understand that remaining silent about issues that matter can be more costly than failed action.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “A similar process occurs when we want to address public issues but stay silent. It takes energy to mute our voices while the environment is ravaged, greed runs rampant, and families sleep in the streets. It takes energy to distort our words and actions because we fear the consequences of speaking out. It takes energy, in other words, to sustain what the psychiatrist Robert”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “One cost to remaining silent is that we are no longer true to ourselves and we lose our ability to be whole human beings.”

The first paragraph reads, “Twenty years after Harvard Law School hired him as its first fulltime African American professor, Derrick Bell took an unpaid protest leave, refusing to teach until the school hired a minority woman to its faculty. It was not a decision made in haste. Bell had long campaigned for this. But each time a new position opened, the Law School somehow could find not a single minority female candidate in the world who was worthy enough to hire. The school’s resistance continued despite Bell’s stand. After three years, the school forced him to resign. His conscience had cost him a tenured job at the most prestigious law school in America.”

The annotation for this paragrah reads, “Offers an illustration 6 to support the value of activism but also shows that speaking out for what we value can have its costs.”

The second paragraph reads, “Yet Bell didn’t feel defeated. Quite the opposite. His public stance had preserved his core identity and integrity. “It is the determination to protect our sense of who we are,” he writes, “that leads us to risk criticism, alienation, and serious loss while most others, similarly harmed, remain silent.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “What might seem like failure can actually be a factor that bolsters our commitment to make a difference.”

The third paragraph reads, “What Bell means is that silence is more costly than speaking out, because it requires the ultimate sacrifice–the erosion of our spirit. The toll we pay for stifling our emotions in personal life is fairly obvious. Swallowed words act like caustic acids, eating at our gut. If the condition persists and the sentiments are sufficiently intense, we grow numb, detached, dead to the world around us. When, however, we take steps to redress our private losses and sorrows, we often feel a renewed sense of strength and joy, of reconnecting with life.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Helps readers understand that remaining silent about issues that matter can be more costly than failed action.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “A similar process occurs when we want to address public issues but stay silent. It takes energy to mute our voices while the environment is ravaged, greed runs rampant, and families sleep in the streets. It takes energy to distort our words and actions because we fear the consequences of speaking out. It takes energy, in other words, to sustain what the psychiatrist Robert”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “One cost to remaining silent is that we are no longer true to ourselves and we lose our ability to be whole human beings.”

The first paragraph reads, “Twenty years after Harvard Law School hired him as its first fulltime African American professor, Derrick Bell took an unpaid protest leave, refusing to teach until the school hired a minority woman to its faculty. It was not a decision made in haste. Bell had long campaigned for this. But each time a new position opened, the Law School somehow could find not a single minority female candidate in the world who was worthy enough to hire. The school’s resistance continued despite Bell’s stand. After three years, the school forced him to resign. His conscience had cost him a tenured job at the most prestigious law school in America.”

The annotation for this paragrah reads, “Offers an illustration 6 to support the value of activism but also shows that speaking out for what we value can have its costs.”

The second paragraph reads, “Yet Bell didn’t feel defeated. Quite the opposite. His public stance had preserved his core identity and integrity. “It is the determination to protect our sense of who we are,” he writes, “that leads us to risk criticism, alienation, and serious loss while most others, similarly harmed, remain silent.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “What might seem like failure can actually be a factor that bolsters our commitment to make a difference.”

The third paragraph reads, “What Bell means is that silence is more costly than speaking out, because it requires the ultimate sacrifice–the erosion of our spirit. The toll we pay for stifling our emotions in personal life is fairly obvious. Swallowed words act like caustic acids, eating at our gut. If the condition persists and the sentiments are sufficiently intense, we grow numb, detached, dead to the world around us. When, however, we take steps to redress our private losses and sorrows, we often feel a renewed sense of strength and joy, of reconnecting with life.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Helps readers understand that remaining silent about issues that matter can be more costly than failed action.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “A similar process occurs when we want to address public issues but stay silent. It takes energy to mute our voices while the environment is ravaged, greed runs rampant, and families sleep in the streets. It takes energy to distort our words and actions because we fear the consequences of speaking out. It takes energy, in other words, to sustain what the psychiatrist Robert”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “One cost to remaining silent is that we are no longer true to ourselves and we lose our ability to be whole human beings.”

The forst paragraph reads, “Jay Lifton calls “the broken connection,” splitting our lives from our values. Like autistic children, we can blank out the voices of our fellow human beings. But if we do, we risk the decay of our humanity. When we shrink from the world, our souls shrink, too.”

The second paragraph reads, “Social involvement reverses this process, releasing our chokedoff energy, overcoming the psychic paralysis that so many of us feel, reintegrating mind and heart, body and soul, so that we can speak in one voice – our own – and mean what we say. There’s even a physical corollary to this integration. In The Healing Power of Doing Good, Allan Luks describes various studies that confirm what he calls the “helper’s high.” People who volunteer in their communities experience significantly greater physical pleasure and well-being in the process of their work, a general sense of increased energy, and in some cases an easing of chronic pain. A Harvard School of Public Health study found that African Americans who challenged repeated discrimination had lower blood pressure than those who did not. So taking stands for what we believe may help us save more than our souls.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites additional research to explain how serving our communities with others can have an effect on us physically, not just psychologically, and contribute to our health and well-being.”

The third paragraph reads, “Sociologist Parker Palmer describes the resulting unleashing of truth, vision, and strength in the lives of people like Rosa Parks, Vaclav Havel, Nelson Mandela, and Dorothy Day, who’ve acted on their deepest beliefs. “These people,” he wrote, “have understood that no punishment could be worse than the one we inflict on ourselves by living a divided life.” And nothing could be more powerful than the decision to heal that rift, “to stop acting differently on the outside from what they knew to be true inside.””

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites further evidence to explain the importance of acting on our convictions.”

The fourth Paragraph reads, “America’s predominant culture insists that little we do can matter. It teaches us not to get involved in shaping the world we’ll pass on to our children. It encourages us to leave such important decisions to others – whether they be corporate and government leaders, or social activists whose lifestyles seem impossibly selfless or foreign. Sadly, and ironically, in a country born of a democratic political revolution, to be American in recent years is too often to be”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Laments the extent to which American culture seems to work against the idea of activism, community work, and human agency – the ability to envision change and the capacity to act on our convictions in meaningful ways.”

The forst paragraph reads, “Jay Lifton calls “the broken connection,” splitting our lives from our values. Like autistic children, we can blank out the voices of our fellow human beings. But if we do, we risk the decay of our humanity. When we shrink from the world, our souls shrink, too.”

The second paragraph reads, “Social involvement reverses this process, releasing our chokedoff energy, overcoming the psychic paralysis that so many of us feel, reintegrating mind and heart, body and soul, so that we can speak in one voice – our own – and mean what we say. There’s even a physical corollary to this integration. In The Healing Power of Doing Good, Allan Luks describes various studies that confirm what he calls the “helper’s high.” People who volunteer in their communities experience significantly greater physical pleasure and well-being in the process of their work, a general sense of increased energy, and in some cases an easing of chronic pain. A Harvard School of Public Health study found that African Americans who challenged repeated discrimination had lower blood pressure than those who did not. So taking stands for what we believe may help us save more than our souls.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites additional research to explain how serving our communities with others can have an effect on us physically, not just psychologically, and contribute to our health and well-being.”

The third paragraph reads, “Sociologist Parker Palmer describes the resulting unleashing of truth, vision, and strength in the lives of people like Rosa Parks, Vaclav Havel, Nelson Mandela, and Dorothy Day, who’ve acted on their deepest beliefs. “These people,” he wrote, “have understood that no punishment could be worse than the one we inflict on ourselves by living a divided life.” And nothing could be more powerful than the decision to heal that rift, “to stop acting differently on the outside from what they knew to be true inside.””

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites further evidence to explain the importance of acting on our convictions.”

The fourth Paragraph reads, “America’s predominant culture insists that little we do can matter. It teaches us not to get involved in shaping the world we’ll pass on to our children. It encourages us to leave such important decisions to others – whether they be corporate and government leaders, or social activists whose lifestyles seem impossibly selfless or foreign. Sadly, and ironically, in a country born of a democratic political revolution, to be American in recent years is too often to be”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Laments the extent to which American culture seems to work against the idea of activism, community work, and human agency – the ability to envision change and the capacity to act on our convictions in meaningful ways.”

The forst paragraph reads, “Jay Lifton calls “the broken connection,” splitting our lives from our values. Like autistic children, we can blank out the voices of our fellow human beings. But if we do, we risk the decay of our humanity. When we shrink from the world, our souls shrink, too.”

The second paragraph reads, “Social involvement reverses this process, releasing our chokedoff energy, overcoming the psychic paralysis that so many of us feel, reintegrating mind and heart, body and soul, so that we can speak in one voice – our own – and mean what we say. There’s even a physical corollary to this integration. In The Healing Power of Doing Good, Allan Luks describes various studies that confirm what he calls the “helper’s high.” People who volunteer in their communities experience significantly greater physical pleasure and well-being in the process of their work, a general sense of increased energy, and in some cases an easing of chronic pain. A Harvard School of Public Health study found that African Americans who challenged repeated discrimination had lower blood pressure than those who did not. So taking stands for what we believe may help us save more than our souls.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites additional research to explain how serving our communities with others can have an effect on us physically, not just psychologically, and contribute to our health and well-being.”

The third paragraph reads, “Sociologist Parker Palmer describes the resulting unleashing of truth, vision, and strength in the lives of people like Rosa Parks, Vaclav Havel, Nelson Mandela, and Dorothy Day, who’ve acted on their deepest beliefs. “These people,” he wrote, “have understood that no punishment could be worse than the one we inflict on ourselves by living a divided life.” And nothing could be more powerful than the decision to heal that rift, “to stop acting differently on the outside from what they knew to be true inside.””

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites further evidence to explain the importance of acting on our convictions.”

The fourth Paragraph reads, “America’s predominant culture insists that little we do can matter. It teaches us not to get involved in shaping the world we’ll pass on to our children. It encourages us to leave such important decisions to others – whether they be corporate and government leaders, or social activists whose lifestyles seem impossibly selfless or foreign. Sadly, and ironically, in a country born of a democratic political revolution, to be American in recent years is too often to be”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Laments the extent to which American culture seems to work against the idea of activism, community work, and human agency – the ability to envision change and the capacity to act on our convictions in meaningful ways.”

The first paragraph reads, “apolitical. For many, civic withdrawal has become the norm. The 2008 presidential campaign challenged this trend by inspiring vast numbers of previously disengaged citizens to volunteer in ways that shifted not only the presidential race, but also close races for the Senate, the House, and state governorships. But even then over a third of potentially eligible Americans ended up staying home. And despite all the passionate volunteers, far more citizens did little beyond casting their vote. Absent a highly contested election, it’s easier still to sit on the sidelines and simply hope our leaders will take care of things.”

The second paragraph reads, “Overcoming our instinctive civic withdrawal requires courage. It requires learning the skills and developing the confidence to participate…. It also requires creating a renewed definition of ourselves as citizens – something closer to the nation of active stakeholders that leaders like Thomas Jefferson had in mind.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Argues that we need to adopt a view of democratic engagement that our Founding Fathers offered.”

The third paragraph reads, “The importance of citizens’ direct participation in a democracy was expressed thousands of years ago, by the ancient Greeks. In fact, they used the word “idiot” for people incapable of involving themselves in civic life. Now, the very word “political” has become so debased in our culture that we use it to describe either trivial office power plays or leaders who serve largely personal ambitions. We’ve lost sight of its original roots in the Greek notion of the polis: the democratic sphere in which citizens, acting in concert, determine the character and direction of their society. “All persons alike,” wrote Aristotle, should share “in the government to the utmost.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “Reclaiming this political voice requires more than just identifying problems, which itself can feed our sense of overload. I think of an Arthur Miller play, Broken Glass, whose heroine obsesses while Hitler steadily consolidates his power. From her safe home in Brooklyn, she reads newspaper articles about Kristallnacht: synagogues smashed and looted; old men forced to scrub streets with toothbrushes while storm troopers laugh at them; and finally, children”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Uses a play to illustrate the extent to which it is not enough to focus on problems without taking action.”

The first paragraph reads, “apolitical. For many, civic withdrawal has become the norm. The 2008 presidential campaign challenged this trend by inspiring vast numbers of previously disengaged citizens to volunteer in ways that shifted not only the presidential race, but also close races for the Senate, the House, and state governorships. But even then over a third of potentially eligible Americans ended up staying home. And despite all the passionate volunteers, far more citizens did little beyond casting their vote. Absent a highly contested election, it’s easier still to sit on the sidelines and simply hope our leaders will take care of things.”

The second paragraph reads, “Overcoming our instinctive civic withdrawal requires courage. It requires learning the skills and developing the confidence to participate…. It also requires creating a renewed definition of ourselves as citizens – something closer to the nation of active stakeholders that leaders like Thomas Jefferson had in mind.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Argues that we need to adopt a view of democratic engagement that our Founding Fathers offered.”

The third paragraph reads, “The importance of citizens’ direct participation in a democracy was expressed thousands of years ago, by the ancient Greeks. In fact, they used the word “idiot” for people incapable of involving themselves in civic life. Now, the very word “political” has become so debased in our culture that we use it to describe either trivial office power plays or leaders who serve largely personal ambitions. We’ve lost sight of its original roots in the Greek notion of the polis: the democratic sphere in which citizens, acting in concert, determine the character and direction of their society. “All persons alike,” wrote Aristotle, should share “in the government to the utmost.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “Reclaiming this political voice requires more than just identifying problems, which itself can feed our sense of overload. I think of an Arthur Miller play, Broken Glass, whose heroine obsesses while Hitler steadily consolidates his power. From her safe home in Brooklyn, she reads newspaper articles about Kristallnacht: synagogues smashed and looted; old men forced to scrub streets with toothbrushes while storm troopers laugh at them; and finally, children”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Uses a play to illustrate the extent to which it is not enough to focus on problems without taking action.”

The first paragraph reads, “apolitical. For many, civic withdrawal has become the norm. The 2008 presidential campaign challenged this trend by inspiring vast numbers of previously disengaged citizens to volunteer in ways that shifted not only the presidential race, but also close races for the Senate, the House, and state governorships. But even then over a third of potentially eligible Americans ended up staying home. And despite all the passionate volunteers, far more citizens did little beyond casting their vote. Absent a highly contested election, it’s easier still to sit on the sidelines and simply hope our leaders will take care of things.”

The second paragraph reads, “Overcoming our instinctive civic withdrawal requires courage. It requires learning the skills and developing the confidence to participate…. It also requires creating a renewed definition of ourselves as citizens – something closer to the nation of active stakeholders that leaders like Thomas Jefferson had in mind.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Argues that we need to adopt a view of democratic engagement that our Founding Fathers offered.”

The third paragraph reads, “The importance of citizens’ direct participation in a democracy was expressed thousands of years ago, by the ancient Greeks. In fact, they used the word “idiot” for people incapable of involving themselves in civic life. Now, the very word “political” has become so debased in our culture that we use it to describe either trivial office power plays or leaders who serve largely personal ambitions. We’ve lost sight of its original roots in the Greek notion of the polis: the democratic sphere in which citizens, acting in concert, determine the character and direction of their society. “All persons alike,” wrote Aristotle, should share “in the government to the utmost.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “Reclaiming this political voice requires more than just identifying problems, which itself can feed our sense of overload. I think of an Arthur Miller play, Broken Glass, whose heroine obsesses while Hitler steadily consolidates his power. From her safe home in Brooklyn, she reads newspaper articles about Kristallnacht: synagogues smashed and looted; old men forced to scrub streets with toothbrushes while storm troopers laugh at them; and finally, children”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Uses a play to illustrate the extent to which it is not enough to focus on problems without taking action.”

The first paragraph reads, “shipped off to the camps in cattle cars. Her concern contrasts with the approach of her family and friends, who insist, despite the mounting evidence, that such horrors are exaggerated. Yet she does nothing to address the situation publicly, except to grow more anxious. Eventually she becomes psychosomatically paralyzed.”

The second paragraph reads, “The approach Miller’s protagonist takes toward the horrors of Nazism echoes that of far too many people who spend hours following every twist and turn of the twenty-four-hour news cycle, yet never take action that might address them. It also resembles the condition of learned helplessness. People who suffer from severe depression, psychologist Martin Seligman found, do so less as a result of particular unpleasant experiences than because of their “explanatory style,” the story they tell themselves about how the world works. Depressed people have become convincedthat the causes of their difficulties are permanent and pervasive, inextricably linked to their personal failings. There’s nothing to be done because nothing can be done. This master narrative of their lives excuses inaction; it provides a rationale for remaining helpless. In contrast, individuals who function with high effectiveness tend to believe that the problems they face result from factors that are specific, temporary, and therefore changeable. The story they live by empowers them.”

The annotation making the sentences, “This master narrative of their lives excuses inaction; it provides a rationale for remaining helpless. In contrast, individuals who function with high effectiveness tend to believe that the problems they face result from factors that are specific, temporary, and therefore changeable. The story they live by empowers them” reads, “The story we tell ourselves about the world can either lead us to a feeling of helplessness or a sense of empowerment – that there are things we can do to create change.”

The third paragraph reads, “This is not to say that change is easy, nor that everyone is in an equal position to bring it about. Some individuals and groups in America possess far more material and organizational resources than others. This reflects our deep social and economic inequities. But as Tikkun magazine founder Rabbi Michael Lerner has observed, we often fail to use the resources we do have, which may be of a different kind. “Most of us,” Lerner says, “have been subjected to a set of experiences in our childhood and adult lives that makes us feel that we do not deserve to have power.” Consequently, we can’t imagine changing the direction of our society. We decide that things are worse”

The first paragraph reads, “shipped off to the camps in cattle cars. Her concern contrasts with the approach of her family and friends, who insist, despite the mounting evidence, that such horrors are exaggerated. Yet she does nothing to address the situation publicly, except to grow more anxious. Eventually she becomes psychosomatically paralyzed.”

The second paragraph reads, “The approach Miller’s protagonist takes toward the horrors of Nazism echoes that of far too many people who spend hours following every twist and turn of the twenty-four-hour news cycle, yet never take action that might address them. It also resembles the condition of learned helplessness. People who suffer from severe depression, psychologist Martin Seligman found, do so less as a result of particular unpleasant experiences than because of their “explanatory style,” the story they tell themselves about how the world works. Depressed people have become convincedthat the causes of their difficulties are permanent and pervasive, inextricably linked to their personal failings. There’s nothing to be done because nothing can be done. This master narrative of their lives excuses inaction; it provides a rationale for remaining helpless. In contrast, individuals who function with high effectiveness tend to believe that the problems they face result from factors that are specific, temporary, and therefore changeable. The story they live by empowers them.”

The annotation making the sentences, “This master narrative of their lives excuses inaction; it provides a rationale for remaining helpless. In contrast, individuals who function with high effectiveness tend to believe that the problems they face result from factors that are specific, temporary, and therefore changeable. The story they live by empowers them” reads, “The story we tell ourselves about the world can either lead us to a feeling of helplessness or a sense of empowerment – that there are things we can do to create change.”

The third paragraph reads, “This is not to say that change is easy, nor that everyone is in an equal position to bring it about. Some individuals and groups in America possess far more material and organizational resources than others. This reflects our deep social and economic inequities. But as Tikkun magazine founder Rabbi Michael Lerner has observed, we often fail to use the resources we do have, which may be of a different kind. “Most of us,” Lerner says, “have been subjected to a set of experiences in our childhood and adult lives that makes us feel that we do not deserve to have power.” Consequently, we can’t imagine changing the direction of our society. We decide that things are worse”

The first paragraph reads, “shipped off to the camps in cattle cars. Her concern contrasts with the approach of her family and friends, who insist, despite the mounting evidence, that such horrors are exaggerated. Yet she does nothing to address the situation publicly, except to grow more anxious. Eventually she becomes psychosomatically paralyzed.”

The second paragraph reads, “The approach Miller’s protagonist takes toward the horrors of Nazism echoes that of far too many people who spend hours following every twist and turn of the twenty-four-hour news cycle, yet never take action that might address them. It also resembles the condition of learned helplessness. People who suffer from severe depression, psychologist Martin Seligman found, do so less as a result of particular unpleasant experiences than because of their “explanatory style,” the story they tell themselves about how the world works. Depressed people have become convincedthat the causes of their difficulties are permanent and pervasive, inextricably linked to their personal failings. There’s nothing to be done because nothing can be done. This master narrative of their lives excuses inaction; it provides a rationale for remaining helpless. In contrast, individuals who function with high effectiveness tend to believe that the problems they face result from factors that are specific, temporary, and therefore changeable. The story they live by empowers them.”

The annotation making the sentences, “This master narrative of their lives excuses inaction; it provides a rationale for remaining helpless. In contrast, individuals who function with high effectiveness tend to believe that the problems they face result from factors that are specific, temporary, and therefore changeable. The story they live by empowers them” reads, “The story we tell ourselves about the world can either lead us to a feeling of helplessness or a sense of empowerment – that there are things we can do to create change.”

The third paragraph reads, “This is not to say that change is easy, nor that everyone is in an equal position to bring it about. Some individuals and groups in America possess far more material and organizational resources than others. This reflects our deep social and economic inequities. But as Tikkun magazine founder Rabbi Michael Lerner has observed, we often fail to use the resources we do have, which may be of a different kind. “Most of us,” Lerner says, “have been subjected to a set of experiences in our childhood and adult lives that makes us feel that we do not deserve to have power.” Consequently, we can’t imagine changing the direction of our society. We decide that things are worse”

The first paragraph reads, “than they actually are – a condition Lerner refers to as “surplus powerlessness.”. . .”

The second parapgraph reads, “The illusion of powerlessness can just as easily afflict the fortunate among us. I know many people who are confident and successful in their work and have loving personal relationships, yet can hardly conceive of trying to work toward a more humane society. Materially comfortable and professionally accomplished, they could make important social contributions. Instead they restrict their search for meaning and integrity to their private lives. Their sense of shared fate extends only to their immediate families and friends. Despite their many advantages, they, too, have been taught an “explanatory style” that precludes participation in public life, except to promote the most narrow self-interest.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Points out that some of the most well-off people are driven by self-interest when they might use their wealth to make important “social contributions.”

The third paragraph reads, “Whatever our situations, we all face a choice. We can ignore the problems that lie just beyond our front doors; we can allow decisions to be made in our names that lead to a meaner and more desperate world. We can yell at the TV newscasters and complain about how bad things are, using our bitterness as a hedge against involvement. Or we can work, as well as we can, to shape a more generous common future.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Leaves us with a clear decision about whether or not we allow others to make choices for us or to take on the responsibility of working for the common good.”

The first paragraph reads, “than they actually are – a condition Lerner refers to as “surplus powerlessness.”. . .”

