how to use race in a essay

RACE Writing: A Comprehensive Guide + Examples

Welcome to the ultimate guide on mastering the RACE writing method.

Whether you’re a student aiming to ace your essays, a teacher looking to boost your students’ writing skills, or simply someone who wants to write more clearly and effectively, this guide is for you. Let’s transform your writing together,

What Is RACE Writing?

Table of Contents

RACE is an acronym that stands for Restate, Answer, Cite, and Explain .

This structured approach ensures that responses are clear, complete, and well-supported by evidence.

Here’s a quick overview of what each component entails:

• Restate : Begin by restating the question or prompt to establish the context of your response.
• Answer : Directly answer the question or address the prompt.
• Cite : Provide evidence or examples to support your answer.
• Explain : Elaborate on the evidence and its relevance to your answer.

Now, let’s dive deeper into each component of the RACE strategy and see how to apply it effectively.

Restate: Setting the Context

Restating the question or prompt is the first step in the RACE strategy. This ensures that the reader knows exactly what question you are addressing. It also helps you stay focused on the topic.

Tips for Restating

• Paraphrase the Question : Don’t just repeat the question verbatim. Rephrase it in your own words.
• Keep it Brief : Your restatement should be concise and to the point.
• Include Key Terms : Make sure to use key terms from the question to maintain clarity.

Question : How does the protagonist in “To Kill a Mockingbird” demonstrate courage? Restatement : The protagonist in “To Kill a Mockingbird” demonstrates courage through various actions and decisions.

Answer: Direct and Clear Responses

Once you’ve restated the question, the next step is to answer it directly. This is your main response to the question or prompt.

Tips for Answering

• Be Direct : Clearly state your answer without beating around the bush.
• S tay Focused: Make sure your answer directly tackles the question at hand.
• Keep it Simple : Use straightforward language to convey your point.

Answer : The protagonist, Scout Finch, demonstrates courage by standing up for what she believes is right, despite the risks involved.

Cite: Supporting with Evidence

Citing evidence is crucial for backing up your answer. This involves providing quotes, data, or examples that support your response.

Tips for Citing

• Use Reliable Sources : Ensure your evidence comes from credible and relevant sources.
• Integrate Smoothly : Blend your citations into your writing seamlessly.
• Be Specific : Provide detailed and specific evidence.

Citation : For instance, in the novel, Scout stands up to a mob intent on lynching Tom Robinson, demonstrating her bravery (Lee, 1960, p. 153).

Explain: Making the Connection

The final step is to explain how your evidence supports your answer. This is where you connect the dots and show the significance of your evidence.

Tips for Explaining

• Be Thorough : Provide a detailed explanation of how the evidence supports your answer.
• Clarify Relevance : Clearly show the link between your evidence and your response.
• Avoid Assumptions : Don’t assume the reader will understand the connection without your explanation.

Explanation : This act of defiance highlights Scout’s moral courage, as she is willing to face danger to uphold justice and protect the innocent.

Watch this playlist of videos on RACE Writing:

Using RACE Writing for Yourself

Implementing the RACE strategy in your writing can significantly enhance the quality and coherence of your work.

Here are some practical steps to integrate RACE into your writing process:

1. Understand the Prompt

Before you start writing, make sure you fully understand the question or prompt.

This will help you accurately restate it in your response.

Spend time analyzing the prompt to grasp its nuances and underlying questions. This thorough understanding allows you to pinpoint exactly what is being asked, ensuring that your response remains relevant and focused.

Misinterpreting the prompt can lead to an off-topic answer, wasting both your time and effort.

Additionally, breaking down the prompt into smaller, manageable parts can be beneficial.

Identify the key terms and phrases, and consider their implications.

By doing this, you can create a mental map of your response, making it easier to restate the prompt effectively in your own words.

This step sets a strong foundation for the rest of the RACE process.

2. Outline Your Response

Create a brief outline using the RACE components.

This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure that you address each part of the strategy.

Start with your restatement, then outline your direct answer, list the evidence you will cite, and plan your explanations.

An outline serves as a roadmap, guiding you through your writing process and helping you stay on track.

An organized outline not only saves time but also enhances the coherence of your response.

It allows you to see the overall structure and flow of your argument, making it easier to identify any gaps or weaknesses.

This proactive approach helps you craft a well-rounded and compelling response, ensuring that each RACE component is effectively addressed.

3. Draft and Revise

Write a draft of your response, focusing on incorporating each element of RACE.

Afterward, revise your work to refine your restatement, answer, citations, and explanations.

Drafting allows you to put your ideas into words without worrying too much about perfection.

It’s an opportunity to explore your thoughts and see how well they translate onto the page.

Revising, on the other hand, is where the real magic happens.

Take a critical look at your draft, checking for clarity, coherence, and consistency.

Ensure that your restatement is accurate, your answer is direct, your citations are relevant, and your explanations are thorough.

This iterative process of drafting and revising helps you produce a polished and effective piece of writing.

4. Practice Regularly

Like any skill, mastering RACE takes practice.

Regularly applying the strategy in various writing contexts will help you become more proficient.

The more you practice, the more intuitive the process will become, allowing you to apply the RACE strategy effortlessly.

Experiment with different types of writing prompts and questions.

This diversity in practice will help you adapt the RACE strategy to different contexts and topics, making you a more versatile writer.

Regular practice also builds confidence, enabling you to tackle any writing task with ease and assurance.

Teaching RACE Writing to Students

As an educator, teaching the RACE writing strategy to students can significantly improve their writing abilities.

Here are some tips for effectively teaching RACE:

1. Introduce the Strategy

Start by explaining the RACE acronym and its components.

Use examples to illustrate each part of the strategy. Providing a clear and thorough introduction helps students understand the purpose and benefits of the RACE strategy.

Use engaging examples that are relevant to their interests to capture their attention and make the concept more relatable.

In addition, consider using visual aids such as charts or diagrams to break down the RACE components.

Visual representations can make it easier for students to grasp the structure and flow of the strategy.

Reinforce your explanation with real-life examples from texts they are familiar with, demonstrating how RACE can be applied in various contexts.

2. Model the Process

Demonstrate how to apply the RACE strategy by working through an example together with your students.

Show them how to restate, answer, cite, and explain cohesively.

Modeling the process provides students with a concrete example of how to effectively use RACE in their writing.

It also allows them to see the strategy in action, making it more accessible and understandable.

During the modeling process, think aloud to explain your reasoning and decision-making.

This helps students understand the thought process behind each step of the RACE strategy.

Encourage questions and provide immediate feedback to clarify any doubts. By actively engaging students in the modeling process, you foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of the strategy.

3. Practice with Guidance

Provide students with practice prompts and guide them through the RACE process.

Offer feedback to help them improve their responses.

Guided practice allows students to apply the RACE strategy in a supportive environment, where they can receive constructive feedback and make necessary adjustments.

Start with simpler prompts and gradually increase the complexity as students become more comfortable with the strategy.

Pair students up for peer practice sessions, where they can collaborate and learn from each other.

As they practice, circulate around the classroom to provide individualized feedback and address any challenges they may face.

This hands-on approach helps reinforce the RACE strategy and builds students’ confidence in their writing abilities.

4. Encourage Peer Review

Have students review each other’s work using the RACE strategy.

This peer review process can provide valuable insights and help reinforce their understanding.

Peer review fosters a collaborative learning environment, where students can share their perspectives and learn from each other.

Provide clear guidelines and criteria for peer review to ensure that the feedback is constructive and focused.

Encourage students to use the RACE framework to evaluate their peers’ responses, highlighting strengths and suggesting areas for improvement.

This process not only helps students refine their writing but also enhances their critical thinking and analytical skills.

By engaging in peer review, students gain a deeper understanding of the RACE strategy and learn to appreciate different writing styles and approaches.

5. Assess Progress

Regularly assess students’ writing to ensure they are effectively applying the RACE strategy.

Provide constructive feedback to help them continue improving.

Regular assessments allow you to track students’ progress and pinpoint areas where they might need extra help or guidance.

Use a variety of assessment methods, such as quizzes, writing assignments, and in-class exercises, to evaluate students’ understanding and application of the RACE strategy.

Provide detailed feedback that highlights both strengths and areas for improvement.

Offer specific suggestions for how they can enhance their responses.

Celebrate their successes and acknowledge their efforts to motivate and encourage continuous improvement.

By consistently assessing progress, you can ensure that students are mastering the RACE strategy and developing strong writing skills.

Examples of RACE Writing in Action

To illustrate how the RACE strategy can be effectively applied, here are three comprehensive examples.

These examples cover different contexts, showcasing the versatility of the RACE strategy in enhancing writing clarity and coherence.

Example 1: Literature Analysis

Prompt : How does the theme of friendship manifest in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”?

Restate : The theme of friendship is a central element in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.”

Answer : Friendship is portrayed through the strong bond between Harry, Ron, and Hermione, which helps them overcome numerous challenges.

Cite : For instance, when Ron sacrifices himself in the life-sized chess game to allow Harry and Hermione to move forward (Rowling, 1997, p. 283).

Explain : This act of selflessness exemplifies the deep trust and loyalty among the trio, highlighting how their friendship empowers them to face dangers together. Ron’s willingness to risk his life underscores the strength of their bond, illustrating the theme of friendship as a vital force in their journey.

Example 2: Scientific Report

Prompt : Explain how photosynthesis contributes to the oxygen supply on Earth.

Restate : Photosynthesis plays a crucial role in maintaining the oxygen supply on Earth.

Answer : During photosynthesis, plants convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen, releasing oxygen as a byproduct.

Cite : According to Smith (2020), “Plants release approximately 260 billion tons of oxygen into the atmosphere each year through the process of photosynthesis” (p. 45).

Explain : This process is fundamental to sustaining life on Earth, as it replenishes the oxygen that animals and humans breathe. Without photosynthesis, the oxygen levels in the atmosphere would diminish, leading to a decline in aerobic organisms. Therefore, photosynthesis is essential for maintaining the balance of gases in our atmosphere and supporting life.

Example 3: Historical Analysis

Prompt : Discuss the impact of the Industrial Revolution on urbanization in the 19th century.

