Name:
Lorenza
Date:
Period:
The Outsiders Editorial
The Task: You are a Greaser or a Social writing a one paragraph editorial for your school
newspaper. You’ve been asked to write on an issue that has happened at your school involving
some of your peers (The Outsider’s characters). You will need to explain in detail what
happened, then take a clear stance on the issue in order to persuade readers to agree with you.
STEP 1: RAFT
Complete the table below in order to establish focus—what you will be writing, who you will be
writing it to, and how you will be writing it.
Role: What role did you choose?
Greaser, Ponyboy
Social or Greaser? A specific character?
Audience: Who is reading your
writing?
To the school, to all of the students who heard of
this.
Who are you trying to inform and
persuade?
Format: How will you be
communicating the information?
Persuasive paragraph, convincing my audience my
position and opinion.
What type of writing are you doing??
Topic: What issue are you writing
about? What position will you take
on the issue?
Bob’s death and running away
STEP 2: PLANNING
Below, take a few minutes to plan and organize your thoughts for the editorial. During this
stage, you will need to formulate specific details about the issue, a clearer idea of your position,
as well as convincing, relevant, and specific details that will support your position.
NOTE: Use note-form/bullet points for this section!
Introduction to issue or event [How did it start? Who was involved? What happened? What were the
results?]:






It started by the Socs
They came to our territory to the lot
They were drunk
They were drowning me
Johnny used the blade for self defense.
The girls started talking with us so the Socs started
Introduction to position [Where do you stand on the issue? What is your opinion? Who was at fault?
Remember to stay in character!]:



Trashy, dirty, greasy and without money that us the greasers. How you the Socs see us.
Probably you won’t read this or even be interested because I am a Greaser “ a white
trash.”
But Bob was killed for a reason and for self defense not in a mean way.
Proof and evidence [What facts, points, or reasons support your position? List as many as possible. You need
at least THREE very strong ideas]:
 They came to our territory, to the lot.


