Writing a They Say / I Say Conclusion: Exploring Causality

Puente English

Fall 2007

Step 1: Brainstorm about how your life and Luis’ have been similar and different.

Consider aspects of your life like these: educational experiences gender and your experiences as a person of that gender relationship with your parents and siblings living conditions: food, housing, health care experience with religion experience with language economic standing of parents (class, job status, income, etc.) feelings about art (literature, murals, music, etc.) Experiences with and attitudes about Latino cultural heritage. experiences with the police and authority figures.

Step 2: Brainstorm an answer to this guiding question. The Question: How have our life experiences shaped our views

on this issue?

Explore the connections between the similarities and differences that you listed in the previous brainstorm.

How do these similarities and differences explain the similarities and differences in your views.

For example, if you had a good experience in school, you might have a different view of the educational system than Rodriguez does.

Step 3: Draft a Topic Sentence

Your topic sentence should sum up the major life differences that explain why you disagree and/or similarities that explain why you agree.

This sentence should identify for the reader the similarities and differences you will discuss in your conclusion.

Often the word “because” will play a prominent role in this kind of topic sentence.

Sample Topic Sentences

Rodriguez and I agree about how our education system treats Latinos because of our experiences in school and our parents struggles to learn English.

Rodriguez and I disagree about how gender shapes the lives of Latinos because I am a woman who has direct experience with sexism and he is a man who does not have that experience.

I agree with Rodriguez about the impact of poverty in the Latino community because I have seen how many Latinos have suffered from the conditions he describes, but I disagree with Rodriguez about poverty because I have also seen how hard working families can overcome these conditions in California.

Step 4: Explain Your Topic Sentence

Break down the similarities and differences you identified in your topic sentence.

For each one, write a sentence or two explaining how those similarities or differences have shaped your lives.

Finish with a clincher sentence that sums up how

these similarities and differences

Sample Conclusion #1

Rodriguez and I agree about how our education system treats Latinos because of our experiences in school and our parents struggles to learn English. Like Rodriguez, I too have witnessed how counselors unfairly direct Latino students to remedial classes and assume that Latino students are “cholos” or gang members. Too many of my friends have dropped out of school because of teachers and schools who did not care about them. Rodriguez and I have both also watched our parents struggle in a society that demands English but also makes it difficult for working adults to learn the language and improve themselves in school. These similarities in our experiences have left both Rodriguez and I with the believe that America’s school system works against Latinos.

Sample Conclusion #2

Rodriguez and I disagree about the role of police in our culture because police abused him while they have protected me. For Rodriguez, the police were an enemy that he and his friends had to avoid, another gang brining violence into his life. For me, the police have been important guardians of my safety in my neighborhood, at my school, and even on the freeways. Given these differences, he believes the police are a negative force for Latinos while I believe that Latinos should see the police as people who can help us improve our neighborhoods.

Sample Conclusion #3I agree with Rodriguez about the impact of poverty in the Latino

community because I have seen how many Latinos have suffered from the conditions he describes, but I disagree with Rodriguez about poverty because I have also seen how hard working families can overcome these conditions in California. In my neighborhood, many families endure real poverty. Most people rent and many struggle to have the money to pay their bills and feed their families. These kinds of conditions can make people desperate. But I have also seen people from my community go on to do great things. My cousin is at Harvard, my neighbor, Pancho, runs a very successful restaurant business, and a group of parents from my community have worked together to create an after school program. Because I have seen a neighborhood successfully work to triumph over poverty and Rodriguez has not, my views of poverty in America are more optomistic than his.