Restate : The Industrial Revolution significantly influenced urbanization in the 19th century.

Answer : The rapid industrialization led to a massive migration of people from rural areas to cities in search of employment opportunities.

Cite : Historical records indicate that the urban population in England increased from 20% to 50% between 1800 and 1850 due to industrialization (Johnson, 2015, p. 102).

Explain : This shift transformed the social and economic fabric of society, as cities grew rapidly to accommodate the influx of workers. The development of factories and the need for labor created new urban centers, leading to improved infrastructure and changes in living conditions. However, this rapid urbanization also brought challenges, such as overcrowding and poor sanitation, highlighting the complex impact of the Industrial Revolution on society.

Final Thoughts: RACE Writing

Mastering the RACE writing strategy enhances clarity, coherence, and persuasiveness in writing.

By Restating, Answering, Citing, and Explaining, you can effectively address any prompt.

Embrace RACE to elevate your writing skills and produce compelling responses.

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April 21, 2021

RACE Writing Strategy Examples: Student Guide and Grading Guide

RACE Writing Strategy responses are quite easy to grade. Teachers have asked me for tips and example responses. Today I’ll be sharing everything I have learned about grading RACE strategy responses quickly and efficiently!

Don’t know about teaching the RACE Writing Strategy? Read all you need to know about it here!

Tip 1: Use the Checklist

Just like you teach your students to write with the checklist, it is also helpful to grade with the checklist. As you read each response, make a small check mark beside each letter. This gives your students visual feedback about which parts of the assignment they have successfully completed. Additionally, it gives you a quick and easy reference for assigning a score.

Tip 2: Easy Scoring

There are four parts to the RACE Strategy, so scoring a response is easy.

Each step in the RACE strategy=25%, with successful use of all parts of the RACE strategy equaling 100%.

For example: if a student re-states the question, answers it, provides one citation, and explains, that would be 100%. If they did RAC, but did not explain the importance of their quotations, then they will score a 75%.

Tip 3: Answers will Vary

There is almost always more than one way to successfully respond to a question. As long as students are getting the fundamentals of responding in a paragraph and citing the text, consider it a win!

Tip 4: Save and Share Exemplar Responses

I have found that students love to share their responses when they’ve really nailed the assignment. The more your students can see examples of well-written paragraphs, the more they’ll understand how to write one on their own. Take some time to ask for volunteers to share their responses with the class. Praise students for making progress, and model well-written examples.

Tip 5: Feedback for Improvement

While providing scores and checkmarks is essential, offering constructive feedback is equally important for student growth. Take a moment to jot down specific comments about what the student did well and areas where they can improve. Encourage them to focus on enhancing certain aspects of their response, such as providing more in-depth explanations, strengthening their citations, or refining their restatement of the question. Constructive feedback not only guides students towards improvement but also reinforces the importance of continuous learning and refinement of their writing skills.

Consider scheduling brief one-on-one conferences with students to discuss their graded responses, addressing any questions they may have and offering personalized tips for enhancement. This individualized attention can foster a deeper understanding of the RACE Strategy and help students take ownership of their writing progress.

Paired Passages

If you are grading a response to paired passages , the RACE strategy can be modified to RACCE (since students should cite BOTH texts). In this case, each part of the response is worth 20%. If students complete each part, they will score 100%.

The predictable routine of writing using the RACE Strategy is one of the reasons I love it so much. Kids become very familiar with it, and before long, they’re using it on their own without being prompted. I’ve seen some of my most struggling writers find success with this method. With repeated practice, your students will be writing evidence-based passages like pros!

Get resources for teaching the RACE Writing Strategy here!

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Racial and Ethnic Identity

When you are writing, you need to follow general principles to ensure that your language is free of bias. Here we provide guidelines for talking about racial and ethnic identity with inclusivity and respect.

Terms used to refer to racial and ethnic groups continue to change over time. One reason for this is simply personal preference; preferred designations are as varied as the people they name. Another reason is that designations can become dated over time and may hold negative connotations. When describing racial and ethnic groups, be appropriately specific and sensitive to issues of labeling as described in general principles for reducing bias .

Race refers to physical differences that groups and cultures consider socially significant. For example, people might identify their race as Aboriginal, African American or Black, Asian, European American or White, Native American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, Māori, or some other race. Ethnicity refers to shared cultural characteristics such as language, ancestry, practices, and beliefs. For example, people might identify as Latino or another ethnicity. Be clear about whether you are referring to a racial group or to an ethnic group. Race is a social construct that is not universal, so one must be careful not to impose racial labels on ethnic groups. Whenever possible, use the racial and/or ethnic terms that your participants themselves use. Be sure that the racial and ethnic categories you use are as clear and specific as possible. For example, instead of categorizing participants as Asian American or Hispanic American, you could use more specific labels that identify their nation or region of origin, such as Japanese American or Cuban American. Use commonly accepted designations (e.g., census categories) while being sensitive to participants’ preferred designation.

Racial and ethnic identity is covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Section 5.7 and the Concise Guide Section 3.7

Spelling and capitalization of racial and ethnic terms

Racial and ethnic groups are designated by proper nouns and are capitalized. Therefore, use “Black” and “White” instead of “black” and “white” (do not use colors to refer to other human groups; doing so is considered pejorative). Likewise, capitalize terms such as “Native American,” “Hispanic,” and so on. Capitalize “Indigenous” and “Aboriginal” whenever they are used. Capitalize “Indigenous People” or “Aboriginal People” when referring to a specific group (e.g., the Indigenous Peoples of Canada), but use lowercase for “people” when describing persons who are Indigenous or Aboriginal (e.g., “the authors were all Indigenous people but belonged to different nations”).

Do not use hyphens in multiword names, even if the names act as unit modifiers (e.g., write “Asian American participants,” not “Asian-American participants”). If people belong to multiple racial or ethnic groups, the names of the specific groups are capitalized, but the terms “multiracial,” “biracial,” “multi-ethnic,” and so on are lowercase.

Terms for specific groups

Designations for specific ethnic and racial groups are described next. These groups frequently are included in studies published in APA journals; the examples provided are far from exhaustive but illustrate some of the complexities of labeling.

People of African origin

When writing about people of African ancestry, several factors inform the appropriate terms to use. People of African descent have widely varied cultural backgrounds, family histories, and family experiences. Some will be from Caribbean islands, Latin America, various regions in the United States, countries in Africa, or elsewhere. Some American people of African ancestry prefer “Black,” and others prefer “African American”; both terms are acceptable. However, “African American” should not be used as an umbrella term for people of African ancestry worldwide because it obscures other ethnicities or national origins, such as Nigerian, Kenyan, Jamaican, or Bahamian; in these cases use “Black.” The terms “Negro” and “Afro-American” are outdated; therefore, their use is generally inappropriate.

People of Asian origin

When writing about people of Asian ancestry from Asia, the term “Asian” is appropriate; for people of Asian descent from the United States or Canada, the appropriate term is “Asian American” or “Asian Canadian,” respectively. It is problematic to group “Asian” and “Asian American” as if they are synonymous. This usage reinforces the idea that Asian Americans are perpetual foreigners. “Asian” refers to Asians in Asia, not in the United States, and should not be used to refer to Asian Americans. The older term “Oriental” is primarily used to refer to cultural objects such as carpets and is pejorative when used to refer to people. To provide more specificity, “Asian origin” may be divided regionally, for example, into South Asia (including most of India and countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal), Southeast Asia (including the eastern parts of India and countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines), and East Asia (including countries such as China, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and North Korea, and Taiwan). The corresponding terms (e.g., East Asian) can be used; however, refer to the specific nation or region of origin when possible.

People of European origin

When writing about people of European ancestry, the terms “White” and “European American” are acceptable. Adjust the latter term as needed for location, for example, “European,” “European American,” and “European Australian” for people of European descent living in Europe, the United States, and Australia, respectively. The use of the term “Caucasian” as an alternative to “White” or “European” is discouraged because it originated as a way of classifying White people as a race to be favorably compared with other races. As with all discussions of race and ethnicity, it is preferable to be more specific about regional (e.g., Southern European, Scandinavian) or national (e.g., Italian, Irish, Swedish, French, Polish) origin when possible.

Indigenous Peoples around the world

When writing about Indigenous Peoples, use the names that they call themselves. In general, refer to an Indigenous group as a “people” or “nation” rather than as a “tribe.”

• In North America, the collective terms “Native American” and “Native North American” are acceptable (and may be preferred to “American Indian”). “Indian” usually refers to people from India. Specify the nation or people if possible (e.g., Cherokee, Navajo, Sioux).
• Hawaiian Natives may identify as “Native American,” “Hawaiian Native,” “Indigenous Peoples of the Hawaiian Islands,” and/or “Pacific Islander.”
• In Canada, refer to the Indigenous Peoples collectively as “Indigenous Peoples” or “Aboriginal Peoples” ( International Journal of Indigenous Health , n.d.); specify the nation or people if possible (e.g., People of the First Nations of Canada, People of the First Nations, or First Nations People; Métis; Inuit).
• In Alaska, the Indigenous People may identify as “Alaska Natives.” The Indigenous Peoples in Alaska, Canada, Siberia, and Greenland may identify as a specific nation (e.g., Inuit, Iñupiat). Avoid the term “Eskimo” because it may be considered pejorative.
• In Latin America and the Caribbean, refer to the Indigenous Peoples collectively as “Indigenous Peoples” and by name if possible (e.g., Quechua, Aymara, Taíno, Nahuatl).
• In Australia, the Indigenous Peoples may identify as “Aboriginal People” or “Aboriginal Australians” and “Torres Strait Islander People” or “Torres Strait Island Australians.” Refer to specific groups when people use these terms to refer to themselves (e.g., Anangu Pitjantjatjara, Arrernte).
• In New Zealand, the Indigenous People may identify as “Māori” or the “Māori people” (the proper spelling includes the diacritical macron over the “a”).

For information on citing the Traditional Knowledge or Oral Traditions of Indigenous Peoples as well as the capitalization of terms related to Indigenous Peoples, see Section 8.9 of the Publication Manual .

