English 106 – Spring 2014
Essay 3 – Writing through a Lens

Readings: Growing up Cuban in Miami

This essay should be 4-5 pages in MLA format. Please be aware of correct MLA format for all of your research and citations.
Assignment: Using the information from one of the three readings for this section of the class, examine and analyze another story of belonging in Miami. This is an interesting way to look at this issue. All three memoirists had very different experiences of belonging in the city of Miami. Analyze this information and “apply” it to a story or other memoir that you can find, either from an online sources (essays) or another book. It is important to remember that you are not looking for exact matches in the ideas. You are looking at the way the writer’s (from our three readings) ideas are different as well as the same as the the essay or memoir that you find. There will be areas where both happen. This is the beginning of what we might call “putting the texts in conversation with each other.” While the authors are not addressing each other, scholars often attempt to make them speak to each other. This involves reaching some understanding of what is implicit and explicit in the texts; in other words, you have to be analytical of all the texts used in this essay. The most challenging part of writing this paper will probably be avoiding the compare/contrast approach; your analysis should go considerably further than that.
From Rosenwasser & Stephen Writing Analytically: When using a reading as a lens for better seeing what is going on in something you are studying, assume that the match between the lens and your subject will never be exact. It is often in the area where things don’t match up exactly that you will find your best opportunity for having ideas. Here are two guidelines for applying lens A (our three essays) to subject B (the memoir or essay you find on your own).
1. Think about how lens A both fits and does not fit subject B: avoid the matching-exercise mentality.
2. Actively seek out the differences between lens A and subject B: use these differences to probe both A and B (Yes, but . . .). (Read specifics on handout)
Here are some tips: To prepare for the writing of this essay, you might first identify one important point in one of the writer’s essays and the evidence he uses to develop that position. You cannot cover all of the reading; instead, create a focus on an idea that seems most relevant and of interest to you. Examine and analyze the policy in the same way. Look for the ways that idea of the lens works both with and against the memoir or essay you find on your own.
When you begin to write, the first part of the essay might name the author of the lens, her text, and her main idea. This could be followed by a brief but focused summary. In the same paragraph or a following paragraph, you might do the same with the essay you have found. Introduce it; explain it, etc. The body of the essay then “reads” the memoir/essay you have found through the lens of this main idea and “the components” of the idea that you have established.

( I need another source that could be lensed with Growing up Cuban in Miami. This essay should focus on one point and elaborate on it)