The second parapgraph reads, “The illusion of powerlessness can just as easily afflict the fortunate among us. I know many people who are confident and successful in their work and have loving personal relationships, yet can hardly conceive of trying to work toward a more humane society. Materially comfortable and professionally accomplished, they could make important social contributions. Instead they restrict their search for meaning and integrity to their private lives. Their sense of shared fate extends only to their immediate families and friends. Despite their many advantages, they, too, have been taught an “explanatory style” that precludes participation in public life, except to promote the most narrow self-interest.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Points out that some of the most well-off people are driven by self-interest when they might use their wealth to make important “social contributions.”

The third paragraph reads, “Whatever our situations, we all face a choice. We can ignore the problems that lie just beyond our front doors; we can allow decisions to be made in our names that lead to a meaner and more desperate world. We can yell at the TV newscasters and complain about how bad things are, using our bitterness as a hedge against involvement. Or we can work, as well as we can, to shape a more generous common future.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Leaves us with a clear decision about whether or not we allow others to make choices for us or to take on the responsibility of working for the common good.”

The first paragraph reads, “than they actually are – a condition Lerner refers to as “surplus powerlessness.”…”

The second parapgraph reads, “The illusion of powerlessness can just as easily afflict the fortunate among us. I know many people who are confident and successful in their work and have loving personal relationships, yet can hardly conceive of trying to work toward a more humane society. Materially comfortable and professionally accomplished, they could make important social contributions. Instead they restrict their search for meaning and integrity to their private lives. Their sense of shared fate extends only to their immediate families and friends. Despite their many advantages, they, too, have been taught an “explanatory style” that precludes participation in public life, except to promote the most narrow self-interest.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Points out that some of the most well-off people are driven by self-interest when they might use their wealth to make important “social contributions.”

The third paragraph reads, “Whatever our situations, we all face a choice. We can ignore the problems that lie just beyond our front doors; we can allow decisions to be made in our names that lead to a meaner and more desperate world. We can yell at the TV newscasters and complain about how bad things are, using our bitterness as a hedge against involvement. Or we can work, as well as we can, to shape a more generous common future.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Leaves us with a clear decision about whether or not we allow others to make choices for us or to take on the responsibility of working for the common good.”

ANNE COLBY AND THOMAS EHRLICH, WITH ELIZABETH BEAUMONT AND JASON STEPHENS

Undergraduate Education and the Development of Moral and Civic Responsibility

At the time that the two primary authors published this essay, they worked at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a U.S.-based education policy and research center founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905. The foundation embraces a commitment to developing networks of ideas, individuals, and institutions to advance teaching and learning. Anne Colby holds a PhD in psychology from Columbia and currently serves as a consulting professor at Stanford University. Prior to that, she was director of the Henry Murray Research Center at Harvard University. With Thomas Ehrlich, she published Educating for Democracy: Preparing Undergraduates for Responsible Political Engagement and won the 2013 Frederic W. Ness Book Award for their book Rethinking Undergraduate Business Education: Liberal Learning for the Profession. Thomas Ehrlich is a consulting professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and holds five honorary degrees. Professor Ehrlich has previously served as president of Indiana University, provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and dean of Stanford Law School. His most recent book (2013) is Civic Work, Civic Lessons: Two Generations Reflect on Public Service.

The first paragraph reads, “We are among those increasingly concerned about two related trends in contemporary American culture – excessive individualism and moral relativism on the one hand and popular disdain for civic engagement, particularly political involvement, on the other. In our view, undergraduate years are an important time for developing in students moral and civic responsibility that can help reverse these trends. This essay describes our work-in-progress, under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, to analyze the American undergraduate scene in terms of efforts to promote students’ moral and civic responsibility and to encourage our colleges and universities to strengthen those efforts.”

The annotation for the sentences, “We are among those increasingly concerned about two related trends in contemporary American culture – excessive individualism and moral relativism on the one hand and popular disdain for civic engagement, particularly political involvement, on the other. In our view, undergraduate years are an important time for developing in students moral and civic responsibility that can help reverse these trends” reads, “Shares a concern that Loeb expresses about trends toward increased individualism and lack of civic engagement. Especially interested in reaching out to undergraduates, whereas Loeb addresses a more general audience.”

Another annotation for the sentences, “This essay describes our work-in-progress, under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, to analyze the American undergraduate scene in terms of efforts to promote students’ moral and civic responsibility and to encourage our colleges and universities to strengthen those efforts” reads, “Stresses the responsibility that universities and colleges have to encourage students to be involved.”

The second paragraph reads, “Some people who have written about these issues have focused exclusively on civic responsibility, avoiding the more controversial area of morality (e.g., Barber, 1998). We include moral as well as civic responsibility in the scope of our project, because we believe the two are inseparable. Our democratic principles, including tolerance and respect for others, procedural impartiality, and concern for both the rights of the individual and the welfare of the group, are all grounded in moral principles. Likewise, the problems that the civically engaged citizen must confront always include strong moral themes – for example, fair access to resources such as housing, the moral obligation to consider future generations in making environmental policy, and the conflicting claims of multiple stakeholders in community decision-making. None of these issues can be adequately”

The annotation for the sentences, “Some people who have written about these issues have focused exclusively on civic responsibility, avoiding the more controversial area of morality (e.g., Barber, 1998). We include moral as well as civic responsibility in the scope of our project, because we believe the two are inseparable. Our democratic principles, including tolerance and respect for others, procedural impartiality, and concern for both the rights of the individual and the welfare of the group, are all grounded in moral principles” reads, “As concerned with morality as with civic engagement, which is a departure from Loeb. Maintains that moral and civic responsibility are inextricably linked. “

The annotation for the sentences, “Likewise, the problems that the civically engaged citizen must confront always include strong moral themes – for example, fair access to resources such as housing, the moral obligation to consider future generations in making environmental policy, and the conflicting claims of multiple stakeholders in community decision-making. None of these issues can be adequately” reads, “Elaborates on how moral principles are tied to democratic principles. Contends that decision making relies on having a “strong moral compass.”

The first paragraph reads, “We are among those increasingly concerned about two related trends in contemporary American culture – excessive individualism and moral relativism on the one hand and popular disdain for civic engagement, particularly political involvement, on the other. In our view, undergraduate years are an important time for developing in students moral and civic responsibility that can help reverse these trends. This essay describes our work-in-progress, under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, to analyze the American undergraduate scene in terms of efforts to promote students’ moral and civic responsibility and to encourage our colleges and universities to strengthen those efforts.”

The annotation for the sentences, “We are among those increasingly concerned about two related trends in contemporary American culture – excessive individualism and moral relativism on the one hand and popular disdain for civic engagement, particularly political involvement, on the other. In our view, undergraduate years are an important time for developing in students moral and civic responsibility that can help reverse these trends” reads, “Shares a concern that Loeb expresses about trends toward increased individualism and lack of civic engagement. Especially interested in reaching out to undergraduates, whereas Loeb addresses a more general audience.”

Another annotation for the sentences, “This essay describes our work-in-progress, under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, to analyze the American undergraduate scene in terms of efforts to promote students’ moral and civic responsibility and to encourage our colleges and universities to strengthen those efforts” reads, “Stresses the responsibility that universities and colleges have to encourage students to be involved.”

The second paragraph reads, “Some people who have written about these issues have focused exclusively on civic responsibility, avoiding the more controversial area of morality (e.g., Barber, 1998). We include moral as well as civic responsibility in the scope of our project, because we believe the two are inseparable. Our democratic principles, including tolerance and respect for others, procedural impartiality, and concern for both the rights of the individual and the welfare of the group, are all grounded in moral principles. Likewise, the problems that the civically engaged citizen must confront always include strong moral themes – for example, fair access to resources such as housing, the moral obligation to consider future generations in making environmental policy, and the conflicting claims of multiple stakeholders in community decision-making. None of these issues can be adequately”

The annotation for the sentences, “Some people who have written about these issues have focused exclusively on civic responsibility, avoiding the more controversial area of morality (e.g., Barber, 1998). We include moral as well as civic responsibility in the scope of our project, because we believe the two are inseparable. Our democratic principles, including tolerance and respect for others, procedural impartiality, and concern for both the rights of the individual and the welfare of the group, are all grounded in moral principles” reads, “As concerned with morality as with civic engagement, which is a departure from Loeb. Maintains that moral and civic responsibility are inextricably linked. “

The annotation for the sentences, “Likewise, the problems that the civically engaged citizen must confront always include strong moral themes – for example, fair access to resources such as housing, the moral obligation to consider future generations in making environmental policy, and the conflicting claims of multiple stakeholders in community decision-making. None of these issues can be adequately” reads, “Elaborates on how moral principles are tied to democratic principles. Contends that decision making relies on having a “strong moral compass.”

The first paragraph reads, “We are among those increasingly concerned about two related trends in contemporary American culture – excessive individualism and moral relativism on the one hand and popular disdain for civic engagement, particularly political involvement, on the other. In our view, undergraduate years are an important time for developing in students moral and civic responsibility that can help reverse these trends. This essay describes our work-in-progress, under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, to analyze the American undergraduate scene in terms of efforts to promote students’ moral and civic responsibility and to encourage our colleges and universities to strengthen those efforts.”

The annotation for the sentences, “We are among those increasingly concerned about two related trends in contemporary American culture – excessive individualism and moral relativism on the one hand and popular disdain for civic engagement, particularly political involvement, on the other. In our view, undergraduate years are an important time for developing in students moral and civic responsibility that can help reverse these trends” reads, “Shares a concern that Loeb expresses about trends toward increased individualism and lack of civic engagement. Especially interested in reaching out to undergraduates, whereas Loeb addresses a more general audience.”

Another annotation for the sentences, “This essay describes our work-in-progress, under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, to analyze the American undergraduate scene in terms of efforts to promote students’ moral and civic responsibility and to encourage our colleges and universities to strengthen those efforts” reads, “Stresses the responsibility that universities and colleges have to encourage students to be involved.”

The second paragraph reads, “Some people who have written about these issues have focused exclusively on civic responsibility, avoiding the more controversial area of morality (e.g., Barber, 1998). We include moral as well as civic responsibility in the scope of our project, because we believe the two are inseparable. Our democratic principles, including tolerance and respect for others, procedural impartiality, and concern for both the rights of the individual and the welfare of the group, are all grounded in moral principles. Likewise, the problems that the civically engaged citizen must confront always include strong moral themes – for example, fair access to resources such as housing, the moral obligation to consider future generations in making environmental policy, and the conflicting claims of multiple stakeholders in community decision-making. None of these issues can be adequately”

The annotation for the sentences, “Some people who have written about these issues have focused exclusively on civic responsibility, avoiding the more controversial area of morality (e.g., Barber, 1998). We include moral as well as civic responsibility in the scope of our project, because we believe the two are inseparable. Our democratic principles, including tolerance and respect for others, procedural impartiality, and concern for both the rights of the individual and the welfare of the group, are all grounded in moral principles” reads, “As concerned with morality as with civic engagement, which is a departure from Loeb. Maintains that moral and civic responsibility are inextricably linked. “

The annotation for the sentences, “Likewise, the problems that the civically engaged citizen must confront always include strong moral themes – for example, fair access to resources such as housing, the moral obligation to consider future generations in making environmental policy, and the conflicting claims of multiple stakeholders in community decision-making. None of these issues can be adequately” reads, “Elaborates on how moral principles are tied to democratic principles. Contends that decision making relies on having a “strong moral compass.”

The forst paragraph reads, “resolved without a consideration of moral questions. A person can become civically and politically active without good judgment and a strong moral compass, but it is hardly wise to promote that kind of involvement. Because civic responsibility is inescapably threaded with moral values, we believe that higher education must aspire to foster both moral and civic maturity and must confront educationally the many links between them.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Educators must commit themselves to teaching civic responsibility and morality”

The second paragraph reads, “What do we mean by “moral” and by “civic”? We consider “moral,” in its broadest sense, to include matters of values both personal and public. As we use the term, “morality” is not confined to a specific sphere of life or action, nor is it necessarily tied to religion. In advocating moral engagement, we are not promoting any particular moral or meta-ethical viewpoint. Rather, we are interested in fostering more thoughtful moral reflection generally and the adoption of viewpoints and commitments that emerge from reasoned consideration. We believe that higher education should encourage and facilitate the development of students’ capacities to examine complex situations in which competing values are often at stake, to employ both substantive knowledge and moral reasoning to evaluate the problems and values involved, to develop their own judgments about those issues, and then to act on their judgments.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Defines moral engagement in broad terms to promote thoughtful reflection and call upon institutions of higher education to foster moral engagement.”

The third paragraph reads, “We consider “civic” to range over all social spheres beyond the family, from neighborhoods and local communities to state, national, and cross-national arenas. Political engagement is a particular subset of civic engagement that is required for sustaining American democracy. We are not promoting a single type of civic or political engagement, but instead urging that the effective operation of social systems and the successful achievement of collective goals demand the time, attention, understanding, and action of all citizens. Institutions of higher education have both the opportunity and obligation to cultivate in their graduates an appreciation for the responsibilities and rewards of civic engagement, as well as to”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Defines civic engagement as a necessary means for sustaining a democracy that encompasses both thoughtful reflection and subsequent action.”

The forst paragraph reads, “resolved without a consideration of moral questions. A person can become civically and politically active without good judgment and a strong moral compass, but it is hardly wise to promote that kind of involvement. Because civic responsibility is inescapably threaded with moral values, we believe that higher education must aspire to foster both moral and civic maturity and must confront educationally the many links between them.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Educators must commit themselves to teaching civic responsibility and morality”

The second paragraph reads, “What do we mean by “moral” and by “civic”? We consider “moral,” in its broadest sense, to include matters of values both personal and public. As we use the term, “morality” is not confined to a specific sphere of life or action, nor is it necessarily tied to religion. In advocating moral engagement, we are not promoting any particular moral or meta-ethical viewpoint. Rather, we are interested in fostering more thoughtful moral reflection generally and the adoption of viewpoints and commitments that emerge from reasoned consideration. We believe that higher education should encourage and facilitate the development of students’ capacities to examine complex situations in which competing values are often at stake, to employ both substantive knowledge and moral reasoning to evaluate the problems and values involved, to develop their own judgments about those issues, and then to act on their judgments.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Defines moral engagement in broad terms to promote thoughtful reflection and call upon institutions of higher education to foster moral engagement.”

The third paragraph reads, “We consider “civic” to range over all social spheres beyond the family, from neighborhoods and local communities to state, national, and cross-national arenas. Political engagement is a particular subset of civic engagement that is required for sustaining American democracy. We are not promoting a single type of civic or political engagement, but instead urging that the effective operation of social systems and the successful achievement of collective goals demand the time, attention, understanding, and action of all citizens. Institutions of higher education have both the opportunity and obligation to cultivate in their graduates an appreciation for the responsibilities and rewards of civic engagement, as well as to”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Defines civic engagement as a necessary means for sustaining a democracy that encompasses both thoughtful reflection and subsequent action.”

The forst paragraph reads, “resolved without a consideration of moral questions. A person can become civically and politically active without good judgment and a strong moral compass, but it is hardly wise to promote that kind of involvement. Because civic responsibility is inescapably threaded with moral values, we believe that higher education must aspire to foster both moral and civic maturity and must confront educationally the many links between them.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Educators must commit themselves to teaching civic responsibility and morality”

The second paragraph reads, “What do we mean by “moral” and by “civic”? We consider “moral,” in its broadest sense, to include matters of values both personal and public. As we use the term, “morality” is not confined to a specific sphere of life or action, nor is it necessarily tied to religion. In advocating moral engagement, we are not promoting any particular moral or meta-ethical viewpoint. Rather, we are interested in fostering more thoughtful moral reflection generally and the adoption of viewpoints and commitments that emerge from reasoned consideration. We believe that higher education should encourage and facilitate the development of students’ capacities to examine complex situations in which competing values are often at stake, to employ both substantive knowledge and moral reasoning to evaluate the problems and values involved, to develop their own judgments about those issues, and then to act on their judgments.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Defines moral engagement in broad terms to promote thoughtful reflection and call upon institutions of higher education to foster moral engagement.”

The third paragraph reads, “We consider “civic” to range over all social spheres beyond the family, from neighborhoods and local communities to state, national, and cross-national arenas. Political engagement is a particular subset of civic engagement that is required for sustaining American democracy. We are not promoting a single type of civic or political engagement, but instead urging that the effective operation of social systems and the successful achievement of collective goals demand the time, attention, understanding, and action of all citizens. Institutions of higher education have both the opportunity and obligation to cultivate in their graduates an appreciation for the responsibilities and rewards of civic engagement, as well as to”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Defines civic engagement as a necessary means for sustaining a democracy that encompasses both thoughtful reflection and subsequent action.”

The first paragraph reads. “foster the capacities necessary for thoughtful participation in public discourse and effective participation in social enterprises.”

The second paragraph reads, “In general terms, we believe that a morally and civically responsible individual recognizes himself or herself as a member of a larger social fabric and therefore considers social problems to be at least partly his or her own; such an individual is willing to see the moral and civic dimensions of issues, to make and justify informed moral and civic judgments, and to take action when appropriate.”

The third paragraph reads, “We believe that moral and civic development is enhanced by mutually interdependent sets of knowledge, virtues, and skills. Because they are interdependent, no simple listing of attributes is adequate. Such a listing may imply that the elements involved have precise definitions and parameters that might be gained through a single course or even from reading a few books. We have come to understand through studying various colleges and universities that this is not the case. Instead, enriching the moral and civic responsibility of all members of the campus community is best achieved through the cumulative, interactive effect of numerous curricular and extracurricular programs, within an environment of sustained institutional commitment to these overarching goals. …”

The annotation for the sentences, “We have come to understand through studying various colleges and universities that this is not the case. Instead, enriching the moral and civic responsibility of all members of the campus community is best achieved through the cumulative, interactive effect of numerous curricular and extracurricular programs, within an environment of sustained institutional commitment to these overarching goals…” reads, “The teaching of civic and moral engagement should occur in different fields of study and programs supported by a national organization such as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “Included in the core knowledge we consider integral to moral and civic learning is knowledge of basic ethical concepts and principles, such as justice and equity, and how they have been interpreted by various seminal thinkers. Also included is a comprehension of the diversity of American society and global cultures, and an understanding of both the institutions and processes of American and international civic, political, and economic affairs. Finally, deep substantive knowledge of the particular issues in which one is engaged is critical.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Avoids defining values that can inform judgment, but offers a description of core knowledge and concepts that educators should impart to their students.”

The fifth paragraph reads, “This core of knowledge cannot be separated from the virtues and skills that a morally and civically responsible individual should strive to attain. The virtues and skills we have in mind are not distinct to moral and civic learning but are necessary for active”

The annotation for this paragrah reads, “Core knowledge of key issues and an understanding of civic, political, and economic concerns should go hand in hand with moral and civic learning.”

The first paragraph reads. “foster the capacities necessary for thoughtful participation in public discourse and effective participation in social enterprises.”

The second paragraph reads, “In general terms, we believe that a morally and civically responsible individual recognizes himself or herself as a member of a larger social fabric and therefore considers social problems to be at least partly his or her own; such an individual is willing to see the moral and civic dimensions of issues, to make and justify informed moral and civic judgments, and to take action when appropriate.”

The third paragraph reads, “We believe that moral and civic development is enhanced by mutually interdependent sets of knowledge, virtues, and skills. Because they are interdependent, no simple listing of attributes is adequate. Such a listing may imply that the elements involved have precise definitions and parameters that might be gained through a single course or even from reading a few books. We have come to understand through studying various colleges and universities that this is not the case. Instead, enriching the moral and civic responsibility of all members of the campus community is best achieved through the cumulative, interactive effect of numerous curricular and extracurricular programs, within an environment of sustained institutional commitment to these overarching goals… .”

The annotation for the sentences, “We have come to understand through studying various colleges and universities that this is not the case. Instead, enriching the moral and civic responsibility of all members of the campus community is best achieved through the cumulative, interactive effect of numerous curricular and extracurricular programs, within an environment of sustained institutional commitment to these overarching goals…” reads, “The teaching of civic and moral engagement should occur in different fields of study and programs supported by a national organization such as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “Included in the core knowledge we consider integral to moral and civic learning is knowledge of basic ethical concepts and principles, such as justice and equity, and how they have been interpreted by various seminal thinkers. Also included is a comprehension of the diversity of American society and global cultures, and an understanding of both the institutions and processes of American and international civic, political, and economic affairs. Finally, deep substantive knowledge of the particular issues in which one is engaged is critical.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Avoids defining values that can inform judgment, but offers a description of core knowledge and concepts that educators should impart to their students.”

The fifth paragraph reads, “This core of knowledge cannot be separated from the virtues and skills that a morally and civically responsible individual should strive to attain. The virtues and skills we have in mind are not distinct to moral and civic learning but are necessary for active”

The annotation for this paragrah reads, “Core knowledge of key issues and an understanding of civic, political, and economic concerns should go hand in hand with moral and civic learning.”

The first paragraph reads. “foster the capacities necessary for thoughtful participation in public discourse and effective participation in social enterprises.”

The second paragraph reads, “In general terms, we believe that a morally and civically responsible individual recognizes himself or herself as a member of a larger social fabric and therefore considers social problems to be at least partly his or her own; such an individual is willing to see the moral and civic dimensions of issues, to make and justify informed moral and civic judgments, and to take action when appropriate.”

The third paragraph reads, “We believe that moral and civic development is enhanced by mutually interdependent sets of knowledge, virtues, and skills. Because they are interdependent, no simple listing of attributes is adequate. Such a listing may imply that the elements involved have precise definitions and parameters that might be gained through a single course or even from reading a few books. We have come to understand through studying various colleges and universities that this is not the case. Instead, enriching the moral and civic responsibility of all members of the campus community is best achieved through the cumulative, interactive effect of numerous curricular and extracurricular programs, within an environment of sustained institutional commitment to these overarching goals… .”

The annotation for the sentences, “We have come to understand through studying various colleges and universities that this is not the case. Instead, enriching the moral and civic responsibility of all members of the campus community is best achieved through the cumulative, interactive effect of numerous curricular and extracurricular programs, within an environment of sustained institutional commitment to these overarching goals…” reads, “The teaching of civic and moral engagement should occur in different fields of study and programs supported by a national organization such as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “Included in the core knowledge we consider integral to moral and civic learning is knowledge of basic ethical concepts and principles, such as justice and equity, and how they have been interpreted by various seminal thinkers. Also included is a comprehension of the diversity of American society and global cultures, and an understanding of both the institutions and processes of American and international civic, political, and economic affairs. Finally, deep substantive knowledge of the particular issues in which one is engaged is critical.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Avoids defining values that can inform judgment, but offers a description of core knowledge and concepts that educators should impart to their students.”

The fifth paragraph reads, “This core of knowledge cannot be separated from the virtues and skills that a morally and civically responsible individual should strive to attain. The virtues and skills we have in mind are not distinct to moral and civic learning but are necessary for active”

The annotation for this paragrah reads, “Core knowledge of key issues and an understanding of civic, political, and economic concerns should go hand in hand with moral and civic learning.”

