I.

Introduction
a. Summary of movie
b. Background information
c. Thesis statement: Dear White People takes a different
approach on how Americans feel on their race in the 21st
century. The director mostly does this by inserting different
kinds of media.

II.

Body Paragraph 2
a. How Sam uses her radio show as an outlet.
b. Topic sentence: In Dear White People, Sam hides behind
the microphone in her radio show.
c. Sams radio personality has many similarities with Sam in
person.
d. On the radio show, you cant see her face.
e. Singling out an individual by reframing a group shot as a
close-up invites viewers to speculate on the diverse ways
of seeing and thinking about the subjects. Lancioni, The
Rhetoric of the Frame
Body Paragraph 3
a. How Coco uses her YouTube channel as an outlet.
b. Topic sentence: Coco uses her YouTube channel to express
another part of her that you wouldnt see if you knew her
in person.
c. Coco is like a different person on her YouTube channel.
d. The point is that we dont know which Coco is real.
Body Paragraph 4
a. When an email or a text message comes up on the screen,
is it just what the character is thinking, or is it another
character?
b. Topic sentence: When we see what a character is typing in
a text or email, we, in a sense, are in their mind.
Body Paragraph 5
a. Texts/emails from a character not on screen.
b. Topic sentence: When a character receives a text or email
from someone else, that use of social media acts as
another character.
Body Paragraph 7
a. Racism in the United States and how social media has
changed it.
b. Social media makes racism more apparent, but it also
means that people can say whatever they want without
having everyone know whos behind the screen.
c. Topic sentence: Racism has been a problem in America as
long as it has been a country, but social media has made
racism more apparent in the last fifteen to twenty years.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

X.

Body Paragraph 8
a. Use of actual social media to show how the story is
fictional, but its about something that actually happens.
b. Topic sentence: Dear White People has no connection to an
actual story or actual events, but it shows that it is about
something very prominent by showing the use of real
social media during the credits.
i. Mobile framing makes viewers symbolic enactors of
the very act they would condemn as inhuman.
Judith Lacioni, The Rhetoric of the Frame
Body Paragraph 9
a. Seeing the pictures at the end instead of the beginning has
a different impact.
b. Topic sentence: Having the pictures at the end of the movie
makes the movie more powerful and meaningful than if
they were at the beginning.
i. The visual object invites certain responses and
discourages others. Thiscan lead viewersto the
world beyond the text. - Judith Lancioni, The
Rhetoric of the Frame
ii. The more time viewers spend moving through the
illusionary depths of the image, the more significance
that image takes on. Lancioni, The Rhetoric of the
Frame
Body Paragraph 10
a. Counterarguments
i. There was media in the 50s, but not social media.
Social media is very different.
Conclusion
a. Restatement of the thesis statement
b. Summary of argument
c. Further questions
d. Bigger picture

Random quotes: It is clear that situations are not always accompanied

by discourse. Nor should we assume that a rhetorical address gives
existence to the situation. Lloyd F. Bitzer, The Rhetorical Situation
Singling out an individual by [framing]a close-up invites viewers to
speculate on theways of seeing and thinking about the subjects.
Lancioni, The Rhetoric of the Frame
The visual object invites certain responses and discourages others.
This analysis, moreover, can lead viewers out of the self-contained,
non-referential universe of the text, which Foss calls its aesthetic

dimension, to the world beyond the text. - Judith Lancioni, The

Rhetoric of the Frame