Bill Cosby's Musings: An Analysis of Epitome

Students,
Below is a style analysis of epitome by editing.
Epitome reduces a composition by taking away from style but keeping essential content. This will (to some degree) be from the writer's point of view. So the best way is to model the exercise as I did below. I have highlighted in blue and struck through all "padding" of style and kept the essential content.
I have not, however, added coherence strategies, for lack of time. Only in a few cases did I show coherence by adding bracketed words [ ] in the text.
Finally, this is by no means the final draft of an epitome. The examples that Cosby gives could be reduced to essence, if one finds the right words.
Here is an example where the ideal is the reverse of what you're are usually asked to do, that is, go to lower levels of generality. In epitome, you must learn to go to higher levels of generality. Instead of warning oneself, "Be specific!" one warns oneself, "Be general! Omit, omit, omit! But the good writer knows when or what to omit.
Words can sometimes be used synonymously. Writers decide on shades of meaning.
Some writers write, for example, "epitome, or summary," as if those words meant the same. That's fine.
So "eptiome and summary" can be seen as the same or different. But it's not hard to argue the two are different.
A summary reduces not only by style but by content too. It aims for higher levels of generality than does an epitome.
There are differences among summaries too, but these are matters of published length. A TV guide could summarize a movie in one sentence:
"The Terminator. A robot is programmed to destroy the lives of people to prevent the birth of unwanted leaders in the future. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger."
This summary (called a capsule review) can be enlarged depending on the space allotted or the purpose of the publication. For example, some evaluation might be included, reference to the director, interesting facts, etc.
But there's no question of coming close to an epitome, which would include the essence of the movies details, specific highlights, etc. in reduced form.
A longer summary would look like this:
"The Terminator. The first of the Terminator films and still the best. A robot is programmed to destroy the lives of people to prevent the birth of unwanted future leaders. The film combines social commentary and fast action in an effective way. Superb special effects and well-crafted scenes. The screenplay includes funny dialogue and political commentary. A must-see for fans of action flicks. Well acted, with Arnold Schwarzenegger in one of his best roles as the killer terminator. Forcefully directed by James Cameron."
Now an epitome of the movie would reduce the plot but keep the basic story and even some dialogue. This is called a "digest," as in a book digest; say Wuthering Heights can be reduced to 200 pages. In fact, graded (ESL) readers reduce big volumes to, say, 60 pages! You can find these in Caves Bookstores. It would be too long to give as an example here. So instead, I will give an epitome of Bill Cosby's Musings. First, by contrast, I include a summary:

"Gerald Boyd questions comedian Bill Cosby's criticism of black subculture values, which Cosby argues leads to one-parent families, substandard education, and poverty. Boyd claims the media has misused these comments instead of taking a closer look at the causes of the problems, such as culture values that encourage pregnancy among young black girls."
Note the higher level of generality involved. An epitome would look like this:
Recently, comedian Bill Cosby accused black families of poor parenting. The media exposed these comments with little interest in their causes.
Cosby accused black parents of exposing their children to obscene rap music, spending more money on their children's fashionable clotheswear than for educational aids.
Black mothers were castigated for promiscuous sex, leading to fatherless families. Despite unusual names black mothers give their children, the children end up in jail. Cosby concluded that black people must stop playing the role of victim.
Studies show that single parents raise half of black children, while ten million back Americans live below poverty level. School dropout rates among black children is nearly double that of whites, while Black teenagers are more likely to get pregnant or go to jail.
But the causes are ignored. A former reporter for The Washington Post, who studied black subculture, concluded pregnancy was a status symbol among young black girls. He argues the media should explore the causes instead of just exposing the problem.

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BILL COSBY'S MUSINGS

By Gerald Boyd

For weeks, comedian Bill Cosby has been attacking the parenting
failures and personal values of some African-Americans, and it's been
easy to turn his comments into a big story. In fact, it's been too easy.
Instead of using Cosby's assertions as a starting point for a serious
examination of what is really going on in the lives of African-Americans,
and especially the urban poor, news organizations have presented them
with little if any scrutiny. Occasionally, they have brought on
predictable talking heads to debate his charges, but not in a way that
provides real illumination or clarity.
It's the same old song. When it comes to matters involving race or
class, the media often opt for the superficial, rather than expending the
time and resources to determine what really is happening. That's the
case in terms of Cosby's remarks.
The charges, in a number of forums and media outlets, have been
explosive. He has said of black parents: "Lower economic people are not
holding up their end in this deal. They are not parenting. They are
buying things for kids -- $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200
for 'Hooked on Phonics.'" And of black women: "Five, six children -- the
same woman -- eight, 10 different husbands or whatever. Pretty soon,
you are going to have DNA cards to tell who you are making love to. You
don't know who this is. It might be your grandmother." And of black
youth, he said: "... with names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed
and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail."
Such rantings have made for great sound bites with Cosby fuming
about maladies common to black communities. He puts the onus on
blacks themselves, arguing that they have to stop playing the role of
victim.
Parents are obviously at least partly responsible for the success of
their children -- a point Cosby has hammered home in the media. But
why some are falling down on the job is the real issue here. To suggest
that's it's simply a lack of will is superficial, at best.
News organizations give us Cosby blasting obscenity-laden rap being
played by parents on their car stereos with children seated in the back,
or kids wearing their hats backward and their pants swinging low. But
does any of this really explain why the problems plaguing minorities
continue to exist from one generation to the next?
To say that these issues are complicated hardly begins to describe the
challenge the media face in trying to explain what is really happening.
News organizations encountered a similar test in the 1960s as they
sought to present the story of race in America. But in many ways that
challenge was tame. Race was a story full of heroes and villains, and
blacks wanting and deserving to be treated as equals. Today, the story of
race is one full of paradoxes. On some fronts, there has been clear
progress, yet too many blacks have not just been left behind, but are not
even in the game. Blacks are tired of having to explain their thinking to
whites, and whites are tired of having to listen.
In today's world, according to the Joint Center for Political and
Economic Studies, single parents now raise more than half of black
children. That's one reason why almost 10 million African-Americans
are living below the poverty level with annual incomes of less than
$15,000. Children who complete high school are likely to go to college,
but the percentage of blacks dropping out is nearly double that of whites.
And black teenagers are far more likely to become pregnant than their
white counterparts, or to end up in jail.
Those are the facts, or the headlines. But they say little about the why
-- and more important, [or] what can be done to end such woes.
Once Leon Dash, then a reporter at The Washington Post, spent more
than a year in a D.C. housing project to explore why teenage girls were
becoming pregnant at an alarming rate. What he found was surprising
and revealing.The [that] teenagers regarded motherhood as a badge of honor
rather than the yoke it would become. That's the kind of reporting we
need today.
It's great that such a prominent figure as Cosby would call attention
to some of the critical issues overlooked by a media now dwelling on war,
politics and international strife. If only the media would take his cue and
dig beneath the surface, they would be doing a far better public service
than simply airing some provocative sound bites.

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