1. The Lens Essay
What kind kind of intellectual work does this essay format ask of you? What are some rhetorical approaches available to you?

2. Drafting the 4-point introduction
How did it go?
Getting Ready for first experience with peer review, practicing together.
No one writes alone

3. Peer review Purpose: initial feedback
Learn to recognize features of writing in other’s work and then apply editorial approach to your own
Will get to know each other and your work

4. How this will work
Purpose is to annotate and flag, not to evaluate Modeling peer review Opportunity for lessons about writing style as they come up (not as a grammar lesson alone)

5. Introduces a Question/ Problem/Puzzle or Possibility/Disruption/
Purpose
Establishes a point of departure close to the subject matter. [could start right with Bazin; could have a prelude about photography as a medium; could start with the daguerreotype]
Introduces a Question/ Problem/Puzzle or Possibility/Disruption/
Challenge, raised by an exhibit or argument source.
Commentary about why the topic of your paper is a compelling subject of analysis
States your claim in response to context, problem or puzzle, as compelling enough to argue for with the presentation of evidence.
Element of the Point Introduction
Context/Background/
Settled or Shared Belief/Current Situation
-Can be a close reading of your daguerreotype, front-loaded with the keyterms that will come up a you test Bazin’s theory.
Delineate a problem: the daguerreotype seems to be about keyterm x (such as objectivity) but is actually, on closer examination, raises questions about keyterm y, , i.e., subjectivity)
-Could be an observation or realization about the daguerreotype after examining it closely.
Significance of the Question, answers: What’s at Stake/So What/Why do we care?
Answer/Resolution/Claim/
Thesis.

6. How to go about it The 4 points Peer Reviewing
Context/Background/
Settled or Shared Belief/Current Situation [note that these two might combine]
Problem or Question
Significance of the Question, answers: What’s at Stake/So What/Why do we care?
Answer/Resolution/Claim/Thesis.
Read the draft introduction.
Label each element in the 4 point introduction as we see it.
Notice what’s working well and identify it for the writer
Make particular note if any elements seem to be missing (“I can’t seem to find your answer or claim”)

7. Sharing Feedback What features you thought were the strongest
What points, if any, where you stumbled or weren’t sure about the presence of all 4 elements or how they interlock.
Information for you to take back to the drafting process.

8. How to Draft

9. Before you even start
Make a list of keyterms that are evoked by your daguerreotype that connect what you see with
Have nearby a list of key terms that are sparked by Bazin.
Make sure your introduction and your summary are both focused on those keyterms.
Keep yourself from going on tangents by staying close to the key terms.

10. The Lens
Lens and the idea of Bazin “glasses” to look at the daguerreotype. Gives you a partial view.
You need to “take off” the glasses to get the whole view -> yours.
Can be organized by superimposing the text on the image or the image on the text
Begin to notice which one “works” for you
This choice ultimately helps decide the structure and content of the essay and the “so what” issue that is at stake in it

11. Features: Thesis and Argument
This essay will have a thesis: a main insight that you will demonstrate. It will be arguable, and you will need evidence to demonstrate it.
Evidence will be from the text—key terms or concepts that you glean from Bazin
Evidence will be visual, drawn from what you see in the daguerreotype.
You do not need, and should not use, any other sources.

12. Features: Argument and Analysis
Argument is the series of ideas and steps in logic you need to make to present and persuade that your thesis has weight.
Analysis is the act of demonstrating your argument by identifying and applying keyterms (from one source to the other), as well as assessing and evaluating what the lens “operation” allows you to see more clearly about both daguerreotype and theoretical text.

13. Starting the Essay: some possibilities
Consider what the problem or tension of the essay is:
A keyword/concept lifted from the textual source that frames your view of the daguerreotype/photograph
An element of the image that is evocative, riveting, problematic

14. Pose your thesis in terms of that problem
Your thesis will be interpretive—it will make a claim about what the application of one text to the other shows or means about how to read a photograph
You will arrive at your thesis through close reading (as you begin it in your response paper) so that by next week, it will start to come into focus in preliminary ways.

15. Consider your structure
Before you draft, consider the argument’s main sections or sub-topics and the turning points or points of connection that they animate.
Think of how your essay will progress: from insight (analytical summary and close reading) to development (detailed close reading and explication) to complication (what problem or issue such a progression reveals.

16. What we’ve done through class and writing exercises
Annotated and extracted key terms from a text
Started to think about how lenses apply or what blind spots they have.
Defined a territory or parameters for possible papers
Drafts help you figure out what you think.
Writing is an iterative process

17. Some thoughts on how to do it
Drafting
Some thoughts on how to do it

18. Key vocabulary words 4-point introduction Key terms Implications
Summary
Paraphrase
Direct quotation
Close reading
Plagiarism
Citation

19. Writing Exercises Stepping stones to writing a draft
Has thoughts in progress
Contains particular structural elements of a draft:
-introduction
-analytical summary -close readings of daguerreotype
But also probably has some unresolved elements that will need thinking about to complete the draft
Consult my comments on your work to help further your thinking and writing

20. What your draft will need
Pick a structure:
OPTION 1: framed by a problem/concept/keyterm in Bazin (remember, a keyterm is a problem because it reveals/indicates assumptions). Means you will start with a key concept with Bazin in your introduction.
Option 2: framed by a problematic/curious aspect of something you saw in your daguerreotype (= visual evidence). Means you will start with something in your daguerreotype that “sparks” a conflict with Bazin.

21. Option 1 Begins with a problematic keyterm in Bazin.
Needs analytical summary anchored by keyterms that you have extracted from the text and explicate and present to the reader
Moves to then apply those keyterms to the image and uses it to raise questions about the text and/or the image, but probably both in some way.