The first paragraph reads, “engagement in many personal and professiona realms. Among the core virtues is the willingness to engage in critical self-examination and to form reasoned commitments, balanced by open-mindedness and a willingness to listen to and take seriously the ideas of others. Moral and civic responsibility also requires honesty in dealings with others, and in holding oneself accountable for one’s action and inactions. Without a basis of trust, and habits of cooperation, no community can operate effectively. Empathy and compassion are also needed, not only for relating to those in one’s immediate social sphere, but for relating to those in the larger society as well. Willingness to form moral and civic commitments and to act on those is a core virtue that puts the others into practice.”

The annotation for the sentences, “Without a basis of trust, and habits of cooperation, no community can operate effectively. Empathy and compassion are also needed, not only for relating to those in one’s immediate social sphere, but for relating to those in the larger society as well. Willingness to form moral and civic commitments and to act on those is a core virtue that puts the others into practice” reads, “Elaborates upon the idea of community building that Loeb introduces, particularly empathy, trust, and compassion.”

The second paragraph reads, “Finally, the core skills of moral and civic responsibility are essential for applying core knowledge and virtues, transforming informed judgments into action. They include the abilities to recognize the moral and civic dimensions of issues and to take a stand on those issues. But they also include skills that apply to much broader arenas of thought and behavior, such as abilities to communicate clearly orally and in writing, to collect, organize, and analyze information, to think critically and to justify positions with reasoned arguments, to see issues from the perspectives of others and to collaborate with others. They also include the ability and willingness to lead, to build a consensus, and to move a group forward under conditions of mutual respect.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Maintains that to act requires applying core knowledge and values, in contrast to Loeb, who uses evidence from sociology, health, and psychology to inspire people to become civically and politically engaged.”

The first paragraph reads, “engagement in many personal and professiona realms. Among the core virtues is the willingness to engage in critical self-examination and to form reasoned commitments, balanced by open-mindedness and a willingness to listen to and take seriously the ideas of others. Moral and civic responsibility also requires honesty in dealings with others, and in holding oneself accountable for one’s action and inactions. Without a basis of trust, and habits of cooperation, no community can operate effectively. Empathy and compassion are also needed, not only for relating to those in one’s immediate social sphere, but for relating to those in the larger society as well. Willingness to form moral and civic commitments and to act on those is a core virtue that puts the others into practice.”

The annotation for the sentences, “Without a basis of trust, and habits of cooperation, no community can operate effectively. Empathy and compassion are also needed, not only for relating to those in one’s immediate social sphere, but for relating to those in the larger society as well. Willingness to form moral and civic commitments and to act on those is a core virtue that puts the others into practice” reads, “Elaborates upon the idea of community building that Loeb introduces, particularly empathy, trust, and compassion.”

The second paragraph reads, “Finally, the core skills of moral and civic responsibility are essential for applying core knowledge and virtues, transforming informed judgments into action. They include the abilities to recognize the moral and civic dimensions of issues and to take a stand on those issues. But they also include skills that apply to much broader arenas of thought and behavior, such as abilities to communicate clearly orally and in writing, to collect, organize, and analyze information, to think critically and to justify positions with reasoned arguments, to see issues from the perspectives of others and to collaborate with others. They also include the ability and willingness to lead, to build a consensus, and to move a group forward under conditions of mutual respect.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Maintains that to act requires applying core knowledge and values, in contrast to Loeb, who uses evidence from sociology, health, and psychology to inspire people to become civically and politically engaged.”

The first paragraph reads, “engagement in many personal and professiona realms. Among the core virtues is the willingness to engage in critical self-examination and to form reasoned commitments, balanced by open-mindedness and a willingness to listen to and take seriously the ideas of others. Moral and civic responsibility also requires honesty in dealings with others, and in holding oneself accountable for one’s action and inactions. Without a basis of trust, and habits of cooperation, no community can operate effectively. Empathy and compassion are also needed, not only for relating to those in one’s immediate social sphere, but for relating to those in the larger society as well. Willingness to form moral and civic commitments and to act on those is a core virtue that puts the others into practice.”

The annotation for the sentences, “Without a basis of trust, and habits of cooperation, no community can operate effectively. Empathy and compassion are also needed, not only for relating to those in one’s immediate social sphere, but for relating to those in the larger society as well. Willingness to form moral and civic commitments and to act on those is a core virtue that puts the others into practice” reads, “Elaborates upon the idea of community building that Loeb introduces, particularly empathy, trust, and compassion.”

The second paragraph reads, “Finally, the core skills of moral and civic responsibility are essential for applying core knowledge and virtues, transforming informed judgments into action. They include the abilities to recognize the moral and civic dimensions of issues and to take a stand on those issues. But they also include skills that apply to much broader arenas of thought and behavior, such as abilities to communicate clearly orally and in writing, to collect, organize, and analyze information, to think critically and to justify positions with reasoned arguments, to see issues from the perspectives of others and to collaborate with others. They also include the ability and willingness to lead, to build a consensus, and to move a group forward under conditions of mutual respect.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Maintains that to act requires applying core knowledge and values, in contrast to Loeb, who uses evidence from sociology, health, and psychology to inspire people to become civically and politically engaged.”

LAURIE OUELLETTE

Citizen Brand: ABC and the Do Good Turn in US Television

Laurie Ouellette is a professor of communication studies at the University of Minnesota. The author of Lifestyle TV and coauthor of Better Living through Reality TV: Television and Post-Welfare Citizenship, she has published extensively about public broadcasting, TV history, fashion and style, self-help culture, and social media.

The article begins with a saying “The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish achievement, but rather with the things we do for other people – WALT DISNEY.”

The first paragraph reads, “In 2002, ABC launched its long-running Better Community public outreach campaign, with a mission of advancing the television network’s standing as a corporate citizen through “community outreach efforts that serve the public interest, inform and inspire.”… Encompassing announcements urging TV viewers to perform community service, as well as an online guide to volunteering and a slate of popular entertainment programs showcasing corporate and personal humanitarianism, the campaign positioned ABC as a socially responsible corporate citizen. More than this, it constituted ABC as a gateway to a Better Community comprising network stars, nonprofit partners, commercial sponsors, and socially conscious TV viewers who–much more than other television consumers–contribute resources (time and money) to the well-being of the communities in which they live. Why would ABC pursue what it claimed to be the “comprehensive and recognizable public service initiative” on US television in the wake of deregulatory policies? To make sense of the Better Community initiative – and the television industry’s investment in civic empowerment more broadly – it is useful to trace the burgeoning and deeply intertwined currency of communitarian discourse and corporate social responsibility.”

The annotations for the sentences, “in 2002, ABC launched its long-running Better Community public outreach campaign, with a mission of advancing the television network’s standing as a corporate citizen through “community outreach efforts that serve the public interest, inform and inspire.”… Encompassing announcements urging TV viewers to perform community service, as well as an online guide to volunteering and a slate of popular entertainment programs showcasing corporate and personal humanitarianism, the campaign positioned ABC as a socially responsible corporate citizen. More than this, it constituted ABC as a gateway to a Better Community comprising network stars, nonprofit partners, commercial sponsors, and socially conscious TV viewers who–much more than other television consumers–contribute resources (time and money) to the well-being of the communities in which they live” reads, “Introduces the idea of corporate sponsorship of community involvement and raises the question ofwhat has motivated this kind of initiative to involve viewers, actors, and the like.”

The annotation for the sentences, “To make sense of the Better Community initiative – and the television industry’s investment in civic empowerment more broadly – it is useful to trace the burgeoning and deeply intertwined currency of communitarian discourse and corporate social responsibility.”

The second paragraph reads, “The Better Community campaign appeared in the midst of the reinvention of government in the US, an assemblage of reforms encompassing public sector downsizing, the encouragement of public-private partnerships, the outsourcing of many government services to commercial firms, and the dismantling of welfare programs… . ABC translated a bipartisan call for private initiative and personal responsibility as empowering alternatives to big government into” reads, “Offers some histori-2 cal perspective and describes some of the economic reforms in government that have placed more responsibility on private citizens, among others, to support children and families living in poverty.”

The article begins with a saying “The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish achievement, but rather with the things we do for other people – WALT DISNEY.”

The first paragraph reads, “In 2002, ABC launched its long-running Better Community public outreach campaign, with a mission of advancing the television network’s standing as a corporate citizen through “community outreach efforts that serve the public interest, inform and inspire.”… Encompassing announcements urging TV viewers to perform community service, as well as an online guide to volunteering and a slate of popular entertainment programs showcasing corporate and personal humanitarianism, the campaign positioned ABC as a socially responsible corporate citizen. More than this, it constituted ABC as a gateway to a Better Community comprising network stars, nonprofit partners, commercial sponsors, and socially conscious TV viewers who–much more than other television consumers–contribute resources (time and money) to the well-being of the communities in which they live. Why would ABC pursue what it claimed to be the “comprehensive and recognizable public service initiative” on US television in the wake of deregulatory policies? To make sense of the Better Community initiative – and the television industry’s investment in civic empowerment more broadly – it is useful to trace the burgeoning and deeply intertwined currency of communitarian discourse and corporate social responsibility.”

The annotations for the sentences, “in 2002, ABC launched its long-running Better Community public outreach campaign, with a mission of advancing the television network’s standing as a corporate citizen through “community outreach efforts that serve the public interest, inform and inspire.”… Encompassing announcements urging TV viewers to perform community service, as well as an online guide to volunteering and a slate of popular entertainment programs showcasing corporate and personal humanitarianism, the campaign positioned ABC as a socially responsible corporate citizen. More than this, it constituted ABC as a gateway to a Better Community comprising network stars, nonprofit partners, commercial sponsors, and socially conscious TV viewers who–much more than other television consumers–contribute resources (time and money) to the well-being of the communities in which they live” reads, “Introduces the idea of corporate sponsorship of community involvement and raises the question ofwhat has motivated this kind of initiative to involve viewers, actors, and the like.”

The annotation for the sentences, “To make sense of the Better Community initiative – and the television industry’s investment in civic empowerment more broadly – it is useful to trace the burgeoning and deeply intertwined currency of communitarian discourse and corporate social responsibility.”

The second paragraph reads, “The Better Community campaign appeared in the midst of the reinvention of government in the US, an assemblage of reforms encompassing public sector downsizing, the encouragement of public-private partnerships, the outsourcing of many government services to commercial firms, and the dismantling of welfare programs… . ABC translated a bipartisan call for private initiative and personal responsibility as empowering alternatives to big government into” reads, “Offers some historical perspective and describes some of the economic reforms in government that have placed more responsibility on private citizens, among others, to support children and families living in poverty.”

The article begins with a saying “The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish achievement, but rather with the things we do for other people – WALT DISNEY.”

The first paragraph reads, “In 2002, ABC launched its long-running Better Community public outreach campaign, with a mission of advancing the television network’s standing as a corporate citizen through “community outreach efforts that serve the public interest, inform and inspire.”… Encompassing announcements urging TV viewers to perform community service, as well as an online guide to volunteering and a slate of popular entertainment programs showcasing corporate and personal humanitarianism, the campaign positioned ABC as a socially responsible corporate citizen. More than this, it constituted ABC as a gateway to a Better Community comprising network stars, nonprofit partners, commercial sponsors, and socially conscious TV viewers who–much more than other television consumers–contribute resources (time and money) to the well-being of the communities in which they live. Why would ABC pursue what it claimed to be the “comprehensive and recognizable public service initiative” on US television in the wake of deregulatory policies? To make sense of the Better Community initiative – and the television industry’s investment in civic empowerment more broadly – it is useful to trace the burgeoning and deeply intertwined currency of communitarian discourse and corporate social responsibility.”

The annotations for the sentences, “in 2002, ABC launched its long-running Better Community public outreach campaign, with a mission of advancing the television network’s standing as a corporate citizen through “community outreach efforts that serve the public interest, inform and inspire.”… Encompassing announcements urging TV viewers to perform community service, as well as an online guide to volunteering and a slate of popular entertainment programs showcasing corporate and personal humanitarianism, the campaign positioned ABC as a socially responsible corporate citizen. More than this, it constituted ABC as a gateway to a Better Community comprising network stars, nonprofit partners, commercial sponsors, and socially conscious TV viewers who–much more than other television consumers–contribute resources (time and money) to the well-being of the communities in which they live” reads, “Introduces the idea of corporate sponsorship of community involvement and raises the question ofwhat has motivated this kind of initiative to involve viewers, actors, and the like.”

The annotation for the sentences, “To make sense of the Better Community initiative – and the television industry’s investment in civic empowerment more broadly – it is useful to trace the burgeoning and deeply intertwined currency of communitarian discourse and corporate social responsibility.”

The second paragraph reads, “The Better Community campaign appeared in the midst of the reinvention of government in the US, an assemblage of reforms encompassing public sector downsizing, the encouragement of public-private partnerships, the outsourcing of many government services to commercial firms, and the dismantling of welfare programs… . ABC translated a bipartisan call for private initiative and personal responsibility as empowering alternatives to big government into” reads, “Offers some historical perspective and describes some of the economic reforms in government that have placed more responsibility on private citizens, among others, to support children and families living in poverty.”

The first paragraph reads, “fifteen-second public service announcements that doubled as station promotions, and advertising stuffed entertainment revolving around corporate giving and volunteerism. The campaign embraced the entrepreneurial zeal guiding political reform, but it also inserted the ABC television network and its viewers into communitarian solutions to the underside of unfettered capitalism. Like other examples of do good television, the Better Community campaign exemplifies an enterprising turn in governing and at the same time seeks to help overcome the consequences of a pure market logic in the civic realm.”

The annotation for the paragraph reads, “TV stations like ABC interpreted the call for more private and personal responsibility as a way to promote volunteerism and their own interests. Community activism would replace social welfare programs, while the government fostered a free, unregulated economic market.”

The second paragraph reads, “Community is an especially popular corporate civic objective due to its positive currency and safe distance from unruly political activism or controversy. The turn to community, which is also a dominant theme in do good television, is also closely intertwined with communitarian political discourses and strategies of governing. Communitarianism is an applied political philosophy that endorses market capitalism and limited public powers but calls for additional changes to ensure the civic functionality of democratic societies. It advocates the nourishing of voluntary associations as a buffer between the downsized welfare state and the competitive self-interest found in the commercial marketplace. … Both the Clinton and Bush administrations adopted communitarian models of “governing through community,” from the designation of community empowerment zones as an alternative to public housing programs (Clinton) to the creation of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to “nourish dispersed religious and civil alternatives to public welfare programs” and a USA Freedom Corps Volunteer Network to mobilize citizens into “armies of compassion” (Bush). Bush also entrusted the new President’s Council on National and Community Service, composed of leaders from business, entertainment, sports, the nonprofit sector, education, and media, to help the White House cultivate a stronger ethic of service and responsibility in the US. While there were crucial differences between Clinton”

The first annotation for this paragraph reads, “Corporate social responsibility seems separate from political interests while still supporting democracy, but corporate involvement has its roots in efforts by both former presidents Bush and Clinton to find alternatives to welfare programs.”

The second annotation for this paragraph reads, “Observes that an ethic of communitarianism derives from policy, in contrast to the moral argument that Colby and her colleagues describe or the humanitarian principles that Loeb explains. Communitarianism has become necessary in the absence of government-supported programs.”

The first paragraph reads, “fifteen-second public service announcements that doubled as station promotions, and advertising stuffed entertainment revolving around corporate giving and volunteerism. The campaign embraced the entrepreneurial zeal guiding political reform, but it also inserted the ABC television network and its viewers into communitarian solutions to the underside of unfettered capitalism. Like other examples of do good television, the Better Community campaign exemplifies an enterprising turn in governing and at the same time seeks to help overcome the consequences of a pure market logic in the civic realm.”

The first paragraph reads, “and Bush, the point to be made here is that community has become an objective of governing across political regimes. This matters for our purposes for two reasons: First, good communities (like good citizens) are not born but made – constituted through policies, political discourses, and cultural technologies such as television. Second, as Nikolas Rose persuasively contends, community has become “another word for citizenship” that stresses civic duties rather than collective entitlements. Rose sees the uptake of communitarianism as a substitute for a diminishing social contract – an intervention that softens the “harshest dimensions of neo-capitalist restructuring” by encouraging citizens to serve associations (neighborhoods, localities, social networks, families) that are “decidedly private and which more or less absolve the state of responsibility for society.”…”

The second paragraph reads, “In the US, communitarianism is closely associated with prominent scholar and political consultant Amitai Etzioni… . In his many books, speeches, and ongoing work with the Institute for Communitarian Studies at George Washington University, Etzioni promotes an understanding of community as a counterbalance to a model of society created in the image of the “marketplace, in which selfserving individuals compete with one another.”… Communities, he contends, also offset the need for public oversight by reinforcing a voluntary moral order rooted in “traditional values” of respectability, responsibility, and independence. Conceived as dispersed, self-managed ethical zones, community poses an alternative not only to the welfare state but also to the model of democracy associated with broadcast regulation and earlier interpretations of the public interest in television. As Rose points out, community as conceived by Etzioni and other influential thinkers offers a way to “regenerate society” that comes not from “law, information, reason, or deliberative democracy” but from moral “dialogue and action” within voluntary associations… .”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Traces the term communitarianism to one scholar who developed a model of communitarian values that seems to mirror those of Colby and her colleagues given their similar emphasis on “moral dialogue and action.”

The first paragraph reads, “While Etzioni naturalizes the space of community, he concedes that citizens must be trained to “participate in communitarian society.” Even those who have “acquired virtue” will require ongoing guidance, “for if left to their own devices … [they] gradually lose much of their commitment to values.”… What Rose calls technologies of community have proliferated since the 1990s, offering tutelage and instruction. This is partly a response to widely circulating reports of declining volunteerism, everyday philanthropy, and civic engagement in the US. Robert Putnam’s influential study Bowling Alone lamented the collapse of voluntary associations, indicating that few contemporary Americans demonstrate the civic propensities that Alexis de Tocqueville credited with the “capacity to make democracy work.”… By the mid-1990s, barely one American in three reported any charitable giving in the previous month, and fewer than two in five claimed even “occasional religious giving,” according to Putnam’s study… . These trends paralleled an equally sharp reduction in participation in community institutions, from lodges to parent-teacher associations… . As Rose points out, the “decline of community” ascribed to these trends was also held responsible for a slew of civic problems, from “drugs, crime and alienation, to family breakdown and the loss of good neighborliness.”… For Putnam (who penned Bush’s 2001 inaugural speech), any attempt to reinvent government also needed to “revitalize” community and its subjects.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites Putnam’s study reported in Bowling Alone and reiterates concerns of others about the decline of volunteerism and civic engagement. This decline seems connected, according to another scholar, Rose, to a number of social problems.”

The second paragraph reads, “While communitarianism gained currency, corporate social responsibility was also actively encouraged as a dimension of governmental reform. Both Clinton and Bush called on the corporate sector to partner in social programs and fill gaps left by the divested welfare state. As Andrew Barry argues, the market’s willingness to take on responsibility for ethical problems is not surprising. In an era when “direct state control has declined,” he explains, corporations are increasingly expected to “perform the job of government at”

The first paragraph reads, “While Etzioni naturalizes the space of community, he concedes that citizens must be trained to “participate in communitarian society.” Even those who have “acquired virtue” will require ongoing guidance, “for if left to their own devices … [they] gradually lose much of their commitment to values.”… What Rose calls technologies of community have proliferated since the 1990s, offering tutelage and instruction. This is partly a response to widely circulating reports of declining volunteerism, everyday philanthropy, and civic engagement in the US. Robert Putnam’s influential study Bowling Alone lamented the collapse of voluntary associations, indicating that few contemporary Americans demonstrate the civic propensities that Alexis de Tocqueville credited with the “capacity to make democracy work.”… By the mid-1990s, barely one American in three reported any charitable giving in the previous month, and fewer than two in five claimed even “occasional religious giving,” according to Putnam’s study… . These trends paralleled an equally sharp reduction in participation in community institutions, from lodges to parent-teacher associations… . As Rose points out, the “decline of community” ascribed to these trends was also held responsible for a slew of civic problems, from “drugs, crime and alienation, to family breakdown and the loss of good neighborliness.”… For Putnam (who penned Bush’s 2001 inaugural speech), any attempt to reinvent government also needed to “revitalize” community and its subjects.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites Putnam’s study reported in Bowling Alone and reiterates concerns of others about the decline of volunteerism and civic engagement. This decline seems connected, according to another scholar, Rose, to a number of social problems.”

The second paragraph reads, “While communitarianism gained currency, corporate social responsibility was also actively encouraged as a dimension of governmental reform. Both Clinton and Bush called on the corporate sector to partner in social programs and fill gaps left by the divested welfare state. As Andrew Barry argues, the market’s willingness to take on responsibility for ethical problems is not surprising. In an era when “direct state control has declined,” he explains, corporations are increasingly expected to “perform the job of government at”

The first paragraph reads, “While Etzioni naturalizes the space of community, he concedes that citizens must be trained to “participate in communitarian society.” Even those who have “acquired virtue” will require ongoing guidance, “for if left to their own devices … [they] gradually lose much of their commitment to values.”… What Rose calls technologies of community have proliferated since the 1990s, offering tutelage and instruction. This is partly a response to widely circulating reports of declining volunteerism, everyday philanthropy, and civic engagement in the US. Robert Putnam’s influential study Bowling Alone lamented the collapse of voluntary associations, indicating that few contemporary Americans demonstrate the civic propensities that Alexis de Tocqueville credited with the “capacity to make democracy work.”… By the mid-1990s, barely one American in three reported any charitable giving in the previous month, and fewer than two in five claimed even “occasional religious giving,” according to Putnam’s study… . These trends paralleled an equally sharp reduction in participation in community institutions, from lodges to parent-teacher associations… . As Rose points out, the “decline of community” ascribed to these trends was also held responsible for a slew of civic problems, from “drugs, crime and alienation, to family breakdown and the loss of good neighborliness.”… For Putnam (who penned Bush’s 2001 inaugural speech), any attempt to reinvent government also needed to “revitalize” community and its subjects.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites Putnam’s study reported in Bowling Alone and reiterates concerns of others about the decline of volunteerism and civic engagement. This decline seems connected, according to another scholar, Rose, to a number of social problems.”

The second paragraph reads, “While communitarianism gained currency, corporate social responsibility was also actively encouraged as a dimension of governmental reform. Both Clinton and Bush called on the corporate sector to partner in social programs and fill gaps left by the divested welfare state. As Andrew Barry argues, the market’s willingness to take on responsibility for ethical problems is not surprising. In an era when “direct state control has declined,” he explains, corporations are increasingly expected to “perform the job of government at”

The first paragraph reads, “a distance.”… Yet, the rise of cause marketing, corporate philanthropy, and other manifestations of what Barry calls ethical capitalism are only viable to the extent that they are also profitable. The age of paternalistic philanthropy, exemplified by Andrew Carnegie’s view of wealth as a “sacred trust, which its possessor was bound to administer for the good of the community,” passed some time ago… . In 1970, Milton Friedman, a leading figure of the Chicago school of neoliberalism, unapologetically declared in the New York Times, “The social responsibility of business is to increase profits.”… Nonetheless, corporations have increasingly embraced objectives (fundraising for cures, promoting recycling, citizenship training) that blurs the boundaries between public and private, governing and profiteering. According to business historian David Vogel, this development is not only the outcome of public sector downsizing and government at a distance. As the entrepreneurial spirit was reforming the welfare state, many corporations were discovering a lucrative “market for virtue.” Today, says Vogel, corporate social responsibility is approached not as an unprofitable duty but as the key to successful profit maximization… .”