People of Middle Eastern origin

When writing about people of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) descent, state the nation of origin (e.g., Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel) when possible. In some cases, people of MENA descent who claim Arab ancestry and reside in the United States may be referred to as “Arab Americans.” In all cases, it is best to allow individuals to self-identify. ⁠

People of Hispanic or Latinx ethnicity

When writing about people who identify as Hispanic, Latino (or Latinx, etc.), Chicano, or another related designation, authors should consult with their participants to determine the appropriate choice. Note that “Hispanic” is not necessarily an all-encompassing term, and the labels “Hispanic” and “Latino” have different connotations. The term “Latino” (and its related forms) might be preferred by those originating from Latin America, including Brazil. Some use the word “Hispanic” to refer to those who speak Spanish; however, not every group in Latin America speaks Spanish (e.g., in Brazil, the official language is Portuguese). The word “Latino” is gendered (i.e., “Latino” is masculine and “Latina” is feminine); the use of the word “Latin@” to mean both Latino and Latina is now widely accepted. “Latinx” can also be used as a gender-neutral or nonbinary term inclusive of all genders. There are compelling reasons to use any of the terms “Latino,” “Latina,” “Latino/a,” “Latin@,” and/or “Latinx” (see de Onís, 2017), and various groups advocate for the use of different forms. Use the term(s) your participants or population uses; if you are not working directly with this population but it is a focus of your research, it may be helpful to explain why you chose the term you used or to choose a more inclusive term like “Latinx.” In general, naming a nation or region of origin is preferred (e.g., Bolivian, Salvadoran, or Costa Rican is more specific than Latino, Latinx, Latin American, or Hispanic).

Parallel comparisons among groups

Nonparallel designations (e.g., “African Americans and Whites,” “Asian Americans and Black Americans”) should be avoided because one group is described by color, whereas the other group is not. Instead, use “Blacks and Whites” or “African Americans and European Americans” for the former example and “Asian Americans and African Americans” for the latter example. Do not use the phrase “White Americans and racial minorities”; the rich diversity within racial minorities is minimized when it is compared with the term “White Americans.”

Avoiding essentialism

Language that essentializes or reifies race is strongly discouraged and is generally considered inappropriate. For example, phrases such as “the Black race” and “the White race” are essentialist in nature, portray human groups monolithically, and often perpetuate stereotypes.

Writing about “minorities”

To refer to non-White racial and ethnic groups collectively, use terms such as “people of color” or “underrepresented groups” rather than “minorities.” The use of “minority” may be viewed pejoratively because it is usually equated with being less than, oppressed, or deficient in comparison with the majority (i.e., White people). Rather, a minority group is a population subgroup with ethnic, racial, social, religious, or other characteristics different from those of the majority of the population, though the relevance of this term is changing as the demographics of the population change (APA, 2015). If a distinction is needed between the dominant racial group and nondominant racial groups, use a modifier (e.g., “ethnic,” “racial”) when using the word “minority” (e.g., ethnic minority, racial minority, racial-ethnic minority). When possible, use the specific name of the group or groups to which you are referring.

Do not assume that members of minority groups are underprivileged; underprivileged means having less money, education, resources, and so forth than the other people in a society and may refer to individuals or subgroups in any racial or ethnic group. Terms such as “economically marginalized” and “economically exploited” may also be used rather than “underprivileged.” Whenever possible, use more specific terms (e.g., schools with majority Black populations that are underfunded) or refer to discrimination or systematic oppression as a whole.

Examples of bias-free language

The following are examples of bias-free language for racial and ethnic identity. Both problematic and preferred examples are presented with explanatory comments.

1. Description of African American or Black people

Problematic: We interviewed 25 Afro-American people living in rural Louisiana.

Preferred: We interviewed 25 Black people living in rural Louisiana. We interviewed 25 African Americans living in rural Louisiana.

Comment: “Afro-American” and “Negro” have become dated; therefore, usage of these terms generally is inappropriate. Specify region or nation of origin when possible to avoid the impression that all people of African descent have the same cultural background, family history, or family experiences. Note that “Black” is appropriate rather than “African American” to describe people of African descent from various national origins (e.g., Haitian, Nigerian).

2. Description of Asian or Asian American people

Problematic: Participants were 300 Orientals.

Preferred: There were 300 Asian participants; among these, 100 were from South Asia (India, Nepal, Bangladesh), 100 were from Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam), and 100 were from East Asia (China, South Korea, Japan).

Comment: “Orientals” is considered pejorative; use “Asian” for people from Asia, “Asian American” for people of Asian descent in North America, or be more specific by providing nation and region of origin (Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.).

3. Description of European American or White people

Problematic: All participants were Caucasian.

Preferred: All participants were European American. All participants were White.

Comment: The term “Caucasian” is considered offensive to some cultures; use “White” or “European American” instead for people of European descent living in North America, or be more specific by providing the nation of origin.

4. Description of Indigenous people

Problematic: The 50 Indians represented…

Preferred: The 50 Native Americans (25 Choctaw, 15 Hopi, and 10 Seminole) represented… The 50 Indigenous People (23 First Nations, 17 Inuit, 10 Métis) represented…

Comment: When appropriate, authors should identify groups indigenous to North America by specific group or nation; when the broader designation is appropriate, note that “Native American” may be preferred to “American Indian.” “Indian” refers to people from India. In general, refer to a group as a “people” or “nation” rather than as a “tribe.”

Problematic: We studied Eskimos.

Preferred: We studied Inuit from Canada and Aleuts. The 50 Indigenous People (23 First Nations and 27 Inuit) represented…

Comment: Native peoples of northern Canada, Alaska, eastern Siberia, and Greenland may prefer “Inuk” (“Inuit” for plural) to “Eskimo.” Alaska Natives include many groups in addition to Eskimos. “Indigenous Peoples” may be used when the broader designation is appropriate.

5. Description of Latinx or Hispanic people

Problematic: Participants were 200 Hispanics/Latinos.

Preferred: Participants were from Central America (150 from Guatemala, 50 from Honduras, and 50 from Belize).

Comment: “Hispanic” and “Latinx” (or Latino, etc.) have different meanings; ask participants to self-identify with a term and use a precise nationality if possible.

6. Racial-ethnic comparisons

Problematic: Participants’ race was categorized as either White or non-White.

Preferred: Participants’ race was categorized as European American, African American, Asian American, or Latin American.

Comment: Use parallel terms, especially in table labels. “Non-White” implies a standard of comparison and is imprecise.

7. Discussion of racial and ethnic minorities

Problematic: minorities minority students

Preferred: racial minorities, ethnic minorities, racial-ethnic minorities racial minority students, ethnic minority students, racial-ethnic minority students people of color underrepresented people, underrepresented groups

Comment: “Minority” is usually equated with being less than, oppressed, and deficient in comparison with the majority. When it is necessary to compare a dominant racial group with a nondominant racial group, use a modifier like “racial,” “ethnic,” or “racial-ethnic.” Otherwise, other terms may be preferred, such as “people of color” to refer to non-White racial and ethnic groups or “underrepresented people.”

8. Use of qualifying adjectives with racial and ethnic identity

Problematic: the articulate Mexican American professor

Preferred: the Mexican American professor

Comment: Qualifying adjectives may imply that the “articulate” Mexican American professor is an exception to the norm (for Mexican American professors). Depending on the context of the sentence, ethnic identity may not be relevant and therefore should not be mentioned.

American Psychological Association. (2015). Guidelines for psychological practice with transgender and gender nonconforming people. American Psychologist , 70 (9), 832–864. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039906

de Onís, C. M. (2017). What's in an “x”? An exchange about the politics of “Latinx.” Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures , 1 (2), 78–91. https://doi.org/10.2979/chiricu.1.2.07

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How to Use the RACE Writing Strategy with Students

• For Teachers , Literacy , Tips & Tricks

It doesn’t matter how many teachers I talk to, there is always a common thread: our students struggle with writing. Whether it’s mastering complete sentences or writing an essay, writing seems to always be a tough skill for students to master. In particular, I’ve heard from many teachers (and seen it myself) that students struggle to use evidence to support their claims. Luckily, that can change with the RACE writing strategy.

What is the RACE Writing Strategy?

This strategy is commonly referred to as RACE or RACES, and it’s an acronym that stands for restate the question, answer the question, cite evidence from the text, explain how the evidence proves your answer, and (optional) summarize.

Essentially, it’s an outline and scaffold our students can use as they get better at writing short answer responses. When it comes to writing, I say there you can never have too many scaffolds because we already know it’s a challenging skill.

When using the RACE writing strategy, students are essentially “checking off” that they have each element needed in a written response. And after a while, the process will become a natural part of writing.

How to Teach the RACE Writing Strategy

Getting students to use the RACE writing strategy isn’t too challenging, but you can’t expect them to figure it out alone. If you just hand them a worksheet or graphic organizer, you’ll probably be bombarded with questions and get some interesting writing samples back. That’s stressful for you and your students.

Instead, take it slow and gradually ease into the RACE writing strategy. Here is what I’d recommend –

#1 Model RACE . Start by completing some whole class exercises and model for students exactly what RACE looks like. 

You can read a text together as a class, and then write the response on the projector or whiteboard. I liked to have students write along with me as well, and then glue the example into their journals.

#2 Get clear on vocabulary . If students don’t know what cite or evidence means, they’ll never be able to independently use the RACE writing strategy. 

Make sure you directly teach the key vocabulary and provide examples of each. You can add these words to your Word Wall or make an anchor chart. I also have a RACE bulletin board resource that you can use for displaying the process.

#3 Chunk the assignment. Before you turn students loose to write an entire RACE paragraph, break it down step by step. 

The first time students work independently, have them just restate the question. Then the next time, have them restate the question and answer the question. Continue building on the next element over time.

#4 Provide feedback to students . You don’t need to grade every single RACE writing sample, but students should be getting feedback as they learn.

You can do this in a few ways. You can walk around the classroom during writing time and stop at each desk to check-in. You can call students over to your desk and provide quick feedback on their writing. Or you can call students for a small group where you review the writing pieces and assist.

