Jeremiah Knox: Essay #2 Outline

I. Introduction
A. Entire nation in uproar.
B. Started by immature and naive school children.
C. Thesis: The whole Jena Six event seems to have been blown out of proportion.
II. Event overview
A. "white tree"
B. convenience store; stolen shotgun
C. Assault
D. events connected?
III. Federal investigation
A. nooses in tree
1. markings of hate crime
2. not made into a federal case
3. lacked "federal criteria"
B. assault investigation
1. over forty witness accounts
2. no mention of noose incident
C. other incidents
1. no signs of retaliation
2. isolated events
V. Community Reaction
A. nation sees racial injustice
B. Al Sharpton
1. civil rights movement of the 21st century
C. people jumping the gun
VI. Court Reaction
A. original sentence somewhat harsh, but D.A. had reason for such severe punishment
B. ages of boys
1. legal age in Louisiana 17
C. Mychal Bell bail
1. previous assault charges
D. people overreacting to charges
VII. Conclusion
A. school yard prank made by naive school children
B. situation turning into something that it isn't
C. Conclusion sentence: Perhaps if everyone could take a few moments to look at the broader picture, then maybe they would realize that all of these so-called civil rights injustices do not actually exist.




While revising my essay, I realized that I still have a little more work to do in order to fix this essay. I realized that I need to develop my counter argument some more and make it more clear. I also realized that my wording affected how strong my argument was. However, I did realize that despite my wording, I am able to develop a relatively strong argument through examples.