The annotation for the paragraph reads, “Introduces the term “cause marketing,” which combines the ideas of corporate social responsibility and profit. This concept highlights the role that businesses have taken on in the context of economic reform and the responsibility of businesses to make money. It seems that corporate social responsibility is a key to financial success.”

The second paragraph reads, “In his genealogy of corporate social responsibility, Vogel argues that contemporary advocates of ethical capitalism have basically accepted “Friedman’s position that the primary responsibility of companies is to create wealth for their shareholders” – with an important twist: in order for companies to maximize profit, he explains, the prevailing assumption is that “they must now act virtuously.” In other words, social responsibility is enacted less as a paternalistic duty than as a competitive business strategy. “Never before has the claim that corporate virtue can and should be profitable enjoyed so much currency or influence,” Vogel writes… . The new tendency to approach social responsibility as an instrument of profitability is the outcome of the neoliberal reforms, including deregulation and expanded entrepreneurialism, that Friedman and his colleagues promoted, and that spawned a”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites one scholar who reiterates a concern the author shares: corporate social responsibility has become a means for creating wealth rather than a virtuous act of being involved in “ethical issues” and “civic affairs.”

The first paragraph reads, “a distance.”… Yet, the rise of cause marketing, corporate philanthropy, and other manifestations of what Barry calls ethical capitalism are only viable to the extent that they are also profitable. The age of paternalistic philanthropy, exemplified by Andrew Carnegie’s view of wealth as a “sacred trust, which its possessor was bound to administer for the good of the community,” passed some time ago… . In 1970, Milton Friedman, a leading figure of the Chicago school of neoliberalism, unapologetically declared in the New York Times, “The social responsibility of business is to increase profits.”… Nonetheless, corporations have increasingly embraced objectives (fundraising for cures, promoting recycling, citizenship training) that blurs the boundaries between public and private, governing and profiteering. According to business historian David Vogel, this development is not only the outcome of public sector downsizing and government at a distance. As the entrepreneurial spirit was reforming the welfare state, many corporations were discovering a lucrative “market for virtue.” Today, says Vogel, corporate social responsibility is approached not as an unprofitable duty but as the key to successful profit maximization… .”

The annotation for the paragraph reads, “Introduces the term “cause marketing,” which combines the ideas of corporate social responsibility and profit. This concept highlights the role that businesses have taken on in the context of economic reform and the responsibility of businesses to make money. It seems that corporate social responsibility is a key to financial success.”

The second paragraph reads, “In his genealogy of corporate social responsibility, Vogel argues that contemporary advocates of ethical capitalism have basically accepted “Friedman’s position that the primary responsibility of companies is to create wealth for their shareholders” – with an important twist: in order for companies to maximize profit, he explains, the prevailing assumption is that “they must now act virtuously.” In other words, social responsibility is enacted less as a paternalistic duty than as a competitive business strategy. “Never before has the claim that corporate virtue can and should be profitable enjoyed so much currency or influence,” Vogel writes… . The new tendency to approach social responsibility as an instrument of profitability is the outcome of the neoliberal reforms, including deregulation and expanded entrepreneurialism, that Friedman and his colleagues promoted, and that spawned a”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Cites one scholar who reiterates a concern the author shares: corporate social responsibility has become a means for creating wealth rather than a virtuous act of being involved in “ethical issues” and “civic affairs.”

The first paragraph reads, “perceived need for greater corporate involvement in ethical issues and civic affairs. …”

The second paragraph reas, “The concept of the citizen brand, which has revolutionized marketing in recent years, takes this a step further by placing corporations and consumer culture at the center of governing and citizenship. In his book Citizen Brand: 10 Commandments Transforming Brand Culture in a Consumer Democracy (2002), Mark Gobe argues that corporations that wish to increase profits will have to distance themselves from the greed and exploitation associated with deregulated global capitalism. One way of doing so, he suggests, is to integrate do good activities into business plans and branding strategies so that an image of trust and ethics can be built on a “real dedication to being part of human solutions around the world.”… In his manual Citizen Brands: Putting Society at the Heart of Your Business (2003), Michael Willmott agrees that citizenship must “be a part of branding” and explains how the public interest can be harnessed as a form of market intelligence… . As one example, he suggests that public support for community (bolstered by the policies and discourses discussed earlier) can be appropriated as an objective of corporate citizenship and channeled into “economic success.”…”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Points out that the trend toward “citizen branding” represents this shift in emphasis away from civic engagement for its own sake toward profitability. Doing so has entailed masking the profit motive to project an image of a company committed to doing good work in the community.”

The third paragraph reads, “The Better Community campaign exemplifies the ethical turn in capitalism, presented not as an obligation (which might imply public oversight) but as ABC’s choice to advance an empowering civic agenda. ABC is positioned at the center of communitarian strategies for activating citizens and buffering the consequences of privatization and welfare reform. Public outreach entails channeling the demands being placed on individuals and communities into the ethical value of the ABC network. It is not coincidental that the Better Community project is overseen entirely by ABC Corporate Initiatives, for its approach to doing good is much more compatible with new directions in marketing and branding than were earlier (unrealized) public service ideals emphasizing rational debate and an informed citizenry.”

The first paragraph reads, “perceived need for greater corporate involvement in ethical issues and civic affairs. …”

The second paragraph reas, “The concept of the citizen brand, which has revolutionized marketing in recent years, takes this a step further by placing corporations and consumer culture at the center of governing and citizenship. In his book Citizen Brand: 10 Commandments Transforming Brand Culture in a Consumer Democracy (2002), Mark Gobe argues that corporations that wish to increase profits will have to distance themselves from the greed and exploitation associated with deregulated global capitalism. One way of doing so, he suggests, is to integrate do good activities into business plans and branding strategies so that an image of trust and ethics can be built on a “real dedication to being part of human solutions around the world.”… In his manual Citizen Brands: Putting Society at the Heart of Your

Business (2003), Michael Willmott agrees that citizenship must “be a part of branding” and explains how the public interest can be harnessed as a form of market intelligence… . As one example, he suggests that public support for community (bolstered by the policies and discourses discussed earlier) can be appropriated as an objective of corporate citizenship and channeled into “economic success.”…”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Points out that the trend toward “citizen branding” represents this shift in emphasis away from civic engagement for its own sake toward profitability. Doing so has entailed masking the profit motive to project an image of a company committed to doing good work in the community.”

The third paragraph reads, “The Better Community campaign exemplifies the ethical turn in capitalism, presented not as an obligation (which might imply public oversight) but as ABC’s choice to advance an empowering civic agenda. ABC is positioned at the center of communitarian strategies for activating citizens and buffering the consequences of privatization and welfare reform. Public outreach entails channeling the demands being placed on individuals and communities into the ethical value of the ABC network. It is not coincidental that the Better Community project is overseen entirely by ABC Corporate Initiatives, for its approach to doing good is much more compatible with new directions in marketing and branding than were earlier (unrealized) public service ideals emphasizing rational debate and an informed citizenry.”

The first paragraph reads, “The Disney Corporation, the parent corporation of ABC, is a prime example of the multilayered use of community as a technology of governing, a strategic business practice, and a branding strategy. The Disney Corporation, the largest media conglomerate in the world, characterizes itself as a good neighbor visibly committed to social responsibility (exemplified by employee volunteer programs and corporate giving) and humanitarian causes-particularly community and the environment. Disney has diffused these commitments across its corporate holdings, including film studios, theme parks, television networks, and cable channels. … The Disney-owned ESPN channel incorporates volunteerism and community service into its operations, enticing employees and “sports enthusiasts” at home to make a difference by volunteering on behalf of nonprofit organizations. The (now defunct) SOAPNet partnered with volunteer events in Hollywood and sponsored community outreach programs in public schools, using soap opera clips to promote family, responsibility, and communication skills. The Disney-ABC Television Group, which oversees the Disney Channel and ABC, is also dedicated to “serving and inspiring individuals and communities through a variety of public service initiatives and outreach programs.” Disney-ABC claims that it “proudly supports non-profit organizations in their endeavors to make the world a better place,” while its television channels – with their capacity to reach millions of people – provide “ideal platforms to inspire viewers to drive positive change in their communities.”…”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Disney, overseeing the rebranding of ABC, represents the trend the author has described – taking on the role of responsible Corporate citizen and promoting the role of the good citizen.”

The second paragraph reads, “Disney’s investment in community and volunteerism is related to the reinvention of government. Disney was a corporate partner in the Bush White House’s efforts to encourage volunteerism as a solution to post-welfare needs and problems. Disney also sponsored the National Conference on Volunteering and Service organized by the Corporation for National Community Service, the Points of Light”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Attributes Disney’s investment in humanitarian endeavors to changes in federal policies. While writers such as Putnam and Etzioni might lament the fragmentation of community, media is also now responsible for increased civic engagement and community building.” The first paragraph reads, “The Disney Corporation, the parent corporation of ABC, is a prime example of the multilayered use of community as a technology of governing, a strategic business practice, and a branding strategy. The Disney Corporation, the largest media conglomerate in the world, characterizes itself as a good neighbor visibly committed to social responsibility (exemplified by employee volunteer programs and corporate giving) and humanitarian causes-particularly community and the environment. Disney has diffused these commitments across its corporate holdings, including film studios, theme parks, television networks, and cable channels… . The Disney-owned ESPN channel incorporates volunteerism and community service into its operations, enticing employees and “sports enthusiasts” at home to make a difference by volunteering on behalf of nonprofit organizations. The (now defunct) SOAPNet partnered with volunteer events in Hollywood and sponsored community outreach programs in public schools, using soap opera clips to promote family, responsibility, and communication skills. The Disney-ABC Television Group, which oversees the Disney Channel and ABC, is also dedicated to “serving and inspiring individuals and communities through a variety of public service initiatives and outreach programs.” Disney-ABC claims that it “proudly supports non-profit organizations in their endeavors to make the world a better place,” while its television channels – with their capacity to reach millions of people – provide “ideal platforms to inspire viewers to drive positive change in their communities.”…”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Disney, overseeing the rebranding of ABC, represents the trend the author has described – taking on the role of responsible Corporate citizen and promoting the role of the good citizen.”

The second paragraph reads, “Disney’s investment in community and volunteerism is related to the reinvention of government. Disney was a corporate partner in the Bush White House’s efforts to encourage volunteerism as a solution to post-welfare needs and problems. Disney also sponsored the National Conference on Volunteering and Service organized by the Corporation for National Community Service, the Points of Light”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Attributes Disney’s investment in humanitarian endeavors to changes in federal policies. While writers such as Putnam and Etzioni might lament the fragmentation of community, media is also now responsible for increased civic engagement and community building.”

The text in the page reads “Foundation, and the USA Freedom Corps. At the 2005 meeting, leaders from government and the corporate sector met to devise strategies for developing volunteer service (a term used to describe everything from corporate giving to bake sales) to meet America’s “pressing social needs.” The responsibilities bestowed upon corporations and individual citizens were evident by the keynote speeches: US Department of Health and Human Services secretary Mike Leavitt lectured on the importance of “economic goodness” and the closing remarks were delivered by Mark Victor Hansen, best-selling author of the Christian self-help book Chicken Soup for the Soul… . It is telling, but not surprising, that culture industries and popular media figured heavily in the brainstorming session. Although communitarians (including Etzioni and Putnam) condemn mass media as a factor in the decline of community, television and the web are also recognized as useful instruments for retraining citizens and rebuilding voluntary associations independently of big government. ABC’s Better Community campaign is one such technology, operating at a distance from the state to constitute responsibility for post-welfare society as a corporate and community affair.

ABC has inserted itself into the communitarian space between the uncaring market and so-called welfare dependency. The question remains: If corporate social responsibility is now practiced as a profit-making endeavor, as Vogel suggests, how does the Better Community campaign fuel ABC’s and Disney’s coffers? To understand how valuable commitments to ethical business and community building have become for the cultural industries, it is worth juxtaposing the current approach to public service with the “all-business” mentality unleashed by broadcast deregulation. While Disney has always billed itself as an all-American company committed to traditional values, the media mergers and takeovers of the 1980s led all conglomerates to an intensified focus on the bottom line. Within an increasingly competitive”

The annotation beside the second paragraph reads “Despite the benefits of citizen branding, the author again reminds us that we cannot ignore the profit motive of companies that have fulfilled a role once played by the federal government in what is now a post welfare state. To what extent are these roles in conflict with one another?”

The text in the page reads “Foundation, and the USA Freedom Corps. At the 2005 meeting, leaders from government and the corporate sector met to devise strategies for developing volunteer service (a term used to describe everything from corporate giving to bake sales) to meet America’s “pressing social needs.” The responsibilities bestowed upon corporations and individual citizens were evident by the keynote speeches: US Department of Health and Human Services secretary Mike Leavitt lectured on the importance of “economic goodness” and the closing remarks were delivered by Mark Victor Hansen, best-selling author of the Christian self-help book Chicken Soup for the Soul… . It is telling, but not surprising, that culture industries and popular media figured heavily in the brainstorming session. Although communitarians (including Etzioni and Putnam) condemn mass media as a factor in the decline of community, television and the web are also recognized as useful instruments for retraining citizens and rebuilding voluntary associations independently of big government. ABC’s Better Community campaign is one such technology, operating at a distance from the state to constitute responsibility for post-welfare society as a corporate and community affair.

ABC has inserted itself into the communitarian space between the uncaring market and so-called welfare dependency. The question remains: If corporate social responsibility is now practiced as a profit-making endeavor, as Vogel suggests, how does the Better Community campaign fuel ABC’s and Disney’s coffers? To understand how valuable commitments to ethical business and community building have become for the cultural industries, it is worth juxtaposing the current approach to public service with the “all-business” mentality unleashed by broadcast deregulation. While Disney has always billed itself as an all-American company committed to traditional values, the media mergers and takeovers of the 1980s led all conglomerates to an intensified focus on the bottom line. Within an increasingly competitive”

The annotation beside the second paragraph reads “Despite the benefits of citizen branding, the author again reminds us that we cannot ignore the profit motive of companies that have fulfilled a role once played by the federal government in what is now a post welfare state. To what extent are these roles in conflict with one another?”

The first paragraph reads, “industrial climate, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner confessed in a 1981 memo, “We have no obligation to make history; we have no obligation to make art; we have no obligation to make a statement; to make money is our only objective.”… Sounding a lot like Milton Friedman a decade earlier, Eisner acknowledged that the company’s primary, indeed sole, purpose was to maximize profits for shareholders. As late as 1997, the ABC television network (recently purchased by Disney) owned up to a similar sentiment with its TV is Good branding campaign. Mocking any notion that television should serve a purpose higher than producing wealth, the spots proudly positioned ABC as a venue for the hedonistic consumption of trivial entertainment. Pitting TV viewers seeking pleasure and escape against the concerns of do good reformers, the advertisements offered tongue-incheek advice such as “Life is short. Watch TV” and “Don’t worry, you’ve got billions of brain cells.”

The second paragraph reads, “ABC’s attempt to brand the right to consume television with no redeeming attributes was short-lived. In 2002, the network switched gears dramatically with what it called the most visible public service campaign on television. Branded as ABC–A Better Community, the campaign generated more than 100 public service announcements to date, in which ABC stars urge TV viewers to “make a difference” in their communities. Early in the campaign, the talent read quotations by famous historical figures in order to situate ABC within a recognizable genealogy of ethical activity and public service. Interspersed with pitches for automobiles, mouthwash, and diet soda were reminders that: “You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give” (Winston Churchill); “Everyone has the power for greatness … because greatness is determined by service” (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.); “No man can sincerely help another without helping himself” (Ralph Waldo Emerson);

“The best way to find yourself … is to lose yourself in the service of others” (Mahatma Gandhi); and “The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Describes how ABC and Disney rebranded themselves with public service announcements and connecting their work in media with public service.”

The first paragraph reads, “industrial climate, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner confessed in a 1981 memo, “We have no obligation to make history; we have no obligation to make art;

we have no obligation to make a statement; to make money is our only objective.”… Sounding a lot like Milton Friedman a decade earlier, Eisner acknowledged that the company’s primary, indeed sole, purpose was to maximize profits for shareholders. As late as 1997, the ABC television network (recently purchased by Disney) owned up to a similar sentiment with its TV is Good branding campaign. Mocking any notion that television should serve a purpose higher than producing wealth, the spots proudly positioned ABC as a venue for the hedonistic consumption of trivial entertainment. Pitting TV viewers seeking pleasure and escape against the concerns of do good reformers, the advertisements offered tongue-incheek advice such as “Life is short. Watch TV” and “Don’t worry, you’ve got billions of brain cells.”

The second paragraph reads, “ABC’s attempt to brand the right to consume television with no redeeming attributes was short-lived. In 2002, the network switched gears dramatically with what it called the most visible public service campaign on television. Branded as ABC–A Better Community, the campaign generated more than 100 public service announcements to date, in which ABC stars urge TV viewers to “make a difference” in their communities. Early in the campaign, the talent read quotations by famous historical figures in order to situate ABC within a recognizable genealogy of ethical activity and public service. Interspersed with pitches for automobiles, mouthwash, and diet soda were reminders that: “You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give” (Winston Churchill); “Everyone has the power for greatness … because greatness is determined by service” (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.); “No man can sincerely help another without helping himself” (Ralph Waldo Emerson);

“The best way to find yourself … is to lose yourself in the service of others” (Mahatma Gandhi); and “The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Describes how ABC and Disney rebranded themselves with public service announcements and connecting their work in media with public service.”

The first paragraph reads, “achievement, but rather with the things we do for other people” (Walt Disney).”

The second paragraph reads, “Visually framed by the ABC Better Community logo, accompanied by inspirational music and ending with a call to action (including a visit to the ABC website), the spots linked ABC to an iconic pantheon of civic leadership. Within the logic of the campaign, the political differences between entrepreneurs like Disney and activists like King were insignificant; what mattered was their shared commitment to doing good–a moral disposition to which the ABC audience should aspire. Once ABC had established its ethical credibility, the inspirational passages were dropped and well-known ABC stars such as George Lopez (The George Lopez Show), Nicollette Sheridan (Desperate Housewives), and Evangeline Lilly (Lost) urged TV viewers to take specific actions, like becoming a mentor or cleaning up a neighborhood park. The stars took over as civic tutors in the new promotions, guiding the conduct of individuals while also constituting ABC as a Better Community on the basis of values presumably shared by executives, talent, and audiences. While the initial spots had selectively linked civic progress to the legacy of political figures like King, the announcements that followed disassociated good citizenship from any reminder of grassroots activism or critique. What was radical about the campaign, however, was its aggressive attempt to move TV viewers away from their sets, into civic life. Breaking commercial television’s associations with leisure, domesticity, and passive consumption, it recast the ABC audience as an active community of unselfish, civically responsible people. The imagined viewer was addressed as an ethical subject who, with gentle reminders and practical advice, could make a difference in the world outside commercial television. In this way the public service campaign provides what Etzioni calls the training required to “restrain impulses,” “delay gratification,” and balance “pleasure and living up to one’s moral commitments.” …”

Annotation “Takes a critical stance toward ABC’s rebranding that associated their calls for public service with Martin Luther King’s leadership during the civil rights movement. Ignoring differences enabled ABC to project an image that is problematic but clearly served ABC’s goals.”

The first paragraph reads, “achievement, but rather with the things we do for other people” (Walt Disney).”

The second paragraph reads, “Visually framed by the ABC Better Community logo, accompanied by inspirational music and ending with a call to action (including a visit to the ABC website), the spots linked ABC to an iconic pantheon of civic leadership. Within the logic of the campaign, the political differences between entrepreneurs like Disney and activists like King were insignificant; what mattered was their shared commitment to doing good–a moral disposition to which the ABC audience should aspire. Once ABC had established its ethical credibility, the inspirational passages were dropped and well-known ABC stars such as George Lopez (The George Lopez Show), Nicollette Sheridan (Desperate Housewives), and Evangeline Lilly (Lost) urged TV viewers to take specific actions, like becoming a mentor or cleaning up a neighborhood park. The stars took over as civic tutors in the new promotions, guiding the conduct of individuals while also constituting ABC as a Better Community on the basis of values presumably shared by executives, talent, and audiences. While the initial spots had selectively linked civic progress to the legacy of political figures like King, the announcements that followed disassociated good citizenship from any reminder of grassroots activism or critique. What was radical about the campaign, however, was its aggressive attempt to move TV viewers away from their sets, into civic life. Breaking commercial television’s associations with leisure, domesticity, and passive consumption, it recast the ABC audience as an active community of unselfish, civically responsible people. The imagined viewer was addressed as an ethical subject who, with gentle reminders and practical advice, could make a difference in the world outside commercial television. In this way the public service campaign provides what Etzioni calls the training required to “restrain impulses,” “delay gratification,” and balance “pleasure and living up to one’s moral commitments.” …”

Annotation “Takes a critical stance toward ABC’s rebranding that associated their calls for public service with Martin Luther King’s leadership during the civil rights movement. Ignoring differences enabled ABC to project an image that is problematic but clearly served ABC’s goals.”

The first paragraph reads, “In 2006, ABC re-launched the Better Community initiative with much fanfare. The renewed commitment to community service provided the occasion for a new round of publicity kicked off by a special announcement from actress Geena Davis. Davis, who portrayed the first female president of the US on ABC’s (now-canceled) drama Commander-in-Chief, addressed the audience during a special network showing of The Ten Commandments. Drawing civic credibility from her television character and a moral compass from the biblical film, she reiterated the ABC network’s unique contributions to community service and volunteerism. Davis also reminded viewers of their crucial role in realizing the network’s mission by making a difference in the communities in which they live. Here as before, the Better Community was doubly constituted as an imagined community whose membership involved consuming ABC, and as the outcome of suggested civic actions. Carried out across multiple sites, these actions supported the communitarian turn in government while also providing coveted ethical value to the ABC brand.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Illustrates the way media corporations can use celebrities to add credibility to their message, even when the reference is a fictional character on TV.”