They were drunk
It was self defense, because they were drowning me.
STEP 3: DRAFT
Now you will expand the ideas that you came up with in Step 2, by doing ALL of the following…
 Use complete sentences
 Use correct capitalization and punctuation
 Add transitions
 Add more detailed descriptions using advanced vocabulary
(on next page)
Introduction/Hook
[Explain the event or issue in detail. Build the audience’s interest in what happened.]:
Trashy, dirty, greasy and without money that us the greasers. How you the Socs see us.
Probably you won’t read this or even be interested because I am a Greaser “ a white trash.” But
Bob was killed for a reason and for self defense not in a mean way.
Thesis Statement
[Clearly state where you stand on the issue and why.]:
Self defence is not a crime
Supporting Evidence 1
[What facts or details support or prove your position?]
[How does this piece of evidence support your point? Explain further why this piece of information is
important.]
The socials were drunk, they honestly did not know what they were doing, they are not even
legally able to drink, they were underage teenagers looking for a fight. Especially they
were not in their 5 senses and not constant of what they were doing.
Supporting Evidence 2
[What facts or details support or prove your position?]
Everyone has a right to self-defense. In this case, they were hurting me, drowning me. I felt I
was passing out, and felt really dizzy. Johnny had the right to kill Bob, for self-defense, to
defend me. I am Johnny’s buddy and I would do anything to protect him and keep him safe
from danger. Like they were killing me, Johnny had to do that. For self defense which is not a
crime.
Supporting Evidence 3 *OPTIONAL*
[What facts or details support or prove your position?]
They came to our territory, the lot.
[How does this piece of evidence support your point? Explain further why this piece of information is
important.]
The socials started everything, from the minute they stepped in our territory. They did not
have the right to step in our lot, our space. They are always bugging when we are in their space,
jumping us. It is not fair. It is all their fault. They are the ones responsible for Bob deaths, from
the minute they stepped in the OUR territory.
Restate Thesis
[Reinforce your point. Remind the audience what your position on the issue was. Use strong language!]
self-defense is not a crime. By defending yourself and your friend from danger or death is not a
crime, it is not something bad, and a strong and brave person would always defend their friend
or themselves.
Concluding Statement
[Why does this issue matter? What can we learn about ourselves, our friends and family and our
society?]
STEP 4: PUBLISHING
Now you will copy and paste all of the sentences from the draft above in order to create a
complete paragraph. Read over the paragraph as a whole at least twice in order to check for
spelling and grammar errors, transitions, and clarity.
Then, try to make it look like an official school newspaper editorial. (Consider changing it into
columns, changing the font, adding pictures and captions, etc.)
Trashy, dirty, greasy and without money that us the greasers, how you the Socials see us.
Probably you won’t read this or even be interested because I am a Greaser “a white trash.” But
Bob was killed for a reason and for self-defense not in a mean way (Bob was killed not because
we wanted to kill him but because we had no other choice). Killing someone by self-defense is
not a crime. The socials were drunk, they honestly did not know what they were doing, they are
not even legally able to drink, and they were underage teenagers looking for a fight. Especially
they were not in their 5 senses and not constant of what they were doing. Adding on, everyone
has a right to self-defense. In this case, they were hurting me, drowning me. I felt I was passing
out, and felt really dizzy. Johnny had the right to kill Bob, for self-defense, to defend me. I am
Johnny’s buddy, I would do anything to protect him and keep him safe from danger. They were
killing me, Johnny had to defend me. Self defense which is not a crime. Specially, the socials
started everything, from the minute they stepped in our territory. They did not have the right to
step in our lot, our space. They are always bugging when we are in their space, jumping us. It is
not fair. It is their entire fault. They are the ones responsible for Bob deaths, from the minute they
stepped in the OUR territory. So, self-defense is not a crime. By defending yourself and your friend
from danger or death is not a crime, it is not something bad, and a strong and brave person would
always defend their friend or themselves. So we did not do anything wrong, we were just avoiding
danger for us. In closure the Socials were responsible for bobs death.
Step 5:
Peer editing
Editors name: Sofia Trevino
Compliments:
- Started really strong
- Sport your points with facts
- Great choice of words
Critics or suggestions:
- The things that are highlighted (yellow) do not make sense to me.
- The things that are highlighted (blue) are things you repeat too much.
Trashy, dirty, greasy and without money that us the Greasers, how you the Socials see us.
Probably you won’t read this or even be interested because I am a Greaser “a white trash.” But
Bob was killed for protection; Bob was not killed because we wanted to kill him but because we
had no other choice. Killing someone by self-defense is not a crime. It all started like this, when
they stepped in our territory, the moment their blue mustang came. I could feel butterflies in
my tummy, fearing them, knowing something were going to happen. They did not have the
right to step in our lot, the Greasers home. They are always bugging when we are in their space
and jumping us. It is not fair. It is their entire fault. They are the ones responsible for Bob death,
from the minute they came in. Besides the socials were drunk they honestly did not know what
they were doing. They are not even legally able to drink and they were underage teenagers
looking for a fight. Especially they were not in their 5 senses and not constant of what they
were doing. Further more everyone has a right to self-defense. In this case they were hurting
me, drowning me. I felt I was passing out and felt really dizzy. Johnny had the right to kill Bob,
he was being a great friend by defend me and taking me from danger. I mean, I am Johnny’s
buddy I would do anything to protect him and keep him safe from danger. It was really late at
night and they were killing me Johnny had to secure me. Self defense which is not a crime, as I
stated. By defending yourself and your friend from danger or death is not a crime, it is not
something bad and a strong and brave person would always defend their friend or themselves.
So we did not do anything wrong, we were just avoiding danger for us. In closure the Socials
were responsible for Bob’s death they came to our territory, the Socials were not conscious of
what they were doing not even in their 5 senses and Johnny stabbed him with a knife because
they was no other option. We used self-defense for protection and Johnny obviously did not
wanted to see me die, so he stood up for me. As they say “Every action has their own
consequences.” It was the socials consequence of Bob being killed, because they were looking
for a fight in a dumb way and were trying to kill me. Finally Killing someone by self-defense is
not a crime.