“LENS TEXT” TEMPLATES

One way of using research beyond only summarizing secondary sources is to use a text as a “lens.” In other words, you apply an idea from one text to another. The text you “use” is called a lens text; the work you apply ideas from the lens text to read is called the target text. 

In the best versions of this argument, the use of a “lens” text makes visible an aspect of the target text that is not obvious and difficult to see on its own.

Here are a few templates that show what a “lens essay” thesis might look like:

The author of the lens text lays out a helpful framework for understanding instances of ________ in the target text. Indeed, in the target text, one sees ________, which could be considered an example of ________ by the lens author’s definition. Therefore, we see a point of commonality concerning ________. This similarity reveals ________.

According to the lens text _______ tends to occur in situations where _______. By the lens author’s definition, ________ in the target text could be considered an instance of _______. However, this parallel is imperfect because _______. As such, we become aware of ________.

One sees ________ in the target text, which calls the lens author’s argument that ________ into question because ________.

If the author of the lens text is correct that ________, one would expect to see ________ in the target text. However, ________ actually takes place, revealing a critical point of disagreement. This discord suggests that ________. This issue is important because ________.

(Templates courtesy of Pomona College writing resources: https://www.pomona.edu/administration/writing-center/student-resources/general-writing-resources/writing-%E2%80%9Clens%E2%80%9D-essay)

Here’s an example: in The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander argues that “mass incarceration” does not only refer to the number of people in prison or racial biases in the criminal justice system, but “also to the larger web of laws, rules, policies, and customs that control those labelled criminals inside and outside of prison” (13). Using this definition as a lens, would it become possible to read Citizen as in part about mass incarceration in the United States?

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