The second paragraph reads, “The profitability of corporate social responsibility and community is realized in the generation of brand identity and value. The stakes are high for a mass television network in the age of cultural fragmentation and niche marketing. As one handbook on the television business explains, “In a world with dozens and eventually hundreds of television channels, those with the most dearly differentiated brands would be the ones most likely to succeed.”… ABC combines the concept of the citizen brand with the brand community to differentiate the network’s compassion and civic relevance. “Brand community” is a relatively new term used by market researchers to describe a “specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand.”… Like other communities, brand communities are believed to possess “a shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility.”… The Better”

The annotation for the sentences, “Brand community” is a relatively new term used by market researchers to describe a “specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand.”… Like other communities, brand communities are believed to possess “a shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility” reads, “Adds one more term, “brand community,” to describe corporations’ efforts to distinguish their product from others in an increasingly competitive market and foster the development of a community that shares their values – in this case, the shared sense of ethical responsibility”

The first paragraph reads, “In 2006, ABC re-launched the Better Community initiative with much fanfare. The renewed commitment to community service provided the occasion for a new round of publicity kicked off by a special announcement from actress Geena Davis. Davis, who portrayed the first female president of the US on ABC’s (now-canceled) drama Commander-in-Chief, addressed the audience during a special network showing of The Ten Commandments. Drawing civic credibility from her television character and a moral compass from the biblical film, she reiterated the ABC network’s unique contributions to community service and volunteerism. Davis also reminded viewers of their crucial role in realizing the network’s mission by making a difference in the communities in which they live. Here as before, the Better Community was doubly constituted as an imagined community whose membership involved consuming ABC, and as the outcome of suggested civic actions. Carried out across multiple sites, these actions supported the communitarian turn in government while also providing coveted ethical value to the ABC brand.”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “Illustrates the way media corporations can use celebrities to add credibility to their message, even when the reference is a fictional character on TV.”

The second paragraph reads, “The profitability of corporate social responsibility and community is realized in the generation of brand identity and value. The stakes are high for a mass television network in the age of cultural fragmentation and niche marketing. As one handbook on the television business explains, “In a world with dozens and eventually hundreds of television channels, those with the most dearly differentiated brands would be the ones most likely to succeed.”… ABC combines the concept of the citizen brand with the brand community to differentiate the network’s compassion and civic relevance. “Brand community” is a relatively new term used by market researchers to describe a “specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand.”… Like other communities, brand communities are believed to possess “a shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility.”… The Better”

The annotation for the sentences, “Brand community” is a relatively new term used by market researchers to describe a “specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand.”… Like other communities, brand communities are believed to possess “a shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility” reads, “Adds one more term, “brand community,” to describe corporations’ efforts to distinguish their product from others in an increasingly competitive market and foster the development of a community that shares their values – in this case, the shared sense of ethical responsibility”

◼ Make Connections among Different Texts

The texts by Loeb, Colby and her colleagues, and Ouellette all deal with some aspect of civic engagement, activism, and community building. The authors write about efforts to motivate people to work with one another to foster the health of communities based on moral or humanistic principles or to take up the call to compensate for changing economic policies. The texts are very much in conversation with one another, as the authors focus on relevant experiences and research to convey what they see as the value of civic and political engagement. However, each author offers a slightly different perspective that forces readers to ask if morality has a place in the ways we conceptualize civic engagement, the role that colleges and universities should play in promoting civic engagement in the undergraduate curriculum, or the extent to which corporations’ commitment to community building is in conflict with their profit motives.

· Loeb urges readers to value the human connection that results from working together for the common good of a community and uses research to convey the psychological and physiological benefits of doing so. He also brings into focus the consequences of silence and the disconnect that can occur when we see injustice and fail to act.

· Colby and her colleagues share Loeb’s perceptions about the value of community engagement but argue that teaching moral principles and core knowledge can have the positive effect of serving as a compass or guide for action. Though the authors are reluctant to identify specific values that they believe students should learn, they are particularly interested in the education of undergraduates and see the importance of helping students develop the ability to make informed judgments.

· Ouellette takes a different approach when she uses ABC as a case example to document the ways corporations have taken on the responsibility of serving families in need with changes in economic policy. In telling this story, she affirms the value of building community and shows that media can foster community; however, she also seems to question the profit-making motive that underlies the branding of corporations as civically engaged.

◼ Decide What Those Connections Mean

Having annotated the selections, we filled out the worksheet in Figure 8.1, making notes in the grid to help us see the three texts in relation to one another. Our worksheet included columns for

· author and source information,

· the gist of each author’s argument,

· supporting examples and illustrations,

· counterarguments, and

· our own thoughts.

A worksheet like this one can help you concentrate on similarities and differences in the texts to determine what the connections among texts mean. Of course, you can design your own worksheet as well, tailoring it to your needs and preferences. If you want to take very detailed notes about your authors and sources, for example, you may want to have separate columns for each.

Once you start making connections, including points of agreement and disagreement, you can start identifying counterarguments in the reading — that perhaps educators should not be inclined to teach morality in their classes and that the human connection that Loeb describes will serve as a sufficient motive for acting on behalf of the common good in a given community. Perhaps we need to look more critically at a corporation’s interest in communities where their executives do not live, work, go to school, and shop. Identifying questions and even counterarguments can give you a sense of what is at issue for each author and what is at stake. And how can we test the claims that experts make about how policies have affected the health and well-being of communities where many children and families may be feeling the consequences of policies designed to shift the responsibility from the federal government to private corporations and private agencies? What causes the fragmentation that concerns some of the authors cited in these essays? What are the best ways to build community? For that matter, how effective have media corporations been in fostering the health of communities and a shared sense of responsibility?

◼ Formulate the Gist of What You’ve Read

Remember that your gist should bring into focus the relationship among different ideas in multiple texts. Looking at the information juxtaposed on the worksheet (Figure 8.1), you can begin to construct the gist of your synthesis:

· Paul Loeb cites studies and uses his own experiences to motivate readers to be more civically engaged in their communities, to resist focusing on their own interests, and to enter into relationships with others to fulfill what it means to be human. He addresses those readers who may be discouraged by others who would silence or ignore their voices and commit themselves to speaking out about the issues that concern them. He points out the consequences of remaining silent and explains that we should not be discouraged by our “failed” attempts to create change.

· Anne Colby and her colleagues share a common concern that Loeb expresses about trends toward increased individualism and lack of civic engagement. The authors are especially interested in reaching out to undergraduates and speak to the need to equip young people with the kinds of tools that would enable them to translate what they are learning into actions they can take as civic-minded, politically engaged citizens. One of those tools is judgment, and the best way to teach judgment is by imparting values and core knowledge that can serve as a moral compass and guide action.

· Ouellette broadens the discussion of civic engagement and political action by looking at the branding of corporations as socially responsible “citizens.” Her analysis explains the extent to which presidents Clinton and then Bush reached out to businesses to provide initiatives to support children and families in need given changes in federal economic policies.

How do you formulate this information into a gist? You can use a transition word such as although or however to connect ideas that different authors bring together while conveying their differences. Thus, a gist of these essays might read:

GIST OF A SYNTHESIS

As a response to increased fragmentation of American society, Paul Loeb and Anne Colby and her colleagues underscore the reasons individuals need to be more involved in both civic and political engagement. They help highlight the ways human interaction makes us more fully human and the extent to which community engagement fulfills the Founding Fathers’ vision of democracy. However, Laurie Ouellette broadens readers’ understanding of why it is necessary to be more involved. She focuses on changes in economic policy in the United States that have shifted funding for families and children with the greatest needs to private entities and corporations.

The column headers read “Author and Source”; “Gist of Argument”; “Examples/Illustrations”; “Counterarguments/Challenging Assumptions”; “What I Think.”

Row: Author and Source, Laurie Ouellette “Citizen Brand: ABC and the Do Good Turn in US Television”; Gist of Argument, Examines the reasons corporate social responsibility has emerged in recent years, emphasizing shifts in government policies that placed greater responsibility on the private sector for supporting children and families living in poverty. Argues that initiatives like “The Better Community” campaign are not altogether altruistic and serve corporate interests in creating wealth for their stakeholders.; Examples/Illustrations, Uses case examples of ABC’s Better Community public outreach campaign and ABC’s parent company to illustrate roles that corporations have taken on. On the one hand, they have taken on the mantle of social responsibility, and on the other hand, they use social responsibility as a marketing tool to create profits; Counterarguments/Challenging Assumptions, Acknowledges the value of ABC’s strategy of positioning itself as a socially conscious corporation. However, looks critically at efforts that associate the leadership of figures such as Martin Luther King and the grassroots movement of the Civil Rights struggle with civic-minded projects that ABC has promoted. Also questions whose interests are served when corporations promote civic engagement as a profit-making venture; What I Think, I hadn’t really thought about the economic factors that have prompted corporations to be more invested in community development. I am a little skeptical of the role that corporations can or should play in communities and worry that their motives blur, serving a community as a good in itself and doing so to make money.

FIGURE 8.1Worksheet for Writing a Synthesis

Having drafted the gist, we returned to our notes on the worksheet to complete the synthesis, presenting examples and using transitions to signal the relationships among the texts and their ideas. Here is our brief synthesis of the three texts:

The first paragraph reads, “As a response to increased fragmentation of society, Paul Loeb and Anne Colby and her colleagues underscore the reasons why individuals need to be more involved in both political and civic engagement. They help highlight the ways human interaction makes us more fully human and the extent to which community engagement fulfills the Founding Fathers’ vision of democracy. Loeb’s research in psychology, public health, and sociology also demonstrates the ways that community engagement contributes to our own sense of well-being. Colby and her colleagues share Loeb’s outlook, but they add that moral principles are inextricably tied to democratic principles of rights, respect, tolerance, and community. They also argue that individuals need tools to make decisions, especially a core knowledge of key issues and a moral compass to serve as a guide to action that is aimed at the common good. Still, they recognize the extent to which their focus on moral engagement sets their ideas apart from others like Loeb who try to motivate people to be civically engaged. It is implicit that others may feel uncomfortable with an argument that includes moral engagement, and the authors are careful to explain that they do not have a specific set of values in mind.”

The annotaton for the sentence, “As a response to increased fragmentation of society, Paul Loeb and Anne Colby and her colleagues underscore the reasons why individuals need to be more involved in both political and civic engagement” reads, “The gist of our synthesis.”

The second paragraph reads, “However, Laurie Ouellette broadens readers’ understanding of why it is necessary to be more involved. This is especially true when she focuses her analysis on changes in economic policy in the United States that have shifted funding for families and children with the greatest needs to private entities and corporations. In pointing to this shift in policy, she shows how corporations such as Disney have rebranded themselves as socially responsible, marketing themselves in a way that appeals to viewers who share a view of themselves as altruistic. Thus, Ouellette helps show that there are reasons beyond the humanizing principles that Loeb advances and the kinds of values that Colby and her colleagues believe are inextricably tied to teaching and learning in institutions of higher education. That is, communities may appear to be more fragmented than ever before, but the urgency created by government social welfare programs serves as a pragmatic call to service that we cannot ignore.”

The annotation for the this paragraoh reads, “Transition: There is 2 an alternative reason individuals should be civically and politically engaged.”

Another annotation for this paragraph reads, “Evidence demonstrates that the urgency of a changing economy is a strong factor in motivating individuals to get involved, especially when sponsored by corporations that have been given the responsibility to fulfill what was an obligation of the federal government.”

The first paragraph reads, “As a response to increased fragmentation of society, Paul Loeb and Anne Colby and her colleagues underscore the reasons why individuals need to be more involved in both political and civic engagement. They help highlight the ways human interaction makes us more fully human and the extent to which community engagement fulfills the Founding Fathers’ vision of democracy. Loeb’s research in psychology, public health, and sociology also demonstrates the ways that community engagement contributes to our own sense of well-being. Colby and her colleagues share Loeb’s outlook, but they add that moral principles are inextricably tied to democratic principles of rights, respect, tolerance, and community. They also argue that individuals need tools to make decisions, especially a core knowledge of key issues and a moral compass to serve as a guide to action that is aimed at the common good. Still, they recognize the extent to which their focus on moral engagement sets their ideas apart from others like Loeb who try to motivate people to be civically engaged. It is implicit that others may feel uncomfortable with an argument that includes moral engagement, and the authors are careful to explain that they do not have a specific set of values in mind.”

The annotaton for the sentence, “As a response to increased fragmentation of society, Paul Loeb and Anne Colby and her colleagues underscore the reasons why individuals need to be more involved in both political and civic engagement” reads, “The gist of our synthesis.”

The second paragraph reads, “However, Laurie Ouellette broadens readers’ understanding of why it is necessary to be more involved. This is especially true when she focuses her analysis on changes in economic policy in the United States that have shifted funding for families and children with the greatest needs to private entities and corporations. In pointing to this shift in policy, she shows how corporations such as Disney have rebranded themselves as socially responsible, marketing themselves in a way that appeals to viewers who share a view of themselves as altruistic. Thus, Ouellette helps show that there are reasons beyond the humanizing principles that Loeb advances and the kinds of values that Colby and her colleagues believe are inextricably tied to teaching and learning in institutions of higher education. That is, communities may appear to be more fragmented than ever before, but the urgency created by government social welfare programs serves as a pragmatic call to service that we cannot ignore.”

The annotation for the this paragraoh reads, “Transition: There is 2 an alternative reason individuals should be civically and politically engaged.”

Another annotation for this paragraph reads, “Evidence demonstrates that the urgency of a changing economy is a strong factor in motivating individuals to get involved, especially when sponsored by corporations that have been given the responsibility to fulfill what was an obligation of the federal government.”

The paragraph reads, “While some may argue that corporations act out of self-interest in branding themselves as socially responsible, evidence indicates that the media may be more successful at motivating individuals to be involved than other means. Yet in considering the reasons why it is important to be an engaged citizen, whether as individuals or as a corporation, Ouellette, among others, forces us to ask whose interests are served when any of us becomes invested in communities where we do not live, work, shop, or go to school. Despite the benefits of citizen branding, Ouellette reminds us that we cannot ignore the profit motive of companies that have fulfilled a role once played by the federal government in what is now a postwelfare state. To what extent, if at all, are these roles in conflict with one another? For that matter, what values should guide investments and personal responsibility in reaching out to communities with the greatest needs?”

An annotation fot this paragraph reads, “One formulation of an 3 argument that emerges from the three texts. The transition “yet” and the questions set up the direction of what is to follow.”

The paragraph reads, “While some may argue that corporations act out of self-interest in branding themselves as socially responsible, evidence indicates that the media may be more successful at motivating individuals to be involved than other means. Yet in considering the reasons why it is important to be an engaged citizen, whether as individuals or as a corporation, Ouellette, among others, forces us to ask whose interests are served when any of us becomes invested in communities where we do not live, work, shop, or go to school. Despite the benefits of citizen branding, Ouellette reminds us that we cannot ignore the profit motive of companies that have fulfilled a role once played by the federal government in what is now a postwelfare state. To what extent, if at all, are these roles in conflict with one another? For that matter, what values should guide investments and personal responsibility in reaching out to communities with the greatest needs?”

An annotation fot this paragraph reads, “One formulation of an 3 argument that emerges from the three texts. The transition “yet” and the questions set up the direction of what is to follow.”

Writing a synthesis, like writing a summary, is principally a strategy for framing your own argument. It’s one thing to synthesize what you read and convey to your readers how various points in a conversation intersect and diverge. It’s quite another to write yourself into the conversation. This entails thinking critically about what you are reading, raising questions, conducting further research, and taking a stance based on your own understanding of what you have read, what you believe and value, and the available evidence.

Steps to Writing a Synthesis

1. Make connections between and among different texts. Annotate the texts you are working with, with an eye to comparing them. As you would for a summary, note major points in the texts, choose relevant examples, and formulate the gist of each text.

2. Decide what those connections mean. Fill out a worksheet to compare your notes on the different texts, track counterarguments, and record your thoughts. Decide what the similarities and differences mean to you and what they might mean to your readers.

3. Formulate the gist of what you’ve read. Identify an overarching idea that brings together the ideas you’ve noted, and write a synthesis that forges connections and makes use of the examples you’ve noted. Use transitions to signal the direction of your synthesis.

A Practice Sequence: Writing a Synthesis

1. To practice the strategies for synthesizing that we describe in this chapter, read the following three essays, which focus on the role that online media play in conveying information to diverse groups of readers or viewers. As you discuss the strategies the authors use to develop their arguments, consider these questions:

· How would you explain the popularity of blogs, Twitter, and YouTube?

· What themes have the writers focused on as they have sought to enter the conversation surrounding the use of electronic media?

· To what extent do you think the criticisms of media presented by the authors are legitimate?

· Do blogs, Twitter, and YouTube pose a threat to traditional journalism?

· Do you think that blogs, Twitter, and YouTube add anything to print journalism? If so, what?

2. To stimulate a conversation, or a debate, we suggest that you break up into four different groups:

Group 1: Print journalism

Group 2: Blogs

Group 3: Twitter

Group 4: YouTube

Students in each group should prepare an argument indicating the strengths and limitations of the particular mode of communication that they represent. In preparing the argument, be sure to acknowledge what other modes of communication might add to the ways we learn about news and opinions. One student from each group will present this argument to the other groups.

3. Based on the discussion you have had in exercise 1 and/or exercise 2, write a synthesis of the three essays using the steps we have outlined in this chapter.

· Summarize each essay.

· Explain the ways in which the authors’ arguments are similar or different, using examples and illustrations to demonstrate the similarities and differences.

· Formulate an overall gist that synthesizes the points each author makes.

DAN KENNEDY

Political Blogs: Teaching Us Lessons about Community

Dan Kennedy, an assistant professor of journalism at Northeastern University, writes on media issues for The Guardian and for CommonWealth magazine. His blog, Media Nation, is online at dankennedy.net.

The rise of blogging as both a supplement and a challenge to traditional journalism has coincided with an explosion of opinion mongering. Blogs — and the role they play in how Americans consume and respond to information — are increasingly visible during our political season, when our ideological divide is most apparent. From nakedly partisan sites such as Daily Kos on the left and Little Green Footballs on the right, to more nuanced but nevertheless ideological enterprises such as Talking Points Memo, it sometimes seems there is no room in blogworld for straight, neutral journalism.

The usual reasons given for this are that reporting is difficult and expensive and that few bloggers know how to research a story, develop and interview sources, and assemble the pieces into a coherent, factual narrative. Far easier, so this line of thinking goes, for bloggers to sit in their pajamas and blast their semi-informed opinions out to the world.

There is some truth to this, although embracing this view wholeheartedly requires us to overlook the many journalists who are now writing blogs, as well as the many bloggers who are producing journalism to a greater or lesser degree. But we make a mistake when we look at the opinion-oriented nature of blogs and ask whether bloggers are capable of being “objective,” to use a hoary and now all but meaningless word. The better question to ask is why opinion-oriented blogs are so popular — and what lessons the traditional media can learn from them without giving up their journalistic souls.

Perhaps what’s happening is that the best and more popular blogs provide a sense of community that used to be the lifeblood of traditional news organizations and, especially, of newspapers. Recently I reread part of Jay Rosen’s book, What Are Journalists For?, his 1999 postmortem on the public journalism movement. What struck me was Rosen’s description of public journalism’s origins, which were grounded in an attempt to recreate a sense of community so that people might discover a reason to read newspapers. “Eventually I came to the conclusion . . . that journalism’s purpose was to see the public into fuller existence,” Rosen writes. “Informing people followed that.”

Rosen’s thesis — that journalism could only be revived by reawakening the civic impulse — is paralleled by Robert Putnam’s 2000 book, Bowling Alone, in which he found that people who sign petitions, attend public meetings, and participate in religious and social organizations are more likely to be newspaper readers than those who do not. “Newspaper readers are older, more educated, and more rooted in their communities than is the average American,” Putnam writes.

Unfortunately for the newspaper business, the traditional idea of community, based mainly on geography, remains as moribund today as it was when Rosen and Putnam were analyzing its pathologies. But if old-fashioned communities are on the decline, the human impulse to form communities is not. And the Internet, as it turns out, is an ideal medium for fostering a new type of community in which people have never met, and may not even know each other’s real names, but share certain views and opinions about the way the world works. It’s interesting that Rosen has become a leading exponent of journalism tied to these communities, both through his PressThink blog and through NewAssignment.net, which fosters collaborations between professional and citizen journalists.

attitude first, facts second

This trend toward online community-building has given us a mediascape in which many people — especially those most interested in politics and public affairs — want the news delivered to them in the context of their attitudes and beliefs. That doesn’t mean they want to be fed a diet of self-reinforcing agit-prop (although some do). It does mean they see their news consumption as something that takes place within their community, to be fit into a preexisting framework of ideas that may be challenged but that must be acknowledged.

Earlier this year John Lloyd, a contributing editor for the Financial Times, talked about the decline of just-the-facts journalism on Open Source, a Web-based radio program hosted by the veteran journalist Christopher Lydon. It has become increasingly difficult, Lloyd said, to report facts that are not tied to an ideological point of view. The emerging paradigm, he explained, may be “that you can only get facts through by attaching them to a very strong left-wing, right-wing, Christian, atheist position. Only then, only if you establish your bona fides within this particular community, will they be open to facts.”

No less a blogging enthusiast than Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, has observed that political blogs are a nonentity in Britain, where the newspapers themselves cater to a wide range of different opinions. “You look at the media in Britain, it’s vibrant and it’s exciting and it’s fun, because they’re all ideologically tinged,” Moulitsas said at an appearance in Boston last fall. “And that’s a good thing, because people buy them and understand that their viewpoints are going to be represented.”

The notion that journalism must be tied to an ideological community may seem disheartening to traditionalists. In practice, though, journalism based on communities of shared interests and beliefs can be every bit as valuable as the old model of objectivity, if approached with rigor and respect for the truth.

Last year, for instance, Talking Points Memo (TPM) and its related blogs helped break the story of how the U.S. Department of Justice had fired eight U.S. attorneys for what appeared to be politically motivated reasons, a scandal that led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. TPM’s reporting was based in part on information dug up and passed along by its liberal readership. The founder and editor, Joshua Micah Marshall, received a George Polk Award, but it belonged as much to the community he had assembled as it did to him personally.

Of course, we still need neutral, non-opinionated journalism to help us make sense of the world around us. TPM’s coverage of the U.S. attorneys scandal was outstanding, but it was also dismissive of arguments that it was much ado about nothing, or that previous administrations had done the same or worse. Liberals or conservatives who get all of their news from ideologically friendly sources don’t have much incentive to change their minds.

connecting to communities of shared interests

Even news outlets that excel at traditional, “objective” journalism do so within the context of a community. Some might not find liberal bias in the news pages of the New York Times, as the paper’s conservative critics would contend, but there’s little doubt that the Times serves a community of well-educated, affluent, culturally liberal readers whose preferences and tastes must be taken into account. Not to be a journalistic relativist, but all news needs to be evaluated within the context in which it was produced, even an old-fashioned, inverted-pyramid-style dispatch from the wires. Who was interviewed? Who wasn’t? Why? These are questions that must be asked regardless of the source.

We might now be coming full circle as placeblogs — chatty, conversational blogs that serve a particular geographic community — become more prevalent. Lisa Williams, founder of H20town, a blog that serves her community of Watertown, Massachusetts, believes that such forums could help foster the sense of community that is a necessary precondition to newspaper readership. Williams also runs a project called Placeblogger.com, which tracks local blogs around the world.

“The news creates a shared pool of stories that gives us a way to talk to people who aren’t family or close friends or people who we will never meet — in short, our fellow citizens,” Williams says by e-mail. “The truth is, people still want those neighbor-to-neighbor contacts, but the traditional ways of doing it don’t fit into the lives that people are actually living today. Your core audience is tired, sitting on the couch with their laptop, and watching Lost with one eye. Give them someone to sit with.”

