Dimensions of Culture Program
Winter Quarter 2015
DOC 2: Justice
From Summary to Analysis: Making a Claim about a Text
Using DOC Keywords and Concepts
Directions
Using your TA’s instructions as a guide, choose a piece of writing from the DOC 2 Reader or coursepack
and write a brief analysis of that text (or a part of that text). Your analysis should be no more than 500
words in length.
Successful assignments will be typed and double-spaced, with one-inch margins and 12 point font, and
will be stapled if necessary.
Due Date
The assignment is due in the second section of week 2 (either January 15 or 16) unless otherwise
specified by your TA.
Overview
A summary is a condensed, shortened version of something—often a longer piece of writing, a movie or
television show, a situation, or an event. In writing a summary, you provide readers with only the main
points and the key support. And, you write it all in your own words. As you have already practiced in
DOC 2, summarizing an article or court case is an important exercise in capturing the main point of a
piece of writing.
In contrast, an analysis breaks down the points or parts of a piece of writing and considers how they work
together to convey a main point. This involves critical thinking: e.g., raising questions, challenging
assumptions, and identifying contradictions in your reading.
There are usually at least four parts to an analytical piece of writing— 1) a topic sentence or main claim
that you want to make about the text; 2) evidence or examples that support the claim you are trying to
make; 3) explanatory sentences in which you attempt to unpack your examples and show readers how
they support the claim you are trying to make; and 4) a conclusion sentence that attempts to convey the
significance or the “so what?” of your analysis for readers.
In DOC 2, a strong written analysis of a text will often draw on the DOC “tools” that we were introduced
to in the fall. Topic sentences will often include keywords and concepts such as “intersectionality,”
“racial/gender/class formation,” “racialization,” “hegemonic,” “counter-hegemonic,” etc., which are all
tools that can be used to examine the social and political structures of law and justice.
(NOTE: Students are strongly advised to consult the “List of Key Words” in the front of the DOC 2
Course Readers to re-familiarize themselves with these terms and concepts.)
AnalysisAssignmentWI15 rev. 1/12/15
Tips for Success
In academic writing an argument is usually a main idea, often called a “claim” or “thesis
statement,” backed up with evidence that supports the idea. In the majority of college papers, you
will need to make some sort of claim and use evidence to support it, and your ability to do this well
will separate your papers from those of students who see assignments as mere accumulations of fact
and detail.
In DOC 2, the most successful claims will incorporate the DOC 1 keywords and concepts, either
explicitly or implicitly.
For example, let’s examine a topic sentence from an analysis paper written by a DOC 2 student last
year:
In Ronald Takaki’s A Different Mirror, Takaki provides the example of the unjust 1854 Supreme Court
decision, People v. Hall, as a way of portraying the ideology of white supremacy embedded in the California
legal system during the mid 19th century.
What the student has done here in the opening of the analysis is to successfully make an arguable
claim about one example from Takaki’s chapter on Chinese immigration. However, this claim
requires support—examples and details—for further clarification:
The case was based on the trial of George Hall, a caucasian male who was accused of murdering Ling Sing, a
Chinese immigrant. Three Chinese-American witnesses testified against Hall, and Hall was found guilty based
on this testimony. Hall’s lawyer appealed the case, however, arguing that an existing California statute
provided that “no black or mulatto person, or Indian, shall be permitted to give evidence in favor of, or against,
any white person” (189). As a result of the statute, Hall was set free and Ling Sing’s murder remained
unpunished.
Here we have a series of sentences that provide supporting details—e.g., what the People v. Hall
case is all about, and how it came into the law in 1854. But what the student has not done yet is
EXPLAIN how the case is an example of “hegemonic white supremacy” (in her claim above). We
turn to part three of her analysis to see how she explains this connection:
This case was important because it added Chinese immigrants to the category of “non-white” and then it
placed them in a subordinate position in the racial hierarchy of the era. Essentially, it participated in creating
the racial formation of Chinese immigrants as both outsiders and as inferior to those who were racialized as
white. Furthermore, because the Hall case became part of the legal system in California, it perpetuated the
hegemonic structure of white supremacy under the law. In essence, those of Anglo-Saxon origin could
commit crimes, even murder, and not be punished if witnesses were classified by the state as non-white.
Lastly, we turn to the significance of the analysis. In this part, the student connects the Hall case to
relevant reading from DOC 2 that helps to expand her analysis:
The court case is an example of what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would call an “unjust law.” For King an
unjust law is a law that a majority group creates for a minority but is not willing to follow itself (27). In this
case, the Hall case represents an unjust law because it actually protects Anglo-Saxon Americans in California
with rights and privileges of skin color at the expense of other groups. In that way it stands as a testimony to
the kind of hegemonic power that some majority groups have claimed in U.S. history.
While not a perfect analysis in every way, it provides an example of the kind of analysis you can
write in this class when you use DOC keywords and concepts to think critically about what you are
reading.