Illustration: Explaining with Examples

A Look at Vertical Patrols in Public Housing (podcast)

WNYC/Radio Rookies, Temitayo Fagbenle

Radio Rookies is a program developed by New York Public Radio. It offers teenagers opportunities to produce and broadcast journalistic reports about their own experiences in their communities and cities. In this radio broadcast, teenager Temitayo Fagbenle ventures into the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) projects to illustrate the practice—and problems—of the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) vertical patrols in low-income housing.

WNYC/Temitayo Fagbenle/Courtney Stein

View/download transcript

Analyzing the Writer’s Technique

After listening to A Look at Vertical Patrols in Public Housing answer the questions below. Then submit your responses.

Question 14.64

1. What generalization (broad statement about a topic) is Temitayo Fagbenle trying to make and support? What types of support and examples does Fagbenle use to illustrate her generalization, and how effective are they? Use specific examples from the podcast to support your answer.

Possible Answer: The generalization Fagbenle is illustrating is that vertical patrols, while necessary, are problematic because they’re discriminatory, especially toward black males. To illustrate the need for vertical patrols, Fagbenle uses statistics (20% of violent crime happens in public housing, 60% of NYCHA residents said they wanted a larger police presence) and professional opinions (an interview with lawyer Nancy Rosenbloom, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, and former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg). To illustrate the discriminatory practices of the officers conducting vertical patrols, Fagbenle uses personal observations from public housing residents (Dereese Huff, Antonio Garcias, and Antonio Perez). The variety of people Fagbenle interviews shows a diversity of opinion on the issue.

Question 14.65

2. How does Fagbenle organize her report on vertical patrols in public housing? Does she use one (or more) patterns of development? Include specific examples to support your answer.

Possible Answer: Fagbenle organizes her illustration by grouping opinions that favor vertical patrols and opinions that oppose them. She combines multiple types of evidence to support each position. For instance, she includes a brief quote from public housing resident Dereese Huff, who says that she wants the vertical patrols, and then supports the point with statistics from a survey report indicating that 60% wanted a stronger police presence. Fagbenle also uses a comparison-and-contrast pattern of development when she contrasts this desire for a police presence with interviews of young men in the neighborhood who report discrimination by police doing the patrols.

Thinking Critically about Illustration

Question 14.66

3. Who is Fagbenle’s audience? What impact will the examples Fagbenle uses to illustrate the practice of vertical patrols in public housing have on this audience? Are different types of examples (statistics, personal accounts, etc.) likely to produce a different response in her audience(s)?

Possible Answer: Fagbenle’s illustration aired on New York Public Radio, a local affiliate of National Public Radio (NPR), whose listeners tend to be liberal, prosperous adults. The statistics about crime in the housing projects may have shocked them and made them sympathetic with the plight of residents. The interview with the lawyer Nancy Rosenbloom and with the young men who have been subjected to unwarranted police attention might have evoked a desire for justice in these listeners and made it possible for them to understand the young men’s point of view. Since Fagbenle was a high school student when she created this report, another possible audience is teenagers and young adults. For them, the interviews with housing residents their own age probably shocked them and may have led to anger at the discrimination the interviewees faced during the vertical patrols.

Question 14.67

4. Think of all of the examples and types of examples that Fagbenle uses in her radio broadcast. How well do these examples support the generalization she makes? Does she present enough examples? Does she offer a full picture of the subject, or should she have included different examples as well?

Possible Answer: Fagbenle presents a fairly well-rounded view by interviewing city officials and public housing residents, and by including statistics to support the information she learns in these interviews. However, Fagbenle generalizes that vertical patrols are discriminatory mostly toward young men; she could have also talked to and included some interviews with older men and young women to present a complete picture of the situation.