Critics of blogs have been looking at the wrong thing. While traditionalists disparage bloggers for their indulgence of opinion and hyperbole, they overlook the sense of community and conversation that blogs have fostered around the news. What bloggers do well, and what news organizations do poorly or not at all, is give their readers someone to sit with. News consumers — the public, citizens, us — still want the truth. But we also want to share it and talk about it with our like-minded neighbors and friends. The challenge for journalism is not that we’ll lose our objectivity; it’s that we won’t find a way to rebuild a sense of community.

JOHN DICKERSON

Don’t Fear Twitter

John Dickerson is a political columnist for Slate magazine and chief Washington correspondent for CBS News. Before joining Slate, Dickerson covered politics for Time magazine, including four years as the magazine’s White House correspondent. Dickerson has also written for the New York Times and Washington Post and is a regular panelist on Washington Week in Review. This essay first appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Nieman Reports.

If I were cleverer, this piece on Twitter and journalism would fit in Twitter’s 140-character limitation. The beauty of Twitter when properly used — by both the reader and the writer — is that everyone knows what it is. No reader expects more from Twitter than it offers, and no one writing tries to shove more than necessary into a Twitter entry, which is sometimes called a Tweet, but not by me, thank you.

Not many people know what Twitter is, though, so I’m going to go on for a few hundred words. Twitter is a Web site that allows you to share your thoughts instantly and on any topic with other people in the Twitter network as long as you do so in tight little entries of 140 characters or less. If you’re wondering how much you can write with that space limitation, this sentence that you’re reading right now hits that mark perfectly.

For some, journalism is already getting smaller. Newspapers are shrinking. Serious news is being pushed aside in favor of entertainment and fluff stories. To many journalists and guardians of the trade, the idea that any journalist would willingly embrace a smaller space is horrifying and dumb. One journalism professor drew himself up to his full height and denounced Twitter journalism — or microjournalism, as someone unfortunately called it — as the ultimate absurd reduction of journalism. (I think he may have dislodged his monocle, he was waving his quill pen so violently.) Venerable CBS newsman Roger Mudd had a far lighter touch when he joked to me that he could barely say the word “texting” when he and I were talking about the idea of delivering a couple of sentences and calling it journalism.

We can all agree that journalism shouldn’t get any smaller, but Twitter doesn’t threaten the traditions of our craft. It adds, rather than subtracts, from what we do.

As I spend nearly all of my time on the road these days reporting on the presidential campaigns, Twitter is the perfect place for all of those asides I’ve scribbled in the hundreds of notebooks I have in my garage from the campaigns and stories I’ve covered over the years. Inside each of those notebooks are little pieces of color I’ve picked up along the way. Sometimes these snippets are too off-topic or too inconsequential to work into a story. Sometimes they are the little notions or sideways thoughts that become the lead of a piece or the kicker. All of them now have found a home on Twitter.

As journalists we take people places they can’t go. Twitter offers a little snapshot way to do this. It’s informal and approachable and great for conveying a little moment from an event. Here’s an entry from a McCain rally during the Republican primaries: “Weare, NH: Audience man to McCain: ‘I heard that Hershey is moving plants to Mexico and I’ll be damned if I’m going to eat Mexican chocolate.’ ” In Scranton covering Barack Obama I sent this: “Obama: ‘What’s John McCain’s problem?’ Audience member: ‘He’s too old.’ Obama: ‘No, no that’s not the problem. There are a lot of wise people. . . .’ ” With so many Democrats making an issue of McCain’s age, here was the candidate in the moment seeming to suggest that critique was unfair.

Occasionally, just occasionally, reporters can convey a piece of news that fits into 140 characters without context. If Twitter had been around when the planes hit the World Trade Center, it would have been a perfect way for anyone who witnessed it to convey at that moment what they’d seen or heard. With Twitter, we can also pull back the curtain on our lives a little and show readers what it’s like to cover a campaign. (“Wanna be a reporter? On long bus rides learn to sleep in your own hand.”)

The risk for journalism, of course, is that people spend all day Twittering and reading other people’s Twitter entries and don’t engage with the news in any other way. This seems a pretty small worry. If written the right way, Twitter entries build a community of readers who find their way to longer articles because they are lured by these moment-by-moment observations. As a reader, I’ve found that I’m exposed to a wider variety of news because I read articles suggested to me by the wide variety of people I follow on Twitter. I’m also exposed to some keen political observers and sharp writers who have never practiced journalism.

Twitter is not the next great thing in journalism. No one should try to make Twitter do more than it can and no reader should expect too much from a 140-character entry. As for the critics, their worries about Twitter and journalism seem like the kind of obtuse behavior that would make a perfect observational Twitter entry: “A man at the front of the restaurant is screaming at a waiter and gesticulating wildly. The snacks on the bar aren’t a four-course meal!”

STEVE GROVE

YouTube: The Flattening of Politics

Steve Grove is director of Google News Lab, and formerly directed all news, political programming, and citizen journalism for YouTube. He has been quoted as saying that he regards himself less as an editor than as a curator of the Web site’s “chaotic sea of content.” A native of Northfield, Minnesota, he worked as a journalist at the Boston Globe and ABC News before moving to YouTube.

For a little over a year, I’ve served as YouTube’s news and political director — perhaps a perplexing title in the eyes of many journalists. Such wonderment might be expected since YouTube gained its early notoriety as a place with videos of dogs on skateboards or kids falling off of trampolines. But these days, in the ten hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute of every day (yes — every minute of every day), an increasing amount of the content is news and political video. And with YouTube’s global reach and ease of use, it’s changing the way that politics — and its coverage — is happening.

Each of the sixteen one-time presidential candidates had YouTube channels; seven announced their candidacies on YouTube. Their staffs uploaded thousands of videos that were viewed tens of millions of times. By early March of this year, the Obama campaign was uploading two to three videos to YouTube every day. And thousands of advocacy groups and nonprofit organizations use YouTube to get their election messages into the conversation. For us, the most exciting aspect is that ordinary people continue to use YouTube to distribute their own political content; these range from “gotcha” videos they’ve taken at campaign rallies to questions for the candidates, from homemade political commercials to video mash-ups of mainstream media coverage.

What this means is that average citizens are able to fuel a new meritocracy for political coverage, one unburdened by the gatekeeping “middleman.” Another way of putting it is that YouTube is now the world’s largest town hall for political discussion, where voters connect with candidates — and the news media — in ways that were never before possible.

In this new media environment, politics is no longer bound by traditional barriers of time and space. It doesn’t matter what time it is, or where someone is located — as long as they have the means to connect through the Web, they can engage in the discussion. This was highlighted in a pair of presidential debates we produced with CNN during this election cycle during which voters asked questions of the candidates via YouTube videos they’d submitted online. In many ways, those events simply brought to the attention of a wider audience the sort of exchanges that take place on YouTube all the time. . . .

news organizations and youtube

Just because candidates and voters find all sorts of ways to connect directly on YouTube does not mean there isn’t room for the mainstream media, too. In fact, many news organizations have launched YouTube channels, including the Associated Press, the New York Times, the BBC, CBS, and the Wall Street Journal.

Why would a mainstream media company upload their news content to YouTube?

Simply put, it’s where eyeballs are going. Research from the Pew Internet & American Life project found that 37 percent of adult Internet users have watched online video news, and well over half of online adults have used the Internet to watch video of any kind. Each day on YouTube hundreds of millions of videos are viewed at the same time that television viewership is decreasing in many markets. If a mainstream news organization wants its political reporting seen, YouTube offers visibility without a cost. The ones that have been doing this for a while rely on a strategy of building audiences on YouTube and then trying to drive viewers back to their Web sites for a deeper dive into the content. And these organizations can earn revenue as well by running ads against their video content on YouTube.

In many ways, YouTube’s news ecosystem has the potential to offer much more to a traditional media outlet. Here are some examples:

1. Interactivity: YouTube provides an automatic focus group for news content. How? YouTube wasn’t built as merely a “series of tubes” to distribute online video. It is also an interactive platform. Users comment on, reply to, rank, and share videos with one another and form communities around content that they like. If news organizations want to see how a particular piece of content will resonate with audiences, they have an automatic focus group waiting on YouTube. And that focus group isn’t just young people: 20 percent of YouTube users are over age 55 — which is the same percentage that is under 18. This means the YouTube audience roughly mirrors the national population.

2. Partner with audiences: YouTube provides news media organizations new ways to engage with audiences and involve them in the programming. Modeled on the presidential debates we cohosted last year, YouTube has created similar partnerships, such as one with the BBC around the mayoral election in London and with a large public broadcaster in Spain for their recent presidential election. Also on the campaign trail, we worked along with Hearst affiliate WMUR-TV in New Hampshire to solicit videos from voters during that primary. Hundreds of videos flooded in from across the state. The best were broadcast on that TV station, which highlighted this symbiotic relationship: On the Web, online video bubbles the more interesting content to the top and then TV amplifies it on a new scale. We did similar arrangements with news organizations in Iowa, Pennsylvania, and on Super Tuesday, as news organizations leveraged the power of voter-generated content. What the news organizations discover is that they gain audience share by offering a level of audience engagement — with opportunities for active as well as passive experiences.

For news media organizations, audience engagement is much easier to achieve by using platforms like YouTube than it is to do on their own. And we just made it easier: Our open API (application programming interface), nicknamed “YouTube Everywhere” — just launched a few months ago — allows other companies to integrate our upload functionality into their online platforms. It’s like having a mini YouTube on your Web site and, once it’s there, news organizations can encourage — and publish — video responses and comments on the reporting they do.

Finally, reporters use YouTube as source material for their stories. With hundreds of thousands of video cameras in use today, there is a much greater chance than ever before that events will be captured — by someone — as they unfold. No need for driving the satellite truck to the scene if someone is already there and sending in video of the event via their cell phone. It’s at such intersections of new and old media that YouTube demonstrates its value. It could be argued, in fact, that the YouTube platform is the new frontier in newsgathering. On the election trail, virtually every appearance by every candidate is captured on video — by someone — and that means the issues being talked about are covered more robustly by more people who can steer the public discussion in new ways. The phenomenon is, of course, global, as we witnessed last fall in Burma (Myanmar) after the government shut down news media outlets during waves of civic protests. In time, YouTube was the only way to track the violence being exercised by the government on monks who’d taken to the streets. Videos of this were seen worldwide on YouTube, creating global awareness of this situation — even in the absence of journalists on the scene.

Citizen journalism on YouTube — and other Internet sources — is often criticized because it is produced by amateurs and therefore lacks a degree of trustworthiness. Critics add that because platforms like YouTube are fragmenting today’s media environment, traditional newsrooms are being depleted of journalists, and thus the denominator for quality news coverage is getting lower and lower. I share this concern about what is happening in the news media today, but I think there are a couple of things worth remembering when it comes to news content on YouTube.

trusting what we see

When it comes to determining the trustworthiness of news content on YouTube, it’s important to have some context. People tend to know what they’re getting on YouTube, since content is clearly labeled by username as to where it originated. A viewer knows if the video they’re watching is coming from “jellybean109” or “thenewyorktimes.” Users also know that YouTube is an open platform and that no one verifies the truth of content better than the consumer. The wisdom of the crowd on YouTube is far more likely to pick apart a shoddy piece of “journalism” than it is to elevate something that is simply untrue. In fact, because video is ubiquitous and so much more revealing and compelling than text, YouTube can provide a critical fact-checking platform in today’s media environment. And in some ways, it offers a backstop for accuracy since a journalist can’t afford to get the story wrong; if they do, it’s likely that someone else who was there got it right — and posted it to YouTube.

Scrutiny cuts both ways. Journalists are needed today for the work they do as much as they ever have been. While the wisdom of crowds might provide a new form of fact checking, and the ubiquity of technology might provide a more robust view of the news, citizens desperately need the Fourth Estate to provide depth, context, and analysis that only comes with experience and the sharpening of the craft. Without the work of journalists, the citizens — the electorate — lose a critical voice in the process of civic decision making.

This is the media ecosystem in which we live in this election cycle. Candidates and voters speak directly to one another, unfiltered. News organizations use the Internet to connect with and leverage audiences in new ways. Activists, issue groups, campaigns, and voters all advocate for, learn about, and discuss issues on the same level platform. YouTube has become a major force in this new media environment by offering new opportunities and new challenges. For those who have embraced them — and their numbers grow rapidly every day — the opportunity to influence the discussion is great. For those who haven’t, they ignore the opportunity at their own peril.

AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

Whether you paraphrase, summarize, or synthesize, it is essential that you acknowledge your sources. Academic writing requires you to use and document sources appropriately, making clear to readers the boundaries between your words and ideas and those of other writers. Setting boundaries can be a challenge because so much of academic writing involves interweaving the ideas of others into your own argument. Still, you must acknowledge your sources. It’s only fair. Imagine how you would feel if you were reading a text and discovered that the writer had incorporated a passage from one of your papers, something you had slaved over, without giving you credit. You would see yourself as a victim of plagiarism, and you would be justified in feeling very angry indeed.

In fact, plagiarism — the unacknowledged use of another’s work, passed off as one’s own — is a serious breach of academic integrity, and colleges and universities deal with it severely. If you are caught plagiarizing in your work for a class, you can expect to fail that class and you may even be expelled from your college or university. Furthermore, although a failing grade on a paper or in a course, honestly come by, is unlikely to deter an employer from hiring you, the stigma of plagiarism can come back to haunt you when you apply for a job. Any violation of the principles set forth in Table 8.1 could have serious consequences for your academic and professional career.

TABLE 8.1Principles Governing Plagiarism

1. All written work submitted for any purpose is accepted as your own work. This means it must not have been written, even in part, by another person. 2. The wording of any written work you submit is assumed to be your own. This means you must not submit work that has been copied, wholly or partially, from a book, an article, an essay, a newspaper, another student’s paper or notebook, or any other source. Another writer’s phrases, sentences, or paragraphs can be included only if they are presented as quotations and the source acknowledged. 3. The ideas expressed in a paper or report are assumed to originate with you, the writer. Written work that paraphrases a source without acknowledgment must not be submitted for credit. Ideas from the work of others can be incorporated in your work as starting points, governing issues, illustrations, and the like, but in every instance the source must be cited. 4. Remember that any online materials you use to gather information for a paper are also governed by the rules for avoiding plagiarism. You need to cite electronic sources as well as printed and other sources. 5. You may correct and revise your writing with the aid of reference books. You also may discuss your writing with your peers in a writing group or with peer tutors at your campus writing center. However, you may not submit writing that has been revised substantially by another person.

Even if you know what plagiarism is and wouldn’t intentionally plagiarize, watch out for unintentional plagiarism. Again, paraphrasing can be especially tricky: Attempting to restate a passage without using the original words and sentence structure is, to a certain extent, an invitation to plagiarism. If you remember that your paper is your argument, and understand that any paraphrasing, summarizing, or synthesizing should reflect your voice and style, you will be less likely to have problems with plagiarism. Your paper should sound like you. And, again, the surest way to protect yourself is to cite your sources and carefully check your work.

Steps to Avoiding Plagiarism

1. Always cite the source. Signal that you are paraphrasing, summarizing, or synthesizing by identifying your source at the outset — “According to Laurie Ouellette,” “Paul Loeb argues,” “Anne Colby and her colleagues . . . point out.” And if possible, indicate the end of the paraphrase, summary, or synthesis with relevant page references to the source. If you cite a source several times in your paper, don’t assume that your first citation has you covered; acknowledge the source as often as you use it.

2. Provide a full citation in your bibliography. It’s not enough to cite a source in your paper; you must also provide a full citation for every source you use in the list of sources at the end of your paper.

INTEGRATING QUOTATIONS INTO YOUR WRITING

When you integrate quotations into your writing, bear in mind a piece of advice we’ve given you about writing the rest of your paper: Take your readers by the hand and lead them step by step. When you quote other authors to develop your argument — using their words to support your thinking or to address a counterargument — discuss and analyze the words you quote, showing readers how the specific language of each quotation contributes to the larger point you are making in your essay. When you integrate quotations, then, there are three basic things you want to do: (1) Take an active stance, (2) explain the quotations, and (3) attach short quotations to your own sentences.

◼ Take an Active Stance

Critical reading requires that you adopt an active stance toward what you read — that you raise questions in response to a text. You should be no less active when you are using other authors’ texts to develop your own argument.

Taking an active stance when you are quoting means knowing when to quote. Don’t quote when a paraphrase or summary will convey the information from a source more effectively. More important, you have to make fair and wise decisions about what and how much you should quote to make your argument.

· You want to show that you understand the writer’s argument, and you want to make evenhanded use of it in your own argument. It’s not fair (or wise) to quote selectively — choosing only passages that support your argument — when you know you are distorting the argument of the writer you are quoting.

· Remember that your ideas and argument — your thesis — are what is most important to the readers and what justifies a quotation’s being included at all. It’s not wise (or fair to yourself) to flesh out your paper with an overwhelming number of quotations that could make readers think that you do not know your topic well or do not have your own ideas. Don’t allow quotations to take over your paragraphs.

Above all, taking an active stance when you quote means taking control of your writing. You want to establish your own argument and guide your readers through it, allowing sources to contribute to but not dictate its direction. You are responsible for plotting and pacing your essay. Always keep in mind that your thesis is the skewer that runs through every paragraph, holding all of the ideas together. When you use quotations, then, you must organize them to enrich, substantiate, illustrate, and help support your central claim or thesis.

◼ Explain the Quotations

When you quote an author to support or advance your argument, make sure that readers know exactly what they should learn from the quotation.

Read the excerpt below from one student’s early draft of an argument that focuses on the value of service learning in high schools. The student reviews several relevant studies — but then simply drops in a quotation, expecting readers to know what they should pay attention to in it.

Other research emphasizes community service as an integral and integrated part of moral identity. In this understanding, community service activities are not isolated events but are woven into the context of students’ everyday lives (Yates, 1995); the personal, the moral, and the civic become “inseparable” (Colby, Ehrlich, Beaumont, & Stephens, 2003, p. 15). In their study of minority high schoolers at an urban Catholic school who volunteered at a soup kitchen for the homeless as part of a class assignment, Youniss and Yates (1999) found that the students underwent significant identity changes, coming to perceive themselves as lifelong activists. The researchers’ findings are worth quoting at length here because they depict the dramatic nature of the students’ changed viewpoints. Youniss and Yates wrote,

Many students abandoned an initially negative view of homeless people and a disinterest in homelessness by gaining appreciation of the humanity of homeless people and by showing concern for homelessness in relation to poverty, job training, low-cost housing, prison reform, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, care for the mentally ill, quality urban education, and welfare policy. Several students also altered perceptions of themselves from politically impotent teenagers to involved citizens who now and in the future could use their talent and power to correct social problems. They projected articulated pictures of themselves as adult citizens who could affect housing policies, education for minorities, and government programs within a clear framework of social justice. (p. 362)

The student’s introduction to the quoted passage provided a rationale for quoting Youniss and Yates at length, but it did not help her readers see how the research related to her argument. The student needed to frame the quotation for her readers. Instead of introducing the quotation by saying “Youniss and Yates wrote,” she should have made clear that the study supports the argument that community service can create change. A more appropriate frame for the quotation might have been a summary like this one:

The text reads, “One particular study underscores my argument that service can motivate change, particularly when that change begins within the students who are involved in service. Youniss and Yates (1999) wrote that over the course of their research.” The corresponding annotation reads, “Frames the quoted material, explaining it in the context of the student’s argument.” “the students developed both an ‘appreciation of the humanity of homeless people’ and a sense that they would someday be able to ‘use their talent and power to correct social problems’

In the following example, notice that the student writer uses Derrick Bell’s text to say something about how the effects of desegregation have been muted by political manipulation.1 The writer shapes what he wants readers to focus on, leaving nothing to chance.

The effectiveness with which the meaning of Brown v. Board of Education has been manipulated, Derrick Bell argued, is also evidenced by the way in which such thinking has actually been embraced by minority groups. Bell claimed that a black school board member’s asking “But of what value is it to teach black children to read in all-black schools?” indicates this unthinking acceptance that whiteness is an essential ingredient to effective schooling for blacks. Bell continued:

The assumption that even the attaining of academic skills is worthless unless those skills are acquired in the presence of white students illustrates dramatically how a legal precedent, namely the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, has been so constricted even by advocates that its goal — equal educational opportunity — is rendered inaccessible, even unwanted, unless it can be obtained through racial balancing of the school population. (p. 255)

Bell’s argument is extremely compelling, particularly when one considers the extent to which “racial balancing” has come to be defined in terms of large white majority populations and small nonwhite minority populations.

Notice that the student’s last sentence helps readers understand what the quoted material suggests and why it’s important by embedding and extending Bell’s notion of racial balancing into his explanation.

In sum, you should always explain the information that you quote so that your readers can see how the quotation relates to your own argument. (“Take your readers by the hand . . .”) As you read other people’s writing, keep an eye open to the ways writers introduce and explain the sources they use to build their arguments.

◼ Attach Short Quotations to Your Sentences

The quotations we discussed above are block quotations, lengthy quotations of more than five lines that are set off from the text of a paper with indention. Make shorter quotations part of your own sentences so that your readers can easily follow along and understand how the quotations connect to your argument. How do you make a quotation part of your own sentences? There are two main methods:

· Integrate quotations within the grammar of your writing.

· Attach quotations with punctuation.

If possible, use both to make your integration of quotations more interesting and varied.

Integrate quotations within the grammar of a sentence.

 

When you integrate a quotation into a sentence, the quotation must make grammatical sense and read as if it is part of the sentence:

Fine, Weiss, and Powell (1998) expanded upon what others call “equal status contact theory” by using a “framework that draws on three traditionally independent literatures — those on community, difference, and democracy” (p. 37).

If you add words to the quotation, use square brackets around them to let readers know that the words are not original to the quotation:

Smith and Wellner (2002) asserted that they “are not alone [in believing] that the facts have been incorrectly interpreted by Mancini” (p. 24).

If you omit any words in the middle of a quotation, use an ellipsis, three periods with spaces between them, to indicate the omission:

Riquelme argues that “Eliot tries . . . to provide a definition by negations, which he also turns into positive terms that are meant to correct misconceptions” (p. 156).

If you omit a sentence or more, make sure to put a period before the ellipsis points:

Eagleton writes, “What Eliot was in fact assaulting was the whole ideology of middle-class liberalism. . . . Eliot’s own solution is an extreme right-wing authoritarianism: men and women must sacrifice their petty ‘personalities’ and opinions to an impersonal order” (p. 39).

Whatever you add (using square brackets) or omit (using ellipses), the sentence must read grammatically. And, of course, your additions and omissions must not distort the author’s meaning.

Leah is also that little girl who “stares at her old street and look[s] at the abandoned houses and cracked up sidewalks.”

Attach quotations with punctuation.

