What are you really talking about? Refining Main points What are you really talking about?

Listening to The conversation In the Philosophy of Literary Form, Kenneth Burke writes: Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress. You know the rhetorical situation surrounding your issue. And, you have taken some time to listen to the conversation. Now, you are prepared to enter the conversation. Take 5-10 minutes to write out a thesis statement and identify the main points that you’ll need to cover to achieve your stated purpose

Your paper The question: Should police officers be required to wear body cameras when they are on duty? Listening = reading Thesis: Your position + main points At this point, you have identified a position and your main points With this paper, we are going to work on focusing and refining the main points so that we know exactly what we need to cover in the body paragraphs as we write My thesis: Police should be required to wear body cameras because cameras will increase peoples’ comfort level with police officers, but rules have to be in place to protect privacy.

Refining Main points—Police Body Cameras Just because you have an idea in your mind doesn’t mean that your audience will understand the issue in the same way that you do. You are going to have to explain what you mean so that readers track along with you. For example, “cost” has been a reoccurring point of discussion. But, “cost” could refer to a lot of different issues. Monetary costs to who? Taxpayers? Police departments? Cities? Social costs? What do we lose if cameras are everywhere? As a writer, you have to have a clear idea of where you are going in order to write a successful paper.

Refining main points What is the issue or conflict? There must be some tension, a gap, a goal – something unknown, undone, unresolved, or confused. Your job is to explain the central issue for each main point in a way that an outsider can understand the centrality of the issue to the conversation on police body camera usage. For example, “people will feel more comfortable if police officers have cameras” What is the central issue here? People don’t currently feel at ease in their own communities, especially when they have interactions with officers (e.g. traffic stops, calls to 911) All people? No, based on reported cases minorities are the people who are most likely to be the victims of police misconduct or police using what some feel is excessive force. A lot of these cases happen in big, urban cities too, so people in those areas have the most concern with police/civilian relations How would cameras make people feel more comfortable? People feel as through cameras provide protection for civilians and police. Civilians are protected because there will be a record of incidents, which means they will have evidence against an officer if something goes wrong. They also believe that officers are less likely to abuse their power if they know that their actions are being watched and recorded. Officers are protected because they have evidence if someone files a false claim.

Practice—refining main points What is the issue or conflict? There must be some tension, a gap, a goal – something unknown, undone, unresolved, or confused. I have listed the most common main points from the “Police Body Cameras—YOUR Initial Position” Canvas post. You should be able to leave here with a good idea of how to explain these main points in your paper, should you choose to use them. Your group’s job is to explain the central issue for each main point: Police corruption will prevent cameras from solving the problem (what is it? Give an example of what it looks like. How do we know it exists?) Excessive force vs. justifiable force (what does each mean? Why is the distinction important? Who decides which one is acceptable in a given situation?) There needs to be research (who should conduct the research? What should they look at? Who should see the findings? What will research add to the conversation?) There need to be rules (who needs the rules? what will rules do? What kinds of rules? When should cameras be turned on? Off? Should officers have control? Should people being filmed be given notice that they are on camera? ) Privacy (whose privacy needs to be protected? Why should we care? What could happen?)

Now, you work on refining What are your main points? Work to refine the points. What does it mean to be a member of the category you are discussing. Each topic will require you to approach this exercise from a slightly different angle: You might need to identify stakeholders (people/groups that might be impacted): Who will be impacted? How will they be impacted? Why should people care? You might need to define terms: What does it mean to be a member of this category? You might need to provide examples: What does the thing you are discussing look like? Describe in detail