Done-for-You RACE Resource

Hopefully, by this point, you’ve figured out why I love the RACE writing strategy so much. It made a significant difference in my students’ writing abilities, and I want your students to experience that same level of mastery.

I created a done-for-you RACE resource that guides students through the process and makes it easy for you to plan, prep, and implement the RACE writing strategy.

This resource is perfect for students who are beginners to RACE or who need some extra help reviewing. Here’s a peek inside the resource –

• There are ten practice pages to help students master RACE (five fiction and five informational)
• Each passage comes with a graphic organizer and checklist to provide writing support and scaffolding to students
• Each passage comes with a writing page , so students can turn their graphic organizer into a paragraph
• There are teacher examples for each passage , so you can model for students and provide examples

I hope this blog helped you brainstorm some ideas for teaching the RACE writing strategy to students. Don’t worry if it takes some time for your students to master it. Text support and evidence are tricky skills! RACE will help.

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How to Talk About Race on College Applications, According to Admissions Experts

R afael Figueroa, dean of college guidance at Albuquerque Academy, was in the middle of tutoring Native American and Native Hawaiian students on how to write college application essays when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the race-conscious college admissions processes at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional .

Earlier in the week, he told the students that they shouldn’t feel like they need to talk about their ethnicity in their essays. But after the June 29 Supreme Court ruling , he backtracked. “If I told you that you didn’t have to write about your native or cultural identity, you need to get ready to do another supplemental essay” on it or prepare a story that can fit into short answer questions, he says he told them.

For high school seniors of color applying to colleges in the coming years, the essay and short answer sections will take on newfound importance. Chief Justice John Roberts suggested as much when he wrote in his majority opinion, “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.” That “discussion” is usually in an essay, and many colleges have additional short-answer questions that allow students to expand more on their background and where they grew up.

“The essay is going to take up a lot more space than maybe it has in the past because people are going to be really trying to understand who this person is that is going to come into our community,” says Timothy Fields, senior associate dean of undergraduate admission at Emory University.

Now, college admissions officers are trying to figure out how to advise high schoolers on their application materials to give them the best chance to showcase their background under the new rules, which will no longer allow colleges or universities to use race as an explicit factor in admissions decisions .

Shereem Herndon-Brown, who co-wrote The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions with Fields, says students of color can convey their racial and ethnic backgrounds by writing about their families and their upbringing. “I’ve worked with students for years who have written amazing essays about how they spend Yom Kippur with their family, which clearly signals to a college that they are Jewish—how they listened to the conversations from their grandfather about escaping parts of Europe… Their international or immigrant story comes through whether it’s from the Holocaust or Croatia or the Ukraine. These are stories that kind of smack colleges in the face about culture.”

“Right now, we’re asking Black and brown kids to smack colleges in the face about being Black and brown,” he continues. “And, admittedly, I am mixed about the necessity to do it. But I think the only way to do it is through writing.”

Read More: The ‘Infamous 96’ Know Firsthand What Happens When Affirmative Action Is Banned

Students of color who are involved in extracurriculars that are related to diversity efforts should talk about those prominently in their college essays, other experts say. Maude Bond, director of college counseling at Cate School in Santa Barbara County, California, cites one recent applicant she counseled who wrote her college essay about an internship with an anti-racism group and how it helped her highlight the experiences of Asian American Pacific Islanders in the area.

Bond also says there are plenty of ways for people of color to emphasize their resilience and describe the character traits they learned from overcoming adversity: “Living in a society where you’re navigating racism every day makes you very compassionate.” she says. “It gives you a different sense of empathy and understanding. Not having the same resources as people that you grow up with makes you more creative and innovative.” These, she argues, are characteristics students should highlight in their personal essays.

Adam Nguyen, a former Columbia University admissions officer who now counsels college applicants via his firm Ivy Link, will also encourage students of color to ask their teachers and college guidance counselors to hint at their race or ethnicity in their recommendation letters. “That’s where they could talk about your racial background,” Nguyen says. “Just because you can’t see what’s written doesn’t mean you can’t influence how or what is said about you.”

Yet as the essay portions of college applications gain more importance, the process of reading applications will take a lot longer, raising the question of whether college admissions offices have enough staffers to get through the applications. “There are not enough admission officers in the industry to read that way,” says Michael Pina, director of admission at the University of Richmond.

That could make it even more difficult for students to get the individual attention required to gain acceptance to the most elite colleges. Multiple college admissions experts say college-bound students will need to apply to a broader range of schools. “You should still apply to those 1% of colleges…but you should think about the places that are producing high-quality graduates that are less selective,” says Pina.

One thing more Black students should consider, Fields argues, is applying to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). (In fact, Fields, a graduate of Morehouse College, claims that may now be “necessary” for some students.) “There’s something to be said, for a Black person to be in a majority environment someplace that they are celebrated, not tolerated,” Fields says. “There’s something to be said about being in an environment where you don’t have to justify why you’re here.”

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The Diversity College Essay: How to Write a Stellar Essay

What’s covered:, what’s covered in a diversity essay, what is a diversity essay, examples of the diversity essay prompt, how to write the diversity college essay after the end of affirmative action, tips for writing a diversity college essay.

The Diversity Essay exists because colleges want a student body that includes different ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, backgrounds, interests, and so on. The essay asks students to illuminate what sets them apart so that admissions committees can see what kind of diverse views and opinions they can bring to the campus.

In this post, we’ll be going over what exactly a diversity essay is, examples of real prompts and essays, and tips for writing a standout essay. You’ll be well prepared to answer this common essay prompt after reading this post!

Upon hearing the word diversity, many people assume that they have to write about gender and sexuality, class, or race. To many, this can feel overly personal or forced, or can cause students to worry that their identity isn’t unique or interesting enough. In reality, the diversity essay is much broader than many people realize.

Identity means different things to different people, and the important thing is that you demonstrate your uniqueness and what’s important to you. You might write about one of the classic, traditional identity features mentioned above, but you also could consider writing about a more unusual feature of yourself or your life—or even the intersection of two or more identities.

Consider these questions as you think about what to include in your diversity essay:

• Do you have a unique or unusual talent or skill? For example, you might be a person with perfect pitch, or one with a very accurate innate sense of direction.
• Do you have beliefs or values that are markedly different from the beliefs or values of those around you? Perhaps you hold a particular passion for scientific curiosity or truthfulness, even when it’s inconvenient.
• Do you have a hobby or interest that sets you apart from your peers? Maybe you’re an avid birder, or perhaps you love to watch old horror movies.
• Have you done or experienced something that few people have? Note that if you choose to write about a single event as a diverse identity feature, that event should have had a pretty substantial impact on you and your life. Perhaps you’re part of the 0.2% of the world that has run a marathon, or you’ve had the chance to watch wolves hunt in the wild.
• Do you have a role in life that gives you a special outlook on the world? Maybe one of your siblings has a rare disability, or you grew up in a town of less than 500 people.

Of course, if you would rather write about a more classic identity feature, you absolutely should! These questions are intended to help you brainstorm and get you thinking creatively about this prompt. You don’t need to dig deep for an extremely unusual diverse facet of yourself or your personality. If writing about something like ability, ethnicity, or gender feels more representative of your life experience, that can be an equally strong choice!

You should think expansively about your options and about what really demonstrates your individuality, but the most important thing is to be authentic and choose a topic that is truly meaningful to you.

Diversity essay prompts come up in both personal statements and supplemental essays. As with all college essays, the purpose of any prompt is to better understand who you are and what you care about. Your essays are your chance to share your voice and humanize your application. This is especially true for the diversity essay, which aims to understand your unique perspectives and experiences, as well as the ways in which you might contribute to a college community.

It’s worth noting that diversity essays are used in all kinds of selection processes beyond undergrad admissions—they’re seen in everything from graduate admissions to scholarship opportunities. You may very well need to write another diversity essay later in life, so it’s a good idea to get familiar with this essay archetype now.

If you’re not sure whether your prompt is best answered by a diversity essay, consider checking out our posts on other essay archetypes, like “Why This College?” , “Why This Major?” , and the Extracurricular Activity Essay .

The best-known diversity essay prompt is from the Common App . The first prompt states:

“Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”

Some schools also have individual diversity essay prompts. For example, here’s one from Duke University :

“We believe a wide range of personal perspectives, beliefs, and lived experiences are essential to making Duke a vibrant and meaningful living and learning community. Feel free to share with us anything in this context that might help us better understand you and what you might bring to our community.” (250 words)

And here’s one from Rice :

“Rice is strengthened by its diverse community of learning and discovery that produces leaders and change agents across the spectrum of human endeavor. What perspectives shaped by your background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity inspire you to join our community of change agents at Rice?” (500 words)

In all instances, colleges want you to demonstrate how and what you’ll contribute to their communities.

In June 2023, the Supreme Court overturned the use of affirmative action in college admissions, meaning that colleges are no longer able to directly factor race into admissions decisions. Despite this ruling, you can still discuss your racial or ethnic background in your Common App or supplemental essays.

If your race or ethnic heritage is important to you, we strongly recommend writing about it in one of your essays, as this is now one of the only ways that admissions committees are able to consider it as a factor in your admission.

Many universities still want to hear about your racial background and how it has impacted you, so you are likely to see diversity essays show up more frequently as part of supplemental essay packets. Remember, if you are seeing this kind of prompt, it’s because colleges care about your unique identity and life experience, and believe that these constitute an important part of viewing your application holistically. To learn more about how the end of affirmative action is impacting college admissions, check out our post for more details .

1. Highlight what makes you stand out.

A common misconception is that diversity only refers to aspects—such as ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status. While these are standard measures of diversity, you can be diverse in other ways. These ways includes (but aren’t limited to) your:

• Interests, hobbies, and talents
• Perspectives, values, and opinions
• Experiences
• Personality traits

Ask yourself which aspects of your identity are most central to who you are. Are these aspects properly showcased in other portions of your application? Do you have any interests, experiences, or traits you want to highlight?

For instance, maybe you’re passionate about reducing food waste. You might love hiking and the outdoors. Or, maybe you’re a talented self-taught barber who’s given hundreds of free haircuts in exchange for donations to charity.