 

You also can attach a quotation to a sentence by using punctuation. For example, this passage attaches the run-in quotation with a colon:

For these researchers, there needs to be recognition of differences in a way that will include and accept all students. Specifically, they raised this key question: “Within multiracial settings, when are young people invited to discuss, voice, critique, and re-view the very notions of race that feel so fixed, so hierarchical, so damaging, and so accepted in the broader culture?” (p. 132).

In conclusion, if you don’t connect quotations to your argument, your readers may not understand why you’ve included them. You need to explain a significant point that each quotation reveals as you introduce or end it. This strategy helps readers know what to pay attention to in a quotation, particularly if the quotation is lengthy.

steps to integrating quotations into your writing

1. Take an active stance. Your sources should contribute to your argument, not dictate its direction.

2. Explain the quotations. Explain what you quote so your readers understand how each quotation relates to your argument.

3. Attach short quotations to your sentences. Integrate short quotations within the grammar of your own sentences, or attach them with appropriate punctuation.

a practice sequence: integrating quotations

1. Using several of the sources you are working with in developing your paper, try integrating quotations into your essay. Be sure you are controlling your sources. Carefully read the paragraphs where you’ve used quotations. Will your readers clearly understand why the quotations are there — the points the quotations support? Do the sentences with quotations read smoothly? Are they grammatically correct?

2. Working in a small group, agree on a substantial paragraph or passage (from this book or some other source) to write about. Each member should read the passage and take a position on the ideas, and then draft a page that quotes the passage using both strategies for integrating these quotations. Compare what you’ve written, examining similarities and differences in the use of quotations.

AN ANNOTATED STUDENT RESEARCHED ARGUMENT: SYNTHESIZING SOURCES

The student who wrote the essay “A Greener Approach to Groceries: Community-Based Agriculture in LaSalle Square” did so in a first-year writing class that gave students the opportunity to volunteer in the local community. For this assignment, students were asked to explore debates about community and citizenship in contemporary America and to focus their research and writing on a social justice–related issue of their choice. The context of the course guided their inquiry as all the students in the course explored community service as a way to engage meaningfully and to develop relationships in the community.

We have annotated her essay to show the ways that she summarized and paraphrased research to show the urgency of the problem of food insecurity that exists around the world and to offer possible solutions. Notice how she synthesizes her sources, taking an active stance in using what she has read to advance her own argument.

The essay reads as follows:

Paul 1, Nancy Paul, Professor McLaughlin, English 2102, May 11, 20– A Greener Approach to Groceries: Community-Based Agriculture in LaSalle Square.”

The first paragraph reads, “In our post-9/11 society, there is incessant concern for the security of our future. Billions of dollars are spent tightening borders, installing nuclear detectors, and adjudicating safety measures so that the citizens of the United States can grow and prosper without fear. Unfortunately, for some urban poor, the threat from terrorism is minuscule compared to the cruelty of their immediate environment. Far from the sands of the Afghan plains and encapsulated in the midst of inner-city deterioration, many find themselves in gray-lot deserts devoid of vegetation and reliable food sources. Abandoned by corporate supermarkets, millions of Americans are maimed by a “food insecurity” – the nutritional poverty that cripples them developmentally, physically, and psychologically.”

The annotation marking the sentence, “Abandoned by corporate supermarkets, millions of Americans are maimed by a “food insecurity” – the nutritional poverty that cripples them developmentally, physically, and psychologically” reads, “The student’s thesis.”

The second paragraph reads, “The midwestern city that surrounds our university has a food-desert sitting just west of the famously lush campus. Known as LaSalle Square, it was once home to the lucrative Bendix plant and has featured both a Target and a Kroger supermarket in recent years. But previous economic development decisions have driven both stores to the outskirts of town, and without a local supplier, the only food available in the neighborhood is prepackaged and sold at the few small convenience stores. This available food is virtually devoid”

The annotation marking the words “has featured both a Target and a Kroger supermarket in recent years. But previous economic development decisions have driven both stores to the outskirts of town, and without a local supplier, the only food available in the neighborhood is prepackaged and sold at the few small convenience stores. This available food is virtually devoid” reads, “She calls attention to both the immediacy and urgency of the problem.”

The essay reads as follows:

Paul 1, Nancy Paul, Professor McLaughlin, English 2102, May 11, 20– A Greener Approach to Groceries: Community-Based Agriculture in LaSalle Square.”

The first paragraph reads, “In our post-9/11 society, there is incessant concern for the security of our future. Billions of dollars are spent tightening borders, installing nuclear detectors, and adjudicating safety measures so that the citizens of the United States can grow and prosper without fear. Unfortunately, for some urban poor, the threat from terrorism is minuscule compared to the cruelty of their immediate environment. Far from the sands of the Afghan plains and encapsulated in the midst of inner-city deterioration, many find themselves in gray-lot deserts devoid of vegetation and reliable food sources. Abandoned by corporate supermarkets, millions of Americans are maimed by a “food insecurity” – the nutritional poverty that cripples them developmentally, physically, and psychologically.”

The annotation marking the sentence, “Abandoned by corporate supermarkets, millions of Americans are maimed by a “food insecurity” – the nutritional poverty that cripples them developmentally, physically, and psychologically” reads, “The student’s thesis.”

The second paragraph reads, “The midwestern city that surrounds our university has a food-desert sitting just west of the famously lush campus. Known as LaSalle Square, it was once home to the lucrative Bendix plant and has featured both a Target and a Kroger supermarket in recent years. But previous economic development decisions have driven both stores to the outskirts of town, and without a local supplier, the only food available in the neighborhood is prepackaged and sold at the few small convenience stores. This available food is virtually devoid”

The annotation marking the words “has featured both a Target and a Kroger supermarket in recent years. But previous economic development decisions have driven both stores to the outskirts of town, and without a local supplier, the only food available in the neighborhood is prepackaged and sold at the few small convenience stores. This available food is virtually devoid” reads, “She calls attention to both the immediacy and urgency of the problem.”

The first paragraph reads, “of nutrition and inhibits the ability of the poor to prosper and thrive. Thus, an aging strip mall, industrial site, and approximately three acres of an empty grass lot between the buildings anchor – and unfortunately define – the neighborhood.”

The second paragraph reads, “While there are multiple ways of providing food to the destitute, I am proposing a co-op of community gardens built on the grassy space in LaSalle Square and on smaller sites within the neighborhood, supplemented by extra crops from Michiana farmers, which would supply fresh fruit and vegetables to be sold or distributed to the poor. Together the co-op could meet the nutritional needs of the people, provide plenty of nutritious food, not cost South Bend any additional money, and contribute to neighborhood revitalization, yielding concrete increases in property values. Far from being a pipe dream, LaSalle Square already hosted an Urban Garden Market this fall, so a co-op would simply build upon the already recognized need and desire for healthy food in the area. Similar coalitions around the world are harnessing the power of community to remedy food insecurity without the aid of corporate enterprise, and South Bend is perfectly situated to reproduce and possibly exceed their successes.”

The annotation marking the sentences “The second paragraph reads, “While there are multiple ways of providing food to the destitute, I am proposing a co-op of community gardens built on the grassy space in LaSalle Square and on smaller sites within the neighborhood, supplemented by extra crops from Michiana farmers, which would supply fresh fruit and vegetables to be sold or distributed to the poor” reads, “She proposes a possible solution.”

The annotation marking the sentences “neighborhood revitalization, yielding concrete increases in property values. Far from being a pipe dream, LaSalle Square already hosted an Urban Garden Market this fall, so a co-op would simply build upon the already recognized need and desire for healthy food in the area. Similar coalitions around the world are harnessing the power of community to remedy food insecurity without the aid of corporate enterprise, and South Bend is perfectly situated to reproduce and possibly exceed their successes” reads, “She places her solution in a larger context to indicate its viability.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “LaSalle Square’s food insecurity is typical of many urban areas. The grocery stores that used to serve the neighborhood have relocated to more attractive real estate on the outskirts of the city, and only local convenience stores, stocking basic necessary items and tobacco products, remain profitable. Linda Wolfson, a member of the steering committee for the LaSalle Square Redevelopment Plan, notes that if the community was fiscally healthy, it would be reasonable”

The annotation marking this paragraph reads, “More context.” The first paragraph reads, “of nutrition and inhibits the ability of the poor to prosper and thrive. Thus, an aging strip mall, industrial site, and approximately three acres of an empty grass lot between the buildings anchor – and unfortunately define – the neighborhood.”

The second paragraph reads, “While there are multiple ways of providing food to the destitute, I am proposing a co-op of community gardens built on the grassy space in LaSalle Square and on smaller sites within the neighborhood, supplemented by extra crops from Michiana farmers, which would supply fresh fruit and vegetables to be sold or distributed to the poor. Together the co-op could meet the nutritional needs of the people, provide plenty of nutritious food, not cost South Bend any additional money, and contribute to neighborhood revitalization, yielding concrete increases in property values. Far from being a pipe dream, LaSalle Square already hosted an Urban Garden Market this fall, so a co-op would simply build upon the already recognized need and desire for healthy food in the area. Similar coalitions around the world are harnessing the power of community to remedy food insecurity without the aid of corporate enterprise, and South Bend is perfectly situated to reproduce and possibly exceed their successes.”

The annotation marking the sentences “The second paragraph reads, “While there are multiple ways of providing food to the destitute, I am proposing a co-op of community gardens built on the grassy space in LaSalle Square and on smaller sites within the neighborhood, supplemented by extra crops from Michiana farmers, which would supply fresh fruit and vegetables to be sold or distributed to the poor” reads, “She proposes a possible solution.”

The annotation marking the sentences “neighborhood revitalization, yielding concrete increases in property values. Far from being a pipe dream, LaSalle Square already hosted an Urban Garden Market this fall, so a co-op would simply build upon the already recognized need and desire for healthy food in the area. Similar coalitions around the world are harnessing the power of community to remedy food insecurity without the aid of corporate enterprise, and South Bend is perfectly situated to reproduce and possibly exceed their successes” reads, “She places her solution in a larger context to indicate its viability.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “LaSalle Square’s food insecurity is typical of many urban areas. The grocery stores that used to serve the neighborhood have relocated to more attractive real estate on the outskirts of the city, and only local convenience stores, stocking basic necessary items and tobacco products, remain profitable. Linda Wolfson, a member of the steering committee for the LaSalle Square Redevelopment Plan, notes that if the community was fiscally healthy, it would be reasonable”

The annotation marking this paragraph reads, “More context.”

The first paragraph reads, “mall district, but unfortunately many are marginally employed and do not have access to cars. For them, it is economically irresponsible to spend the extra money to get to the supermarket, and so they feed their families on the cheap soda, chips, and processed food that are readily available at the convenience store. Especially since high-calorie, low-nutrient, packaged food tends to be denser, urban mothers find that it helps their children feel full (Garnett). Sadly, a health investigation released in 2006 concluded that by the age of three, more than one-third of urban children are obese, due in large part to the consumption of low-quality food obtained from corner stores (Smith). A recent analysis of urban stores in Detroit found that only 19 percent offer the healthy food array suggested by the FDA food pyramid (Brown and Carter 5). The food that is offered contains 25 percent less nutrient density, and consequently, underprivileged socioeconomic populations consume significantly lower levels of the micronutrients that form the foundation for proper protein and brain development. In a recent study of poor households, it was found that two-thirds of children were nutritionally poor and that more than 25 percent of women were deficient in iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6, thiamin, and riboflavin (Garnett). Of course, some may challenge the relevance of these vitamins and nutrients since they are not something the average person consciously incorporates into his or her diet on a daily basis. Yet modern research, examining the severely homogenous diets of the poor, has found severe developmental consequences associated with the lack of nutritional substance. For those afflicted, these deficiencies are not simply inconvenient, but actually exacerbate their plight and hinder their progress toward a sustainable lifestyle.”

The annotation marking the words, “that are readily available at the convenience store. Especially since high-calorie, low-nutrient, packaged food tends to be denser, urban mothers find that it helps their children feel full (Garnett). Sadly, a health investigation released in 2006 concluded that by the age of three, more than one-third of urban children are obese, due in large part to the consumption of low-quality food obtained from corner stores (Smith). A recent analysis of urban stores in Detroit found that only 19 percent offer the healthy food array suggested by the FDA food pyramid (Brown and Carter 5). The food that is offered contains 25 percent less nutrient density, and consequently, underprivileged” reads, “Synthesizing helps illustrate the extent of the problem and bolster her view that the poor suffer the most from the problem she identifies ( Garnett; Smith; Brown and Carter).”

The annotation marking the sentence, “In a recent study of poor households, it was found that two-thirds of children were nutritionally poor and that more than 25 percent of women were deficient in iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6, thiamin, and riboflavin (Garnett)” reads, “Here she paraphrases findings.”

The second paragraph reads, “The human body is a complex system that cannot be sustained merely on the simple sugars and processed carbohydrates that comprise most cheap and filling foodstuffs, and research shows a relationship between nutritional deficiencies and a host of cognitive and developmental impairments that are prevalent in the undernourished families from urban America. Standardized tests of impoverished siblings, one of whom received nutritional supplements and the other who did not, showed cognitive gains in the well-“ The first paragraph reads, “mall district, but unfortunately many are marginally employed and do not have access to cars. For them, it is economically irresponsible to spend the extra money to get to the supermarket, and so they feed their families on the cheap soda, chips, and processed food that are readily available at the convenience store. Especially since high-calorie, low-nutrient, packaged food tends to be denser, urban mothers find that it helps their children feel full (Garnett). Sadly, a health investigation released in 2006 concluded that by the age of three, more than one-third of urban children are obese, due in large part to the consumption of low-quality food obtained from corner stores (Smith). A recent analysis of urban stores in Detroit found that only 19 percent offer the healthy food array suggested by the FDA food pyramid (Brown and Carter 5). The food that is offered contains 25 percent less nutrient density, and consequently, underprivileged socioeconomic populations consume significantly lower levels of the micronutrients that form the foundation for proper protein and brain development. In a recent study of poor households, it was found that two-thirds of children were nutritionally poor and that more than 25 percent of women were deficient in iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6, thiamin, and riboflavin (Garnett). Of course, some may challenge the relevance of these vitamins and nutrients since they are not something the average person consciously incorporates into his or her diet on a daily basis. Yet modern research, examining the severely homogenous diets of the poor, has found severe developmental consequences associated with the lack of nutritional substance. For those afflicted, these deficiencies are not simply inconvenient, but actually exacerbate their plight and hinder their progress toward a sustainable lifestyle.”

The annotation marking the words, “that are readily available at the convenience store. Especially since high-calorie, low-nutrient, packaged food tends to be denser, urban mothers find that it helps their children feel full (Garnett). Sadly, a health investigation released in 2006 concluded that by the age of three, more than one-third of urban children are obese, due in large part to the consumption of low-quality food obtained from corner stores (Smith). A recent analysis of urban stores in Detroit found that only 19 percent offer the healthy food array suggested by the FDA food pyramid (Brown and Carter 5). The food that is offered contains 25 percent less nutrient density, and consequently, underprivileged” reads, “Synthesizing helps illustrate the extent of the problem and bolster her view that the poor suffer the most from the problem she identifies ( Garnett; Smith; Brown and Carter).”

The annotation marking the sentence, “In a recent study of poor households, it was found that two-thirds of children were nutritionally poor and that more than 25 percent of women were deficient in iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6, thiamin, and riboflavin (Garnett)” reads, “Here she paraphrases findings.”

The second paragraph reads, “The human body is a complex system that cannot be sustained merely on the simple sugars and processed carbohydrates that comprise most cheap and filling foodstuffs, and research shows a relationship between nutritional deficiencies and a host of cognitive and developmental impairments that are prevalent in the undernourished families from urban America. Standardized tests of impoverished siblings, one of whom received nutritional supplements and the other who did not, showed cognitive gains in the well-“

The first paragraph reads, “nourished child as well as increased motor skills and greater interest in social interactions when compared to the other child. In the highly formative toddler years, undernutrition can inhibit the myelination of nerve fibers, which is responsible for neurotransmitting and proper brain function. Collaborators Emily Tanner from the University of Oxford and Matia Finn-Stevenson from Yale University published a comprehensive analysis of the link between nutrition and brain development in 2002. Their analysis, which they linked to social policy, indicated that a shortage of legumes and leafy green vegetables, which are nearly impossible to find in corner stores, is the leading cause of the iron-deficiency anemia afflicting 25 percent of urban children. This extreme form of anemia is characterized by impaired neurotransmission, weaker memory, and reduced attention span (Tanner and Finn-Stevenson 186). For those who do not have access to the vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients found in fruits and vegetables, these maladies are not distant risks, but constant, inescapable threats.”

The annotation marking the words, “nourished child as well as increased motor skills and greater interest in social interactions when compared to the other child. In the highly formative toddler years, undernutrition can inhibit the myelination of nerve fibers, which is responsible for neurotransmitting and proper brain function. Collaborators Emily Tanner from the University of Oxford and Matia Finn-Stevenson from Yale University published a comprehensive analysis of the link between nutrition and brain development in 2002” reads, “Again she both Summarizes and cites a relevant study to advance her argument.”

The second paragraph reads, “In light of these severe consequences of undernutrition, the term “food insecurity” encapsulates the condition wherein the economically disadvantaged are vulnerable simply because their bodies are unable to receive adequate fuel for optimal functioning. Just as one cannot expect a dry, parched plant to bloom and pollinate a garden, by constraining the development of individuals, food insecurity also constrains the development of the neighborhoods in which the individuals contribute. For the health of a city and its communities, all roadblocks to progress must be removed, and food insecurity must be cut out at its roots so that individuals have the resources for advancement.”

The third paragraph reads, “As socially conscious citizens and local governments have recognized the prevalence and danger of food insecurity in inner cities, there have been attempts at a remedy. Obviously, the easiest solution is simply to introduce a grocery store that would provide a variety of quality, healthful foods. However, for big-box supermarkets driven by the bottom line, urban areas are less than desirable business locales from a standpoint of both profitability and maintenance. It is simply irrational for a supermarket to invest in an urban area with less revenue potential, size constraints, an” The first paragraph reads, “nourished child as well as increased motor skills and greater interest in social interactions when compared to the other child. In the highly formative toddler years, undernutrition can inhibit the myelination of nerve fibers, which is responsible for neurotransmitting and proper brain function. Collaborators Emily Tanner from the University of Oxford and Matia Finn-Stevenson from Yale University published a comprehensive analysis of the link between nutrition and brain development in 2002. Their analysis, which they linked to social policy, indicated that a shortage of legumes and leafy green vegetables, which are nearly impossible to find in corner stores, is the leading cause of the iron-deficiency anemia afflicting 25 percent of urban children. This extreme form of anemia is characterized by impaired neurotransmission, weaker memory, and reduced attention span (Tanner and Finn-Stevenson 186). For those who do not have access to the vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients found in fruits and vegetables, these maladies are not distant risks, but constant, inescapable threats.”

The annotation marking the words, “nourished child as well as increased motor skills and greater interest in social interactions when compared to the other child. In the highly formative toddler years, undernutrition can inhibit the myelination of nerve fibers, which is responsible for neurotransmitting and proper brain function. Collaborators Emily Tanner from the University of Oxford and Matia Finn-Stevenson from Yale University published a comprehensive analysis of the link between nutrition and brain development in 2002” reads, “Again she both Summarizes and cites a relevant study to advance her argument.”

The second paragraph reads, “In light of these severe consequences of undernutrition, the term “food insecurity” encapsulates the condition wherein the economically disadvantaged are vulnerable simply because their bodies are unable to receive adequate fuel for optimal functioning. Just as one cannot expect a dry, parched plant to bloom and pollinate a garden, by constraining the development of individuals, food insecurity also constrains the development of the neighborhoods in which the individuals contribute. For the health of a city and its communities, all roadblocks to progress must be removed, and food insecurity must be cut out at its roots so that individuals have the resources for advancement.”

The third paragraph reads, “As socially conscious citizens and local governments have recognized the prevalence and danger of food insecurity in inner cities, there have been attempts at a remedy. Obviously, the easiest solution is simply to introduce a grocery store that would provide a variety of quality, healthful foods. However, for big-box supermarkets driven by the bottom line, urban areas are less than desirable business locales from a standpoint of both profitability and maintenance. It is simply irrational for a supermarket to invest in an urban area with less revenue potential, size constraints, an”

The first paragraph reads, “unattractive locale, and an increased threat of theft and defacement when it is so easy to turn a profit in spacious and peaceful suburbia (Eisenhauer 131). Supermarkets must have significant incentive, beyond humanitarian ends, if they are to take the financial risk of entering a poor, urban marketplace.”

The second paragraph reads, “Certain cities are using the power of Tax Increment Financing

(TIF) districts to encourage supermarkets to invest in urban centers. Under these redevelopment laws, tax revenues from retail development or other commercial enterprises are devoted, for a specified number of years, to infrastructural improvement of the district (“TIF Reform”). This approach has been effective in enticing new businesses; in fact, the exterior growth around South Bend is the result of a TIF district established in the late 1980s. LaSalle Square is currently part of a TIF district, but there is discussion as to how the TIF monies should best be applied (Wolfson). It may be possible to use the power of the TIF to encourage another large retailer such as Kroger to establish a presence in the square, but a smaller enterprise may be a better option. Experts indicate that for the destitute and food-insecure, reliance on a corporate entity is not optimal. Elizabeth Eisenhauer, a researcher from the State University of New York, investigated the interplay between supermarkets and the urban poor; she concluded that large big-box stores lack a commitment to the communities they serve and can be relied on only when it is clear they will make a profit, which may or may not happen when TIF benefits expire (131). Even when a portion of proceeds is used in the community, the majority of the cash flow from a supermarket is going to a corporate headquarters elsewhere, not directly supporting the surrounding neighborhood. Likewise, while some employees may be local, the highest-salary management positions are generally given to outsiders, making the stores and their employees set apart, rather than integrated into the neighborhood (Eisenhauer 130). Certainly a supermarket in an urban area will greatly contribute to the reduction of food insecurity, but it is not the only available option, and the city of South Bend is ripe for alternative solutions. The city is primed for a cooperative effort that could shift the paradigm for urban renewal from a quick, corporate solution, to a long-term enterprise built on community contributions and under local control.”

The Annotation for the sentences, “Certain cities are using the power of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts to encourage supermarkets to invest in urban centers. Under these redevelopment laws, tax revenues from retail development or other commercial enterprises are devoted, for a specified number of years, to infrastructural improvement of the district (“TIF Reform”). This approach has been effective in enticing new businesses; in fact, the exterior growth around South Bend is the result of a TIF district established in the late 1980s. LaSalle Square is currently part of a TIF district, but there is discussion as to how the TIF monies should best be applied (Wolfson)” reads, “She takes an active stance in citing initiatives that could be applied more effectively to alleviate the problem of food insecurity.”

The annotation for the words, “investigated the interplay between supermarkets and the urban poor; she concluded that large big-box stores lack a commitment to the communities they serve and can be relied on only when it is clear they will make a profit, which may or may not happen when TIF benefits expire (131)” reads, “She paraphrases a researcher’s findings.”