22. Close reading in option 1
Is present in the analytical summary of the text, where you are explicating and interpreting the text for the reader. You will need to draw out the implications of Bazin’s theory for the reader.
Is present when you then apply those terms to help you read the image. Remember to give detail and particular visual evidence in your close reading.

23. The turn
After you have applied Bazin’s terms (aka, the lens) to the image, you will need to make a “move” or a turn” to complicate, expand and resolve the tension that will arise between the lens and its object.
You want your draft to identify a key tension, problem, complication raised by the keyterms and their uneven application to the image.
The second half, roughly, of your essay, will have to grapple with (analyze) that problem and come to a conclusion about what it means or shows about photography.

24. Option 2
Begins with a close reading of the image. This close reading is anchored by the very key terms that you know are also in the lens text but that you are holding back from the reader for the moment. The close reading looks effortless, but it is actually driven by keyterms, i.e. Realism and its problems, the viewer’s engagement with the image.
The close reading is done in such a way that it embodies the problem or issue the paper will grapple with as it unfolds.

25. Close reading in option 2
Is very apparent in your engagement with the image; includes lush detail and attention to the image. This close reading “weaves” keyterms into the description of the image.
Is also apparent in the way you handle the textual source, because it depends on having also closely read it for its keyterms and assumptions about what matters in a photograph.

26. The Turn
Comes after you have read the image and identified a problem, tension or issue that requires explaining, a task filled by the textual source.
But…when applied, that text will only offer a partial explanation
So….you will then have to resolve that conflict or probe it for its significance. This is the analytical work of the essay, which will come in the essay’s second half.

27. Option 1 outline
4-point introduction that focuses on Bazin and uses the daguerreotype to introduce a problem or question.
Summary of Bazin, controlled by keyterms that relate to your claim in the introduction.
This could take several paragraphs. Be sure to cite summary, paraphrase, and direct quotation.
The turn away from Bazin toward your daguerreotype. Will present evidence from the daguerreotype that complicates or challenges Bazin’s view.
This section will also take several paragraphs.
Conclusion

28. Option 2 outline
4-point introduction that focuses on something interesting in the daguerreotype that you are investigated--something puzzling or surprising.
Followed by fuller close reading of the daguerreotype and exploration of it (but remember, keep it focused on keyterms).
This could take several paragraphs.
Application of your lens/Bazin’s terms to explain the daguerreotype. Be sure to cite summary, paraphrase, and direct quotation.
Going beyond Bazin and probing what he has left unexplained. Will present evidence from the daguerreotype that complicates or challenges Bazin’s view.
This section will also take several paragraphs.
Conclusion

29. The power of structure
Being self-conscious about structure can help you further your thoughts:
It will expose places where you have yet to make connections
It will help force you to face the bigger conceptual, analytical and key term-driven issues that the strongest essays identify and grapple with.

30. Use the 4-point introduction to discipline your thoughts
If you cannot yet write a full-fledged 4-point thesis, you have to advance your thinking to the point that you can.
You need to have a claim:
Bazin’s idea of ___ is right because ____ and this is important/revealing because _______.
Bazin’s idea of _____ is wrong because he overlooks ____. This is important because _______.

31. Use a story board to plan your structure
See Turabian, 3.2
Also check out Noodle Tools Premium,

32. Story board page 1: ask your question and offer a provisional answer
Why is Bazin wrong, and why is that significant?
Why is Bazin right, and why is that important?
Why is Bazin partially right, partially wrong, and what does that mean?

33. Subsequent story board pages
Answer your question, with one reason per page.
List the evidence you have to support each reason.
Evidence will come from Bazin’s theory and from your observation of the daguerreotype

34. Constructing a Claim
Your claim comes from reading Bazin and looking at a daguerreotype in concert with his ideas.
The reasons for your claim come from understanding Bazin and drawing out the keyterms and assumptions/implications of this theory.
A reason is an idea.
The evidence for your claim comes from what you see in the daguerreotype.
Evidence is a fact and its source is your photograph.

35. Remember the 4-point introduction
If you don’t have all four points, you need to discipline your thoughts so that you do

36. Introduces a Question/ Problem/Puzzle or Possibility/Disruption/
Purpose
Establishes a point of departure close to the subject matter. [could start right with Bazin; could have a prelude about photography as a medium; could start with the daguerreotype]
Introduces a Question/ Problem/Puzzle or Possibility/Disruption/
Challenge, raised by an exhibit or argument source.
Commentary about why the topic of your paper is a compelling subject of analysis
States your claim in response to context, problem or puzzle, as compelling enough to argue for with the presentation of evidence.
Element of the Point Introduction
Context/Background/
Settled or Shared Belief/Current Situation
-Can be a close reading of your daguerreotype, front-loaded with the keyterms that will come up a you test Bazin’s theory.
Delineate a problem: the daguerreotype seems to be about keyterm x (such as objectivity) but is actually, on closer examination, raises questions about keyterm y, , i.e., subjectivity)
-Could be an observation or realization about the daguerreotype after examining it closely.
Significance of the Question, answers: What’s at Stake/So What/Why do we care?
Answer/Resolution/Claim/
Thesis.

37. How to draft
Go back to your 4-point introduction and summary. Make sure the keyterms that are part of you main claim align with the focus of your summary.
Use the storyboard to develop your ideas and organize your evidence. (Turabian 3.2)
Flesh out a story board outline into full paragraphs.
Cite as you go. Do not wait until the end to “fill in” citations.
Do not worry too much about transitions right now.
Leave time to check spelling, usage, punctuation.
Double space. 12 point font. Nothing crazy.
Use [ ] to make comments to me in text about any citation questions
Due date: Monday September 28 by 9am.