The topic of your essay doesn’t have to be crazy or even especially unique. You just want to highlight whatever is important to you, and how this thing shapes who you are. You might still want to write about a more common aspect of identity. If so, there are strong ways to do so.

If you do choose to write about a more common trait (for example, maybe your love of running), do so in a way that tells your story. Don’t just write an ode to running and how it’s stress-relieving and pushes you past your limits. Share your journey with us⁠—for instance, maybe you used to hate it, but you changed your mind one day and eventually trained to run a half marathon. Or, take us through your thought process during a race. The topic in itself is important, but how you write about it is even more important.

2. Share an anecdote.

One easy way to make your essay more engaging is to share a relevant and related story. The beginning of your essay is a great place for that, as it draws the reader in immediately. For instance, the following student chose to write about their Jewish identity, and opened the essay with a vivid experience of being discriminated against:

“I was thirsty. In my wallet was a lone $10 bill, ultimately useless at my school’s vending machine. Tasked with scrounging together the $1 cost of a water bottle, I fished out and arranged the spare change that normally hid at the bottom of my backpack in neat piles of nickels and dimes on my desk. I swept them into a spare Ziploc and began to leave when a classmate snatched the bag and held it above my head.

“Want your money back, Jew?” she chanted, waving the coins around. I had forgotten the Star-of-David around my neck, but quickly realized she must have seen it and connected it to the stacks of coins. I am no stranger to experiencing and confronting antisemitism, but I had never been targeted in my school before.”

An anecdote allows readers to experience what you’re describing, and to feel as if they’re there with you. This can ultimately help readers better relate to you.

Brainstorm some real-life stories relevant to the trait you want to feature. Possibilities include: a meaningful interaction, achieving a goal, a conflict, a time you felt proud of the trait (or ashamed of it), or the most memorable experience related to the trait. Your story could even be something as simple as describing your mental and emotional state while you’re doing a certain activity.

Whatever you decide on, consider sharing that moment in media res , or “in the middle of things.” Take us directly to the action in your story so we can experience it with you.

3. Show, don’t tell.

If you simply state what makes you diverse, it’s really easy for your essay to end up sounding bland. The writer of the previous essay example could’ve simply stated “I’m Jewish and I’ve had to face antisemitism.” This is a broad statement that doesn’t highlight their unique personal experiences. It doesn’t have the same emotional impact.

Instead, the writer illustrated an actual instance where they experienced antisemitism, which made the essay more vivid and easier to relate to. Even if we’re not Jewish ourselves, we can feel the anger and pain of being taunted for our background. This story is also unique to the writer’s life⁠—while others may have experienced discrimination, no one else will have had the exact same encounter.

As you’re writing, constantly evaluate whether or not you’re sharing a unique perspective. If what you write could’ve been written by someone else with a similar background or interest, you need to get more granular. Your personal experiences are what will make your essay unique, so share those with your reader.

4. Discuss how your diversity shapes your outlook and actions.

It’s important to describe not only what your unique traits and experiences are, but also how they shape who you are. You don’t have to explicitly say “this is how X trait impacts me” (you actually shouldn’t, as that would be telling instead of showing). Instead, you can reveal the impact of your diversity through the details you share.

Maybe playing guitar taught you the importance of consistent effort. Show us this through a story of how you tackled an extremely difficult piece you weren’t sure you could handle. Show us the calluses on your fingers, the knit brows as you tinkered with the chords, the countless lessons with your teacher. Show us your elation as you finally performed the piece.

Remember that colleges learn not just about who you are, but also about what you might contribute to their community. Take your essay one step farther and show admissions officers how your diversity impacts the way you approach your life.

Where to Get Your Diversity Essay Edited

Do you want feedback on your diversity essay? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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Using the RACE Strategy for Text Evidence

How to Teach Constructed Response Using the RACE Strategy

Constructed response questions can be scary at first. Scary to teach and scary to write! Using the RACE Strategy will help ensure students get this skill right, every time!

I mean, when you compare writing a constructed response to answering a multiple-choice question, well, there really is  no  contest.

Constructed Response makes multiple-choice questions seem so simple to complete.

Since we know that students need to be able to write constructed responses, I was so happy when I was introduced to the RACE strategy.

It took the fright out of teaching constructed responses for text evidence.

The RACE Strategy gave me a step-by-step template to teach my students precisely what to do.

Even though writing constructed responses are still challenging, when you teach your students the RACE strategy and give them lots of opportunities for practice, your students will master it!

What is the RACE Strategy? So, just what is the RACE strategy? RACE is an acronym that helps students remember which steps and in which order to write a constructed response.

R = Restate the Question

The first step is to change the question into a statement.

This is also known as restating the question.

Students need to remove the question word like who, what, when, where, or why and then restate the keywords.

For example, if the question was, “Why did Jill decide to give her mother a jewelry box?” the answer would start this way, “Jill decided to give her mother a jewelry box because.”

A = Answer the Question After restating the question, the second step is to finish the sentence and answer the question.

Students may use their knowledge and inferences from the text to identify the answer.

Here are a few tips for this. 

1) Students must answer the specific question being asked.

2) Students also need to answer every part of the question.  Sometimes questions have more than one part. 3) T hey need to list the character’s name before using a pronoun like he/she/they.

C = Cite Text Evidence Citing evidence is the tricky part.

First, kids need to find relevant evidence to support their answer.

Then, they must write it correctly using a sentence stem

According to the text…

• The author stated…
• In the second paragraph…
• The author mentioned…
• On the third page…
• The text stated…
• Based on the text…

To teach this skill, I make an anchor chart with the question stems and put them up when we start to work on citing evidence.

Once kids memorize a few question stems, this part of the RACE strategy goes much more smoothly.

I make sure students know to quote the text  exactly as it is written  and use quotation marks correctly too.

E = Explain What it Means

The last part of the Constructed Response is where kids tell how their text evidence proves their point.

Again, some simple sentence starters help kids stay on track here.

Here are a few examples of sentence starters that help students begin to Explain: 

• This proves
• This is a good example of
• This means that

When I teach the RACE strategy, I give the kids an overview of a completed constructed response example, so they can see where we’re going.

Then, I break it down into separate parts and teach each one before putting it all together.

By the time kids reach my fourth or fifth-grade class, most students at my school have had teachers who have required them to answer a question using a restatement.

Students aren’t doing constructed responses yet, but most are fairly comfortable with restating a question.

Because of this, I might spend a few days teaching or reviewing the restating and answering part.

I teach the  Restating  and  Answering  together since they usually form one sentence.

Then, I move to  Citing  text evidence, which takes much longer to teach.

The  Explaining  part goes pretty quickly after that.

Once I’ve taught all of the components, it’s time for students to practice putting it all together.

To do this, we read a short text as a class.

It might be a Scholastic News article, a page from  Chicken Soup for the Soul,  or a passage I’ve created.

Finally, I model (with their input) a Constructed Response using a RACE template from The Teacher Next Door’s Text Evidence Differentiated Unit

I project it on the smartboard so everyone can see it.

The next day, we repeat this with a different passage in pairs.

When students are finished, we go over it together to compare notes when they’re finished. After that, it is time to work on it independently.

A few notes…

• Make sure to start teaching the RACE strategy early in the year, so there’s plenty of time to practice.  If you teach this strategy right before standardized testing, it will not be very effective.
• Start with short passages. One page is ideal. Giving students practice with shorter texts will help them gain confidence for the longer texts in the future.  Baby steps, right?
• You’ll want students to write constructed responses repeatedly, but NOT for every passage they read.
• Constructed responses are somewhat of a chore, even with an excellent strategy like RACE.
• I try not to burn kids out on any one thing so that they dread it. It would be like asking them to write a five-paragraph essay each day. No one wants to do that. So, my advice is to give them a good foundation for how to write them and then sprinkle them in now and then throughout the year. Spiral practice is key!

You can apply the RACE Strategy to any set of materials that you have on hand. However, The Teacher Next Door knows how time consuming it can be to search for standards-aligned and grade level appropriate materials.

To save you time, The Teacher Next Door has created a Text Evidence Differentiated Unit with everything you need for students to master this skill!

The Text Evidence Differentiated Unit contains:

• 10 color coding passages
• 8 practice passages
• 3 sets of text evidence games (with 32 task cards in each set)
• Posters for the entire RACE Strategy

The entire unit is differentiated for you! Each passage comes in  three  different levels, and the three games are differentiated too!

Click here to check this unit out! 

Want to give this Text Evidence Differentiated Passage a spin for FREE? 

If you’d like to read more about how to teach text evidence, we have another post you may want to read :

Citing Text Evidence in 6 Steps.

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SCOTUS Says You Can Discuss Race in Your College Essay. Should You?

The us supreme court banned colleges’ affirmative action admission practices, raising a question about students writing about race in their college essay.

Although the Supreme Court says college application essays may discuss race and disadvantage, BU experts say inauthentic or traumatic recollections won’t cut it. Photo by Delmaine Donson/iStock

Should You Discuss Race in Your College Essay?

“Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.” — Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

“The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race. Many universities have for too long done just the opposite. …Universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”—Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

Confused? So are many in higher education. When the United States Supreme Court sacked affirmative action racial preferences in June, Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion, while spotlighting applicants’ personal essays, also put vague guardrails around their use. And anyway, not every young person who has suffered racial discrimination wants to revisit it in their essay, that critical part of applying to college where students tell their story in their voice. 

After the SCOTUS decision, the advice from Boston University admissions and college guidance experts is this: your story must always be authentic. It can be about discrimination or other challenges met and dealt with, but it need not be. And it shouldn’t be , if writing about it means revisiting traumatic experiences.

“The essay for us is just going to continue to be as important as it always was,” notwithstanding the new legal landscape, says Kelly Walter (Wheelock’81), BU dean of admissions and associate vice president for enrollment. She has discussed the ruling with the University’s legal office, she says, and her office has tweaked BU’s two essay question options applicants must choose from. (The University also asks potential future Terriers to complete the Common Application for college, which has its own essay requirement.) The tweaks were partly in response to the court ruling, Walter says, but also to ensure that the questions conveyed to students “what BU stood for, and that we value diversity. We thought it was very important to put that out there front and center, and for them to be able to specifically respond to our commitment, our values, as it relates to one of these two essay questions.” 