The first paragraph reads, “unattractive locale, and an increased threat of theft and defacement when it is so easy to turn a profit in spacious and peaceful suburbia (Eisenhauer 131). Supermarkets must have significant incentive, beyond humanitarian ends, if they are to take the financial risk of entering a poor, urban marketplace.”

The second paragraph reads, “Certain cities are using the power of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts to encourage supermarkets to invest in urban centers. Under these redevelopment laws, tax revenues from retail development or other commercial enterprises are devoted, for a specified number of years, to infrastructural improvement of the district (“TIF Reform”). This approach has been effective in enticing new businesses; in fact, the exterior growth around South Bend is the result of a TIF district established in the late 1980s. LaSalle Square is currently part of a TIF district, but there is discussion as to how the TIF monies should best be applied (Wolfson). It may be possible to use the power of the TIF to encourage another large retailer such as Kroger to establish a presence in the square, but a smaller enterprise may be a better option. Experts indicate that for the destitute and food-insecure, reliance on a corporate entity is not optimal. Elizabeth Eisenhauer, a researcher from the State University of New York, investigated the interplay between supermarkets and the urban poor; she concluded that large big-box stores lack a commitment to the communities they serve and can be relied on only when it is clear they will make a profit, which may or may not happen when TIF benefits expire (131). Even when a portion of proceeds is used in the community, the majority of the cash flow from a supermarket is going to a corporate headquarters elsewhere, not directly supporting the surrounding neighborhood. Likewise, while some employees may be local, the highest-salary management positions are generally given to outsiders, making the stores and their employees set apart, rather than integrated into the neighborhood (Eisenhauer 130). Certainly a supermarket in an urban area will greatly contribute to the reduction of food insecurity, but it is not the only available option, and the city of South Bend is ripe for alternative solutions. The city is primed for a cooperative effort that could shift the paradigm for urban renewal from a quick, corporate solution, to a long-term enterprise built on community contributions and under local control.”

The Annotation for the sentences, “Certain cities are using the power of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts to encourage supermarkets to invest in urban centers. Under these redevelopment laws, tax revenues from retail development or other commercial enterprises are devoted, for a specified number of years, to infrastructural improvement of the district (“TIF Reform”). This approach has been effective in enticing new businesses; in fact, the exterior growth around South Bend is the result of a TIF district established in the late 1980s. LaSalle Square is currently part of a TIF district, but there is discussion as to how the TIF monies should best be applied (Wolfson)” reads, “She takes an active stance in citing initiatives that could be applied more effectively to alleviate the problem of food insecurity.”

The annotation for the words, “investigated the interplay between supermarkets and the urban poor; she concluded that large big-box stores lack a commitment to the communities they serve and can be relied on only when it is clear they will make a profit, which may or may not happen when TIF benefits expire (131)” reads, “She paraphrases a researcher’s findings.”

The first paragraph reads, “Around the globe, many destitute urban areas have found the mmeans to reverse nutritional poverty through a literal and figurative grassroots effort. In an effort to avoid packaged, convenience store food, neighbors in the Bronx, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, and most successfully in Philadelphia, have been planting their own crops right in the heart of the city (Brown and Carter 3-4). Truly farming the food desert, coalitions that link community gardens, local farmers, and urban markets are providing healthy, sustainable food sources without a supermarket. Interestingly, in the process, such coalitions are generating jobs, increasing property value, and, in some cases, actually reversing the effects of poverty. The city of South Bend, uniquely situated in the breadbasket of the United States, is in the perfect position to launch a “greening” effort, modeled after the successes in other parts of the world, which would both solve the problem of food insecurity of LaSalle Square and invigorate the local economy.”

The annotation marking the sentences, “Around the globe, many destitute urban areas have found the mmeans to reverse nutritional poverty through a literal and figurative grassroots effort. In an effort to avoid packaged, convenience store food, neighbors in the Bronx, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, and most successfully in Philadelphia, have been planting their own crops right in the heart of the city (Brown and Carter 3-4)” reads, “She cites a number of examples as evidence to demonstrate the viability of the solution she offers.”

The second paragraph reads, “While modern Americans have the tendency to think that food production should be, and always has been, industrialized, countries around the world, especially economically disadvantaged nations, are exemplifying the possibilities of local gardening efforts. Far removed from industrial farms, Cubans grow half their vegetables within the city; vacant land in Russian cities produces 80 percent of the nation’s vegetables, and specifically in Moscow, 65 percent of families contribute to food production. Singapore has 10,000 urban farmers, and nearly half of the residents of Vancouver grow food in their gardens (Brown and Carter 10). These habits are not simply a novelty; rather, populations that garden tend to be healthier, eating six out of the fourteen vegetable categories more regularly than nongardeners and also consuming fewer sweet and sugary foods per capita (Brown and Carter 13). These data, compiled by the North American Urban Agriculture Committee, were synthesized from the Journal of Public Health Policy and the Journal of Nutrition Education and show the interrelatedness of nutritional access and availability to healthy personal choices. While these trends toward healthful lifestyles and gardening have been gaining ground slowly in the United States, when food insecurity and poverty take their toll, cities are finding that urban agriculture is an increasingly attractive and profitable alternative.”

The annotation marking the sentences, “Far removed from industrial farms, Cubans grow half their vegetables within the city; vacant land in Russian cities produces 80 percent of the nation’s vegetables, and specifically in Moscow, 65 percent of families contribute to food production. Singapore has 10,000 urban farmers, and nearly half of the residents of Vancouver grow food in their gardens (Brown and Carter 10). These habits are not simply a novelty; rather, populations that garden tend to be healthier, eating six out of the fourteen vegetable categories more regularly than nongardeners and also consuming fewer sweet and sugary foods per capita (Brown and Carter 13)” reads, “The use of multiple sources would make her case even stronger than using just one source of information, in this case Brown and Carter.”

The first paragraph reads, “Around the globe, many destitute urban areas have found the mmeans to reverse nutritional poverty through a literal and figurative grassroots effort. In an effort to avoid packaged, convenience store food, neighbors in the Bronx, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, and most successfully in Philadelphia, have been planting their own crops right in the heart of the city (Brown and Carter 3-4). Truly farming the food desert, coalitions that link community gardens, local farmers, and urban markets are providing healthy, sustainable food sources without a supermarket. Interestingly, in the process, such coalitions are generating jobs, increasing property value, and, in some cases, actually reversing the effects of poverty. The city of South Bend, uniquely situated in the breadbasket of the United States, is in the perfect position to launch a “greening” effort, modeled after the successes in other parts of the world, which would both solve the problem of food insecurity of LaSalle Square and invigorate the local economy.”

The annotation marking the sentences, “Around the globe, many destitute urban areas have found the mmeans to reverse nutritional poverty through a literal and figurative grassroots effort. In an effort to avoid packaged, convenience store food, neighbors in the Bronx, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, and most successfully in Philadelphia, have been planting their own crops right in the heart of the city (Brown and Carter 3-4)” reads, “She cites a number of examples as evidence to demonstrate the viability of the solution she offers.”

The second paragraph reads, “While modern Americans have the tendency to think that food production should be, and always has been, industrialized, countries around the world, especially economically disadvantaged nations, are exemplifying the possibilities of local gardening efforts. Far removed from industrial farms, Cubans grow half their vegetables within the city; vacant land in Russian cities produces 80 percent of the nation’s vegetables, and specifically in Moscow, 65 percent of families contribute to food production. Singapore has 10,000 urban farmers, and nearly half of the residents of Vancouver grow food in their gardens (Brown and Carter 10). These habits are not simply a novelty; rather, populations that garden tend to be healthier, eating six out of the fourteen vegetable categories more regularly than nongardeners and also consuming fewer sweet and sugary foods per capita (Brown and Carter 13). These data, compiled by the North American Urban Agriculture Committee, were synthesized from the Journal of Public Health Policy and the Journal of Nutrition Education and show the interrelatedness of nutritional access and availability to healthy personal choices. While these trends toward healthful lifestyles and gardening have been gaining ground slowly in the United States, when food insecurity and poverty take their toll, cities are finding that urban agriculture is an increasingly attractive and profitable alternative.”

The annotation marking the sentences, “Far removed from industrial farms, Cubans grow half their vegetables within the city; vacant land in Russian cities produces 80 percent of the nation’s vegetables, and specifically in Moscow, 65 percent of families contribute to food production. Singapore has 10,000 urban farmers, and nearly half of the residents of Vancouver grow food in their gardens (Brown and Carter 10). These habits are not simply a novelty; rather, populations that garden tend to be healthier, eating six out of the fourteen vegetable categories more regularly than nongardeners and also consuming fewer sweet and sugary foods per capita (Brown and Carter 13)” reads, “The use of multiple sources would make her case even stronger than using just one source of information, in this case Brown and Carter.”

The first paragraph reads, “American communities have shown that creativity and collaboration can be quite effective at reversing food insecurity. The Garden Project of the Greater Lansing Food Bank has successfully combined gardening and Midwest access to local farms to bring food security to urban residents and senior citizens. Their eighteen community gardens and volunteers provide fresh fruits and vegetables year-round to low-income families, food pantries, the elderly, and social service organizations. Completely bypassing the commercial market, the Garden Project has trained 500 families to grow their own food in backyard plots so that they can always have healthy food in the midst of the city (Brown and Carter 1). The gardens are supplemented by a process known as “gleaning,” in which volunteers harvest extra crops from local farmers that would otherwise go to waste, and deliver it to residents of subsidized housing (“Gleaning”). In 2008 alone, the Garden Project actively involved 2,500 individual gardeners and was able to provide over 250,000 pounds of produce from gleaning alone, plus the yields of the community plots that were used directly by the gardeners (“GLFB Facts”). This Lansing coalition serves over 5,000 individuals per month, yet only 4,400 reside under the poverty line in the LaSalle Square area (City-Data.com). If half of the inhabitants of LaSalle Square became engaged in the gardening effort, a similar collaboration could meet the needs of the region, and greater participation could yield an excess.”

The annotation marking the sentences, “Completely bypassing the commercial market, the Garden Project has trained 500 families to grow their own food in backyard plots so that they can always have healthy food in the midst of the city (Brown and Carter 1). The gardens are supplemented by a process known as “gleaning,” in which volunteers harvest extra crops from local farmers that would otherwise go to waste, and deliver it to residents of subsidized housing (“Gleaning”). In 2008 alone, the Garden Project actively involved 2,500 individual gardeners and was able to provide over 250,000 pounds of produce from gleaning alone, plus the yields of the community plots that were used directly by the gardeners (“GLFB Facts”)” reads, “She synthesizes different sources to make her point.”

The second paragraph reads, “Similar efforts have demonstrated not only that inner-city food production is achievable but also that it can be cost-effective and self-sufficient, unlike a food bank. Frustrated by the inner-city downturn she describes as “an overgrown dog toilet,” industrious London entrepreneur Julie Brown created a community gardening company aimed at providing unmechanized, local, sustainable food. The company, Growing Communities, uses organic box gardens and small farms to supply more than 400 homes with weekly deliveries of organic fruits and vegetables. After a ten-year investment in local farmers and mini-gardens within the city, Growing Communities is now financially independent and generates over $400,000 per year (Willis 53). Compelled by both capitalism and social concern, Brown’s efforts have shown that community-supported agriculture not”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “In this paragraph, she summarizes research to address the possible counterargument.” The first paragraph reads, “American communities have shown that creativity and collaboration can be quite effective at reversing food insecurity. The Garden Project of the Greater Lansing Food Bank has successfully combined gardening and Midwest access to local farms to bring food security to urban residents and senior citizens. Their eighteen community gardens and volunteers provide fresh fruits and vegetables year-round to low-income families, food pantries, the elderly, and social service organizations. Completely bypassing the commercial market, the Garden Project has trained 500 families to grow their own food in backyard plots so that they can always have healthy food in the midst of the city (Brown and Carter 1). The gardens are supplemented by a process known as “gleaning,” in which volunteers harvest extra crops from local farmers that would otherwise go to waste, and deliver it to residents of subsidized housing (“Gleaning”). In 2008 alone, the Garden Project actively involved 2,500 individual gardeners and was able to provide over 250,000 pounds of produce from gleaning alone, plus the yields of the community plots that were used directly by the gardeners (“GLFB Facts”). This Lansing coalition serves over 5,000 individuals per month, yet only 4,400 reside under the poverty line in the LaSalle Square area (City-Data.com). If half of the inhabitants of LaSalle Square became engaged in the gardening effort, a similar collaboration could meet the needs of the region, and greater participation could yield an excess.”

The annotation marking the sentences, “Completely bypassing the commercial market, the Garden Project has trained 500 families to grow their own food in backyard plots so that they can always have healthy food in the midst of the city (Brown and Carter 1). The gardens are supplemented by a process known as “gleaning,” in which volunteers harvest extra crops from local farmers that would otherwise go to waste, and deliver it to residents of subsidized housing (“Gleaning”). In 2008 alone, the Garden Project actively involved 2,500 individual gardeners and was able to provide over 250,000 pounds of produce from gleaning alone, plus the yields of the community plots that were used directly by the gardeners (“GLFB Facts”)” reads, “She synthesizes different sources to make her point.”

The second paragraph reads, “Similar efforts have demonstrated not only that inner-city food production is achievable but also that it can be cost-effective and self-sufficient, unlike a food bank. Frustrated by the inner-city downturn she describes as “an overgrown dog toilet,” industrious London entrepreneur Julie Brown created a community gardening company aimed at providing unmechanized, local, sustainable food. The company, Growing Communities, uses organic box gardens and small farms to supply more than 400 homes with weekly deliveries of organic fruits and vegetables. After a ten-year investment in local farmers and mini-gardens within the city, Growing Communities is now financially independent and generates over $400,000 per year (Willis 53). Compelled by both capitalism and social concern, Brown’s efforts have shown that community-supported agriculture not”

The annotation for this paragraph reads, “In this paragraph, she summarizes research to address the possible counterargument.”

The first paragraph reads, “only is possible but can be profitable as well! Our own community agriculture program should not be an entrepreneurial endeavor, but Brown’s work in London indicates that it need not be a financial burden to the city either. Rather, the co-op would be financially selfsufficient, with the potential to generate revenues and fiscal growth in the city.”

The Second paraph reads, “Urban Philadelphia has led the way in demonstrating the profitability of community solutions to food insecurity through an offshoot of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) known as Philadelphia Greens. Since the 1970s, this coalition has reclaimed parks, planted trees, and created community gardens, both to revitalize the neighborhood and to serve the nutritionally and economically poor. Through a process that plants trees, builds wooden fences, and gardens the more than 1,000 vacant lots of Philadelphia, PHS combines housing projects and reclaimed space to “green” and reinvigorate the neighborhood (“The Effects”). Since LaSalle Square is essentially a large empty grassy area at the moment, a community agricultural co-op should turn this vacant lot and others in the neighborhood into community gardens, which would work in tandem with the gleaning from local farms. Similar to the Philadelphia project, these gardens would simultaneously yield produce and improve the appearance of the neighborhood.”

The annotation marking the words “profitability of community solutions to food insecurity through an offshoot of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) known as Philadelphia Greens. Since the 1970s, this coalition has reclaimed parks, planted trees, and created community gardens, both to revitalize the neighborhood and to serve the nutritionally and economically poor. Through a process that plants trees, builds wooden fences, and gardens the more than 1,000 vacant lots of Philadelphia, PHS combines housing projects and reclaimed space to “green” and reinvigorate the neighborhood (“The Effects”). Since LaSalle Square is essentially a large empty grassy area at the moment, a community agricultural co-op should turn this vacant” reads, “She again cites research to address the counter argument.”

The third paragraph reads, “One PHS project, in the New Kensington neighborhood of north Philadelphia, was the subject of a recent socioeconomic study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania’s renowned Wharton School of Business. In the New Kensington area, PHS recently planted”

The first paragraph reads, “480 new trees, cleaned 145 side yards, developed 217 vacant lots, and established 15 new community gardens. The effort was a model of the collaborative strategy between PHS and the local community development corporation, making it the ideal subject of the Wharton study. The findings, published in 2004, showed significant increases in property values around the PHS greening projects and were the first step in quantifying the fiscal returns of neighborhood greening beyond the qualitative benefits of remedying food insecurity. After analyzing the sales records of thousands of New Kensington homes between 1980 and 2003, the study reported that PHS greening had led to a $4 million gain in property value from tree plantings alone and a $12 million gain from vacant lot improvements. Simply greening a vacant lot increased nearby property values by as much as 30 percent (“Seeing Green”). While a supermarket might modestly improve property values for those immediately near the store, community greening involves multiple plots across an area, benefiting many more people and properties. The Wharton study showed that community greening would provide increases in the value of any property near a green space, up to multiple millions of dollars. The New Kensington neighborhood covers 1.4 square miles, which is approximately the size of LaSalle Square, so while the overall property values are lower simply because South Bend is a smaller city, the gains might be proportional (City-Data.com). It is reasonable to believe that cleaning up LaSalle Square and planting gardens would quantitatively benefit the fiscal situation of the city and increase assets of the homeowners while subsequently improving the quality of life over many acres.”

The annotation marking the words “The findings, published in 2004, showed significant increases in property values around the PHS greening projects and were the first step in quantifying the fiscal returns of neighborhood greening beyond the qualitative benefits of remedying food insecurity. After analyzing the sales records of thousands of New Kensington homes between 1980 and 2003, the study reported that PHS greening had led to a $4 million gain in property value from tree plantings alone and a $12 million gain from vacant lot improvements. Simply greening a vacant lot increased nearby property values by as much as 30 percent (“Seeing Green”). While a supermarket might modestly improve property values for those immediately near the” reads, “She summarizes a study and then paraphrases.”

Thesecond paragraph reads, “Certainly there are challenges to the sort of dynamical, community-based solution that I am proposing. Such an agricultural co-op hinges on the participation of the people it serves and cannot be successful without the dedicated support of the neighborhood. It could be noted that lower-income economic groups are less socially involved than their higher-income counterparts, and some might believe that they are unlikely to contribute to, or care about, a greening effort. Yet I believe that there is a distinction between political involvement and neighborhood interaction. Middle-class Americans are conscious of gas prices and the fluctuations of the”

The first paragraph reads, “stock market that affect their job security and ability to provide for their families; yet the unemployed poor without cars must rely on their neighborhoods to eke out a living. Their sustenance comes not from a salary, but from odd jobs, welfare, and the munificence of fate. The battle to put food on the table is more familiar to the poor than foreign conflict and is one that they fight every day. Therefore, while the poor are less inclined to vote or worry about governmental affairs because of the difficulties associated simply with daily living, they are acutely aware of their immediate surroundings and how those surroundings challenge or contribute to their success. This position makes them uniquely inclined to invest in the betterment of their surroundings since it can have a dramatic effect on their personal lives. The real success of the sustainable food movement may come from harnessing the power of urban communities that can derive great, immediate, and lasting benefit from neighborhood revitalization.”

The second paragraph reads, “It has been argued that urban growers, especially from lower socioeconomic classes, do not have the expertise or knowledge base to generate successful yields that will ensure food security. Fortunately, agriculture is Indiana’s fourth-largest industry, and the state boasts over 63,000 farms (“A Look”). In addition to the many inhabitants of LaSalle Square who have a background in agriculture, there is a wealth of knowledge about proper planting methods available from the farmers around the local area. Many of these farmers have already shown a willingness to help by selling or donating their produce to the local Urban Market. Additionally, national urban agriculture nonprofit groups, such as Master Gardening and Cooperative Extension, offer free public education to cities beginning community agriculture programs, and some will even perform on-site training (Brown and Carter 16). By harnessing the assets of local, gratuitous knowledge and supplementing that knowledge with national support groups, South Bend has multiple resources available to train and encourage its burgeoning urban farmers.”

The annotations marking the sentences, “It has been argued that urban growers, especially from lower socioeconomic classes, do not have the expertise or knowledge base to generate successful yields that will ensure food security. Fortunately, agriculture is Indiana’s fourth-largest industry, and the state boasts over 63,000 farms (“A Look”). In addition to the many inhabitants of LaSalle Square who have a background in agriculture, there is a wealth of knowledge about proper planting methods available from the farmers around the local area” reads, “In this paragraph, she takes an active stance in using research to alleviate fears that the local community would have to start from scratch with limited expertise.”

The third sentence reads, “The economic and nutritional gains of the people would only be heightened by the personal well-being that is born of interpersonal collaboration that crosses racial and social”

Works Cited:

Brown, Katherine H., and Anne Carter. Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming from the City Center to the Urban Fringe. Community Food Security Coalition, Oct. 2003.

City-Data.com. Advameg, 16 Apr. 2008, www.city-data.com/city /South-Bend-Indiana.html.

“The Effects of Neighborhood Greening.” Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Jan. 2001, phsonline.org/programs/effects-of-neighborhood-greening.

Eisenhauer, Elizabeth. “In Poor Health: Supermarket Redlining and Urban Nutrition.” GeoJournal, vol. 53, no. 2, Feb. 2001, pp. 125–33.

Garnett, Tara. “Farming the City.” The Ecologist, vol. 26, no. 6, Nov./Dec. 1996, p. 299.

“Gleaning.” Greater Lansing Food Bank, greaterlansingfoodbank.org/programs/programs home/the-garden-project/gleaning/.Accessed 15 Apr. 20—.

“GLFB Facts.” Greater Lansing Food Bank, greaterlansingfoodbank.org/our-impact/fact sheet/. Accessed 15 Apr. 20—.

LocalHarvest. Local Harvest, 2008, www.localharvest.org/south -bend-in.

“A Look at Indiana Agriculture.” National Agriculture in the Classroom, www.agclassroom.org/kids/ag_facts.htm. Accessed 18 Apr. 20—.

“Seeing Green: Study Finds Greening Is a Good Investment.” Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 2005, phsonline.org /programs/seeing-green.

Smith, Stephen. “Obesity Battle Starts Young for Urban Poor.” The Boston Globe, 29 Dec. 2006, archive.boston.com/news/nation /articles/2006/12/29/obesity_battle_starts_young_for_urban _poor/.

Tanner, Emily M., and Matia Finn-Stevenson. “Nutrition and Brain Development: Social Policy Implications.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, vol. 72, no. 2, Apr. 2002, pp. 182–93.

“TIF Reform.” New Rules Project, Institute for Local Self-Reliance,2008, ilsr.org/rule/tif-reform/.

Willis, Ben. “Julie Brown of Growing Communities.” The Ecologist, vol. 38, no. 5, June 2008, pp. 58–61.

Wolfson, Linda. Personal interview, 20 Apr. 20—.

A Practice Sequence: Thinking about Copyright

1. Now that you have read about steps to avoiding plagiarism (pp. 228–29) and Nancy Paul’s essay on community gardens (p. 235) we would like you to examine the idea of copyright. That is, who owns the rights to images that the organizers of a community garden use to market their idea? What if you wanted to use that image in a paper? Or what if you wanted to use a published ad in your own paper? Under what circumstances would you be able to use that ad for your own purposes?

2. After conducting your own inquiry into copyright, what would you conclude about the need to document the use of images, ideas, and text? Are the guidelines clear or are there some ambiguous areas for what to cite and how? What advice would you give your peers?