Those questions are:

Reflect on a social or community issue that deeply resonates with you. Why is it important to you, and how have you been involved in addressing or raising awareness about it? What about being a student at BU most excites you? How do you hope to contribute to our campus community?

While the chief justice exhorted students to share discrimination episodes in answering such questions, recent alum and current student Erika Decklar (Sargent’22, SPH’24) says that may not be comfortable for some. She is an advisor with BU Admissions College Advising Corps (CAC-BU) , which gives college application counseling to low-income and other marginalized high schoolers.

“In my experience,” Decklar says, “students from marginalized backgrounds gravitate towards writing college essays on traumatic experiences, whether they are comfortable sharing these experiences with admissions counselors or not. We have always advised and encouraged students to write about a topic that highlights their strengths, personalities, and passions—whether it is a ‘resiliency’ essay or an essay about their culture, values, or a unique passion.”

After the SCOTUS ruling, Decklar says, her advice to students has not changed. “We should continue motivating students to write about a passion, something that makes them unique, but not coach them to write about their traumatic experiences.” 

Katie Hill, who directs CAC-BU, says applicants sharing in their essays what makes them special “does not require them revisiting their pain. If students so choose, we can help them write about their families and cultures, what is beautiful and makes them proud to be” of that culture.

Students from marginalized backgrounds gravitate towards writing college essays on traumatic experiences, whether they are comfortable sharing these experiences with admissions counselors or not. Erika Deklar (Sargent’22, SPH’24)

But what BIPOC (Black, indigenous, people of color) students do not need, Hill says, is to hear from their advisors that in order to get into college, they need to open themselves up beyond their comfortable boundaries.

Walter agrees that an applicant’s story need not be an unrelenting nightmare. It’s true that some of them “are sharing things about their personal lives that I’m not sure I would have seen 20 years ago,” she says. “Students are certainly talking about their sexual identity in their essays. And some will say to us, ‘I’m telling you this [about my identity], and my parents don’t know yet.’” 

But she can reel off the opening lines from three of her favorite essays over the years that were hardly gloomy. One began, Geeks come in many varieties. “We laughed. It makes you want to keep reading,” she says. Then there was the woman who started, Life is short, and so am I.  

The third: By day, Louis is my trusty companion; by night, my partner in crime. “Doesn’t that make you want to read more and find out who or what Louis is?” Walter asks. (He was the applicant’s first car, a metaphor for this woman’s passion for the independence it conveyed, preparing her for the next step of going to BU, where she indeed matriculated.)

The essay is so important because it’s a given that applicants to BU can manage the academics here. “We have 80,000 students applying for admission to Boston University [annually],” Walter says, “and I think it’s fair to say that the vast majority of them can do the work academically. We’re also shaping and building a class.

“For some, it may be leadership. For some, it may be their cultural background. For others, it might be writing for the Daily Free Press. We really want to think about a wide variety of students in our first-year class.” The essay fills in blanks about applicants for admission, along with teacher and counselor recommendations, their high school activities, and their internships or jobs. 

That’s not to say there aren’t lethal don’ts to avoid, most of them emphasizing the necessity of having a proofreader.

“We often get references to ‘Boston College,’” says Patrice Oppliger , a College of Communication assistant professor of communication, who solicits faculty reviews of applicants to COM’s mass communication, advertising, and public relations master’s program before making a decision.

And need we say, do your own work? Walter recalls an essay from a couple of years back where the applicant discussed life in Warren Towers. “And I was like, wait, you couldn’t have lived in Warren Towers, you’re not here yet. And it became very clear that the parent, who was an alum—I think in an effort to help—was telling her story. And somehow no one [in that family] caught that.”

So writing about dealing with discrimination, race-based or otherwise, is fine if it’s not traumatic for you to revisit— and if it’s authentic. Authenticity also includes avoiding over-reliance on artificial intelligence in crafting your essay. According to Admissions’ AI statement ,

If you opt to use these tools at any point while writing your essays, they should only be used to support your original ideas rather than to write your essays in their entirety. As potential future Terriers, we expect all applicants to adhere to the same standards of academic honesty and integrity as our current students. When representing the words or ideas of another in their original work, students should properly credit the source.

“We want to think about not just who will thrive academically at BU,” Walter says, “but also who will enrich the University community and make diverse contributions.”

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How To Use the RACE Writing Strategy (Plus Free Printables)

Plus, how is the RACES writing strategy different?

In today’s world, it’s more important than ever for students to be able to articulate their thoughts clearly and concisely through the written word. One easy way to help them strengthen their skills is by using the RACE writing strategy. This structured method guides writers through creating a strong response to reading comprehension and other short-answer questions, including those found on standardized tests. Here’s how it works and how to teach it.

Don’t forget to grab our free printable set of graphic organizers. We’ve included options for both RACE and RACES, in color and black-and-white. Plus, get printable images for an easy RACE/RACES anchor chart!

What is the RACE writing strategy?

How is the races writing strategy different, how to teach the race/races writing strategy.

• What’s included in the RACES Printable Bundle?

This simple method is one of many writing strategies educators use to help students ensure they’re answering questions and writing prompts clearly, concisely, and thoroughly. It’s most commonly used with reading comprehension short-answer essay questions, but it works for any situation where students need to provide a written response in paragraph form.

The easy-to-remember acronym breaks the process into four parts, and the best way to explain it is to see it in action. To explore how the strategy works, we’ll use this passage about penguins:

“Penguins have special ways to live in their cold environments. Their smooth bodies and flippers help them swim fast to catch fish, squid, and krill. Their thick, waterproof feathers keep them warm and dry, and a layer of fat, called blubber, gives them extra warmth and helps them float. Penguins have special behaviors too, like huddling together to stay warm and protect their eggs and babies from the cold. Their black-and-white feathers help them hide from predators by blending in with the ocean. All these things help penguins survive and do well in very cold places.”

Question: How do penguins’ bodies help them survive their environment?

First, students turn the question into a statement, to ensure they fully understand what’s being asked. The statement is usually open-ended, because they’ll complete the sentence in the second step.

RACE Writing Strategy Example: “Penguins’ bodies help them survive their environment because they …”

Then, students answer the question with a clear, succinct response. Essentially, they complete the sentence they began in the “Restate” step with a direct answer. ADVERTISEMENT

RACE Writing Strategy Example: ” … help them swim fast, protect them against the cold, and hide them from predators.”

In this key step, students back up their answers by pointing to evidence from the text itself. They may quote or paraphrase what’s written to prove their point.

RACE Writing Strategy Example: “For instance, penguins have smooth bodies and flippers, along with thick black-and-white feathers and blubber.”

Now, students expand on their citation in their own words, so they’re not just parroting back what they’ve read. They explain how the facts they’ve cited help to answer the question.

RACE Writing Strategy Example: “Their bodies and flippers help them swim fast to catch their favorite foods, and their waterproof feathers and blubber keep them warm in the cold weather. Predators have a hard time seeing them because their black-and-white feathers blend into the landscape.”

Some teachers add an S to the RACE strategy, which stands for “Summarize.” This is the conclusion sentence at the end of the response that reinforces the main points in the answer. A complete answer using the RACES strategy might look like this:

“Penguin bodies help them survive their environment because they help them swim fast, protect them against the cold, and hide them from predators. For instance, penguins have smooth bodies and flippers, along with thick black-and-white feathers and blubber. Their bodies and flippers help them swim fast to catch their favorite foods, and their waterproof feathers and blubber keep them warm in the cold weather. Predators have a hard time seeing them because their black-and-white feathers blend into the landscape. All of these body parts help penguins survive in cold and dangerous environments.”

Most teachers begin introducing this method in the mid-elementary years, often around third grade. Continue to use and reinforce it throughout the rest of the elementary years and into the middle grades. By high school, students should be very comfortable with RACE/RACES and consider it an important part of their writing strategies toolbox .

Try these activities and teaching methods to introduce and use this valuable strategy with your students.

Anchor Chart

Create and hang an anchor chart students can refer back to throughout the school year. Make things even easier on yourself by using our free printables to create your chart in no time flat!

Modeling and Guided Practice

As with nearly any strategy, it helps to model the correct behavior for your students first. Use the paragraph above about penguins, or choose any other reading passage you like. Then, walk through the steps together, demonstrating the thinking process and writing out the responses.

Next, provide students with another reading passage ( AI can be a real help here , and short stories work too ) and a comprehension question. Ask them to work in groups to try out the RACE/RACES model. Share each group’s response with the class, then work together to evaluate, correct, and strengthen them as needed.

Graphic Organizers

This organizational tool is ideal for RACE/RACES. Use our free printables (see below), or encourage kids to draw their own simple chart. They can use these organizers to make notes and sketch out their responses before finalizing their answer in paragraph form.

Color Coding

Pull out your highlighters! After students write their responses using the RACE/RACES method, ask them to highlight the various sections that match each letter of the model (e.g., orange for Restate, yellow for Answer, etc.). This ensures they don’t miss any of the steps in writing a complete response. We’ve included color-coded versions in our graphic organizer set to make the process even easier.

Sentence Starters

Jump-start the process by providing a list of sentence stems and starters . These are especially helpful for the Cite, Explain, and Summarize sections. Try these examples:

• The passage says …
• As noted in the text …
• The writer tells us that …
• According to the author …
• As mentioned in the article …
• This shows that …
• The author means …
• This example demonstrates …
• This is how we know that …
• The evidence supports the idea because …
• In summary …
• In conclusion …
• Based on these facts …
• For these reasons …

Find more conclusion sentence starters here.

RACE Writing Strategy Free Printables Bundle

RACE Graphic Organizer

Use the color-coded version of this organizer along with highlighters to help kids create strong short answers. There’s a black-and-white version too.

RACES Graphic Organizer

These organizers include a Summarize section to help students wrap up their answers neatly. Get a color-coded or black-and-white version.

RACE or RACES Anchor Chart

Use these free printables to create an easy anchor chart. You can use all the pages for a RACES chart, or leave off the Summarize pages for the traditional RACE writing strategy chart. We’ve even included some fun race-car-themed graphics to jazz things up!

Get your free printable RACE writing strategy set instantly by filling out the form on this page.

How do you use the race writing strategy with your students come share your thoughts and ask for advice in the we are teachers helpline facebook group ., you might also like.

Graphic Organizers 101: Why and How To Use Them

An incredibly valuable tool for every student, every subject. Continue Reading

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Race & Ethnicity—Definition and Differences [+48 Race Essay Topics]

Race and ethnicity are among the features that make people different. Unlike character traits, attitudes, and habits, race and ethnicity can’t be changed or chosen. It fully depends on the ancestry.

But why do we separate these two concepts and what are their core differences? How do people classify different races and types of ethnicity?

To find answers to these questions, keep reading the article.

Also, if you have a writing assignment on the same topic due soon and looking for inspiration, you’ll find plenty of race, racism, and ethnic group essay examples. At IvyPanda , we’ve gathered over 45 samples to help you with your writing, so you don’t have to torture yourself looking for awesome essay ideas.

Race and Ethnicity Definitions

It’s important to learn what race and ethnicity really are before trying to compare them and explore their classification.

Race is a group of people that belong to the same distinct category based on their physical and social qualities.

At the very beginning of the term usage, it only referred to people speaking a common language. Later, the term started to denote certain national affiliations. A reference to physical traits was added to the term race in the 17th century.

In a modern world, race is considered to be a social construct. In other words, it’s a distinguishable identity with a cultural meaning behind. Race is not usually seen as exclusively biological or physical quality, even though it’s partially based on common physical features among group members.

Ethnicity (also known as ethnic group) is a category of people who have similarities like common language, ancestry, history, culture, society, and nation.

Basically, people inherit ethnicity depending on the society they live in. Other factors that define a person’s ethnicity include symbolic systems like religion, cuisine, art, dressing style, and even physical appearance.

Sometimes, the term ethnicity is used as a synonym to people or nation. It’s also fair to mention that it’s sometimes possible for an individual to leave one ethnic group and shift to another. It’s usually done through acculturation, language shift, or religious conversion.

Though, most of the times, representatives of a certain ethnic group continue to speak their common language and share some other typical traits even if derived from their founder population.

Differences Between Race and Ethnicity

Now that we know what race and ethnicity are all about, let’s highlight some of the major differences between these two terms.

• It divides people into groups or populations based mainly on physical appearance
• The main accent is on genetic or biological traits
• Because of geographical isolation, racial categories were a result of a shared genealogy. In modern world, this isolation is practically nonexistent, which lead to mixing of races
• The distinguishing factors can include type of face or skin color. Other genetic differences are considered to be weak

• Members of an ethnic group identify themselves based on nationality, culture, and traditions
• The emphasis is on group history, culture, and sometimes on religion and language
• Definition of ethnicity is based on shared genealogy. It can be either actual or presumed
• Distinguishing factors of ethnic groups keep changing depending on time period. Sometimes, they get defined by stereotypes that dominant groups have

It’s also worth mentioning that the border between two terms is quite vague . As a result, the choice of using either of them can be very subjective.

In the majority of cases, race is considered to be unitary, which means that one person belongs to one race. However, ethnically, this same person can identify themselves as a member of multiple ethnic groups. And it won’t be wrong if a person have lived enough time within those groups.

Race and Ethnicity Classification

It’s time to look at possible ways to classify racial and ethnical groups.

One of the most common classifications for race into four categories: Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid, and Australoid. Three of them have subcategories.

Let’s look at them more closely.

– Caucasoid. White race with light skin color. Hair ranges from brown to black. They have medium to high structure. The subcategories are as follows:

• Alpine. Live in Central Asia
• Nordic . Baltic, British, and Scandinavian inhabitants
• Mediterranean. Hail from France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain

– Mongoloid. The race’s majority is found in Asia. Characterized by black hair, yellow skin tone, and medium height.

• Asian mongol. Found in japan, China, and East-India
• Micronesian. Inhabitants of Malenesia

– Negroid. A race found in Africa. They have black skin, wooly hair, and medium to high structure.

• Negro. African inhabitants
• Far Eastern Pygmy. Found in the south Pacific islands
• Bushman and Hottentot. Live in Kala-Hari desert of Africa

– Australoid. Found in Australia. They have wavy hair, light skin, and medium to tall height.

It’s fair to mention yet again that it’s practically impossible to find pure race representatives because of how mixed they all got.

Speaking of ethnicity classification, one of the most common ways to do that is by continent. And each of continent’s ethnic groups will have their own subcategory.

So, we can roughly divide ethnic groups into following categories:

• North American
• South American

Race Essay Ideas

If all the information above was not enough and you’re looking for race essay topics, or even straight up essay examples for your writing assignment—today’s your lucky day. Because experts at IvyPanda have gathered plenty of those.

Check out the list of race and ethnic group essay samples below. Use them for inspiration, or try to develop one of the suggested topics even further.

Whatever option you’ll choose, we’re sure that you’ll end up with great results!

• The Anatomy of Scientific Racism: Racialist Responses to Black Athletic Achievement
• Race, Ethnicity and Crime
• Representation of Race in Disney Films
• What is the relationship between Race, Poverty and Prison?
• Race in a Southern Community
• African American Women and the Struggle for Racial Equality
• American Ethnic Studies
• Institutionalized Racism from John Brown Raid to Jim Crow Laws
• The Veil and Muslim
• Race and the Body: How Culture Both Shapes and Mirrors Broader Societal Attitudes Towards Race and the Body
• Latinos and African Americans: Friends or Foes?
• Historical US Relationships with Native American
• The experiences of the Aborigines
• Contemporary Racism in Australia: the Experience of Aborigines
• No Reparations for Blacks for the Injustice of Slavery
• Racism (another variant)
• Hispanic Americans
• Racism in the Penitentiary
• How the development of my racial/ethnic identity has been impacted
• My father’s black pride
• African American Ethnic Group
• Ethnic Group Conflicts
• How the Movie Crash Presents the African Americans
• Ethnic Groups and discrimination
• Race and Ethnicity
• Racial and ethnic inequality
• Ethnic Groups and Conflicts
• Ethnics Studies
• Ethnic studies and emigration
• Ethnicity Influence
• Immigration and Ethnic Relations
• A comparison Between Asian Americans and Latinos
• Analysis of the Chinese Experience in “A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America” by Ronald Takaki
• Wedding in the UAE
• Social and Cultural Diversity
• The White Dilemma in South Africa
• Ethnocentrism and its Effects on Individuals, Societies, and Multinationals
• Reduction of ethnocentrism and promotion of cultural relativism
• Racial and Ethnic Groups
• Gender and Race
• Child Marriages in Modern India
• Race and Ethnicity (another variant)
• Racial Relations and Color Blindness
• Multiculturalism and “White Anxiety”
• Cultural and racial inequality in Health Care
• The impact of colonialism on cultural transformations in North and South America
• African American Studies
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Essay Samples on Race and Ethnicity

How does race affect social class.

How does race affect social class? Race and social class are intricate aspects of identity that intersect and influence one another in complex ways. While social class refers to the economic and societal position an individual holds, race encompasses a person's racial or ethnic background....

• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Class

How Does Race Affect Everyday Life

How does race affect everyday life? Race is an integral yet often invisible aspect of our identities, influencing the dynamics of our everyday experiences. The impact of race reaches beyond individual interactions, touching various aspects of life, including relationships, opportunities, perceptions, and systemic structures. This...

Race and Ethnicity's Impact on US Employment and Criminal Justice

Since the beginning of colonialism, raced based hindrances have soiled the satisfaction of the shared and common principles in society. While racial and ethnic prejudice has diminished over the past half-century, it is still prevalent in society today. In my opinion, racial and ethnic inequity...

• American Criminal Justice System
• Criminal Justice

Why Race and Ethnicity Matter in the Social World

Not everyone is interested in educating themselves about their own roots. There are people who lack the curiosity to know the huge background that encompasses their ancestry. But if you are one of those who would like to know the diverse colors of your race...

• Ethnic Identity

The Correlation Between Race and Ethnicity and Education in the US

In-between the years 1997 and 2017, the population of the United States of America has changed a lot; especially in terms of ethnic and educational background. It grew by over 50 million people, most of which were persons of colour. Although white European Americans still make...

• Inequality in Education

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Damaging Effects of Social World on People of Color

Even though many are unsure or aware of what it really means to have a culture, we make claims about it everyday. The fact that culture is learned through daily experience and also learned through interactions with others, people never seem to think about it,...

• Racial Profiling
• Racial Segregation

An Eternal Conflict of Race and Ethnicity: a History of Mankind

Ethnicity is a modern concept. However, its roots go back to a long time ago. This concept took on a political aspect from the early modern period with the Peace of Westphalia law and the growth of the Protestant movement in Western Europe and the...

• Social Conflicts

Complicated Connection Between Identity, Race and Ethnicity

Different groups of people are classified based on their race and ethnicity. Race is concerned with physical characteristics, whereas ethnicity is concerned with cultural recognition. Race, on the other hand, is something you inherit, whereas ethnicity is something you learn. The connection of race, ethnicity,...

• Cultural Identity

Best topics on Race and Ethnicity

1. How Does Race Affect Social Class

2. How Does Race Affect Everyday Life

3. Race and Ethnicity’s Impact on US Employment and Criminal Justice

4. Why Race and Ethnicity Matter in the Social World

5. The Correlation Between Race and Ethnicity and Education in the US

6. Damaging Effects of Social World on People of Color

7. An Eternal Conflict of Race and Ethnicity: a History of Mankind

8. Complicated Connection Between Identity, Race and Ethnicity

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• RACES Writing Strategy

The RACES writing strategy is an acronym that stands for the following components:

This refers to restating or rephrasing the question or prompt in your own words to ensure that you understand it correctly.

Provide a clear and concise answer to the question or prompt. This is the main part of your response and should directly address what is being asked.

Support your answer with evidence or examples. This could involve referencing specific facts, data, quotations, or other sources of information that support your response. Citing your sources helps to strengthen your argument and provide credibility to your writing.

Elaborate on your answer and provide further clarification or reasoning. Explain how your evidence or examples support your answer and demonstrate your understanding of the topic.

Summarize your response by restating your main points and bringing your writing to a conclusion. This helps to reinforce your main argument and leave a lasting impression on the reader.

Google Doc of the student graphic

The strategy provides a simple and structured framework for students to follow when responding to questions or prompts. It helps them develop their writing skills by encouraging them to restate the question, provide a clear answer, support their answer with evidence, explain their reasoning, and summarize their response.

By introducing the RACES strategy to students, teachers can help them organize their thoughts, express their ideas more effectively, and develop critical thinking skills. The strategy can be applied to various types of writing tasks, including short responses, paragraph writing, or longer compositions.

However, it's important to adapt the strategy to the age and abilities of the students. For younger elementary students, the concept of citing sources may be simplified to using examples from the text or personal experiences. Teachers can provide guidance and support as students learn to apply the different components of the RACES strategy in their writing.

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Citing textual evidence is critical to academic writing, professional communications, and even everyday discussions where arguments need to be supported by facts. Your ability to reference specific parts of a text improves credibility and strengthens your arguments, allowing you to present a well-rounded and persuasive case. For this reason, we wanted to give you a quick overview of how to cite evidence effectively, using one method in particular – the RACE strategy .

Introduction to Citing Text Evidence

The core reason for citing evidence is to lend credibility to an argument , showing the audience that the points being made are not just based on personal opinion but are backed by solid references. This practice is foundational in academic settings. There, the questions that students need to respond to are often constructed in a way that requires citing of evidence to support their answers. However, how can we make this process more quick and effectice? The answer lies in the RACE strategy, which is a special framework called to streamlines the process of citing textual evidence.

What is the RACE Strategy?

The RACE strategy stands for Restate, Answer, Cite evidence, and Explain. It is a methodical approach designed to help individuals construct well-structured answers that include textual proof. Let’s break down this method a little bit so you have some kind of impression on what we are going to talk about further.

• Restating the question or prompt in the introduction of the answer helps the writer to set the stage for a clear response.
• The direct answer, taht follows afterwards, presents the key point or thesis of the question.
• After we’e given an answer, we can move on to citing evidence, where we will integrate specific examples from the text to support the answer.
• Finally, we can move on to explaining our evidence. Here, it’s important to elaborating on how the cited examples support the argument we made.

This structured approach not only helps in organizing thoughts but also makes sure that the necessary components of a well-supported argument are present. Just like how to cite the constitution you have to be precise and factual. Let’s explore each step with actual examples to better illustrate how this strategy can help you with the process of citing textual evidence.

Restating basically means paraphrasing the original question or statement within your answer. This step demonstrates your understanding of the question and sets the stage for your response.

By answering directly, you respond to the question and therefore briefly present your main argument or thesis. You should stay clear and concise here, providing a straightforward statement of your position or understanding.

Cite Evidence

Citing evidence is where you integrate specific examples from the text to support your answer. This involves quoting or paraphrasing passages and pointing out where in the text your evidence can be found. Don’t forget to use quotation marks appropriately for direct quotes and to provide context for your citations or let a legal citation machine handle it.

For instance, to support the theme of racial injustice, you might cite evidence by saying,

When explaining, you elaborat on how your cited evidence supports your answer. This step connects your evidence back to your main argument, demonstrating a deeper understanding of the text.

After citing evidence, an explanation could be structured the following way,

To put it all together, here’s how an integrated response using the RACE strategy might look:

Response : ⬇

“The novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ primarily explores themes such as racial injustice and the loss of innocence. One of the central themes is racial injustice, which is depicted through the trial of Tom Robinson and its impact on the town of Maycomb. Harper Lee illustrates this theme through the character of Atticus Finch, who states, ‘In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins.’ (Lee, 1960, p. 295). This quote highlights the deeply ingrained racial biases within the judicial system of Maycomb, underscoring the novel’s critique of racial injustice and its effects on individuals and society as a whole.”

By following the RACE strategy and using actual examples, you can effectively structure clear and relevant responses that add depth to your argumentation. This method not only help in organizing thoughts but also in demonstrating a deep understanding of the text and its main topics.

However, there are a few nuances that you have to be aware of. The first one is the use of quotation marks. Don’t forget them when referencing direct quotes from a text, as they indicate that you took those words verbatim. Furthermore, you have to understand and use citation styles relevant to the discipline or context you write on. This will help you appropriately format your references and avoid unintentional plagiarizing. A quick tip: sentence starters and tags for dialogue can also help with introduction of quoted or paraphrased evidence effectively, as they let the reader or listener easily follow the argument’s progression.

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Adapting the race strategy for distance learning.

Even in the case of distance learnign , the RACE strategy remains a valuable tool for teaching students how to cite evidence effectively. Digital resources such as Google Docs often offer collaborative platforms where teachers can share templates, sentence stems, and color-coded examples to guide students through the response building process.

Moreover, interactive activities facilitated through online tools, can further engage students in practicing citing evidence, with digital resources providing immediate feedback and opportunities for revision. This adaptation help develop the skill of citing textual evidence even in a remote learning setting.

It’s hard to argue that citing textual evidence is useful skill that can help you get far in your academic writing as well as in other more professional fields. Following the RACE strategy and using our tips on referencing, you, as students, can create well-structured and compelling responses (which no professor could argue with).

How can I use the RACE strategy to improve my essay writing?

You can use the RACE strategy to structure your paragraphs or entire essays by ensuring that each section includes a restatement of the question (if applicable), a clear answer or thesis statement, cited evidence from your sources, and an explanation of how this evidence supports your argument. This approach can enhance clarity, coherence, and persuasiveness.

What are some tips for effectively citing evidence in my writing?

Some tips for effectively citing evidence are: using direct quotes from the text with proper quotation marks, paraphrasing accurately while maintaining the original meaning, providing specific examples, and ensuring that your citations are relevant and support your argument. Always include page numbers or other locator information if available.

Is the RACE strategy useful for standardized tests or only for classroom assignments?

The RACE strategy is beneficial for a wide range of writing tasks, including standardized tests, classroom assignments, and even professional writing. Its structured approach to constructing responses makes it a valuable tool for any situation requiring evidence-based writing.

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Race and Ethnicity, Essay Example

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Race refers to a person’s physical appearance.In the past, race used to be identified by the use of skin color, eye color, hair color and bone or jaw structure (Karen and Nkomo324).Conversely,ethnicity, is based on shared cultural factors such as nationality, culture, ancestry, food, languages and beliefs (Karen and Nkomo325). Currently, race identification is done by use of DNA molecules thus, physical appearances cannot give one the right race.Ethnic identification can be accepted or rejected by the person in a particular group.They are social characteristics that can either make a person to be accepted or rejected in the society (Greene and Owen 27).

Race according to sociologist are social concepts and is a way in which people are treated, for example, people treat black people different from the white.Race and ethnicity affects day-to-day life.For example, in the video, Sociologist Key Coder, when she was five years old, she was being asked what she is.Others saw Coder as Caucasian American, Spanish, others as Japanese although she was taller, darker and with some spots, this bring out clearly the aspects of racism in the society (Exploring Society Telecourse – video).

Causes of Race and ethnicity

There are four outcomes of race and ethnicity. These are stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination, and racism. Stereotypes arebehavioror a tendency of a particular group of people. When it is extreme it will be viewed as stereotypes. For example, all young people like music (Exploring Society Telecourse – Video).Prejudice is based on the stereotypes and attitudes or ideas determine how a person is treated. This is treating a person differently because of his/her race, for example, you stupid woman driver, just because she is a woman, she is treated differently. This judgment can either be positive or negative.

Discrimination, on the other hand, is when prejudice is acted upon. Discrimination is the acting on the attitude one has on the other.For example, having different hotels and washrooms, which are meant for white and black people (David174).Racism is discriminating people using their inherited traits. This is mostly used for the rationale of control and power. For example, during slavery the blacks were inferior and less privileged to the whites who became their masters. In racism, there is institutional racism, which is a large form of discrimination to a larger group.For example,the giving of health care services to the whites in a certain hospital and not the blacks (David, P.174).

Sociological perspective of race and ethnicity

Sociological perspective is the understanding of race and ethnicity in depth. There are three sociological perspectives; these are functionalism, conflicts, and interactionism.  Functionalism indicates that race and ethnicity exist because they serve a certain purpose in the community. Leaders can use it during the war to establish a sense of belonging in a country allowing them to act as one, for example, Hitler in Germany (Exploring Society Telecourse – Video).

In conflicts perspective, race and ethnicity is used for economical and political powers. This is used for the advantage of the dominant group against the inferior group.  For example, slavery was a conflict perspective because the slave acquired would work for their master, improving his wealth and political position in society. This is taking advantage of the less fortunate group (Exploring Society Telecourse – Video).Interactionism perspective is mostly in small scale and normally comes out when a certain group of people are around others. When there is a group of employees, a few will start viewing themselves differently.For example, Asians, this is because there are American and African in the same group; this is commonly known as Labeling (Exploring Society Telecourse – Video).

In conclusion, race and ethnicity impacts on the society by having people of a different race influencing the actions of the other race. This can be negative or positives,but mostly people choice to copy the positive traits or what they view as fit to them. For example, the rock and roll musicians in America, most of them being white or black acted the same way and people enjoyed their music.

Works Cited

Exploring Society Telecourse – Streaming Videos, Retrieved on 7 December 2012 From http://irt.austincc.edu/streaming/telecourses/si.html. Web.

Greene, Patricia and Margaret, Owen. “Race and ethnicity.” Handbook of entrepreneurial dynamics: The process of business creation (2004): 26-38. Print

Proudford, Karen L., and Stella Nkomo. “Race and ethnicity in organizations.” Handbook of workplace diversity. (2006): 323-344. Print.

Williams, David R. “Race, socioeconomic status, and health the added effects of racism and discrimination.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 896.1 (2006): 173-188. Print.

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