Passage Discussion

[soyeonjeon]

Can someone check/advise my passage map?
Is there a see saw in this passage? or is it just the scholars' view + lawyers' view/ their concerns about difficulty and the essential aspect of the solution presented at the very end?

Thanks for your help

Passage #4 Analysis

Paragraph 1:

"¢ Main Point: South Africa’s elimination of apartheid system entails a transition to a rights-based legal system in a constitutional democracy. This indicates a significant change in the legal system, a shift from a rule-bound legal system in which the parliament was the supreme maker and arbiter of laws, to a legal system based on individual rights.

"¢ Support: line 10 _ 19.
"¢ Author’s View/Assertion: 20 _ 24, 1 -10

Paragraph 2: Concerns about the difficulty presented by the lawyers and scholars of South Africa.

"¢ Difficulty brought up by the lack of precedents of the bill of rights and the danger of judges’ blindly following the interpretations given by foreign countries in their rush to fill the constitutional void.
"¢ Paragraph 2/ Attitude: Nonetheless, these scholars are hopeful that, with patience and judicious decisions, South Africa can use international experience in developing a body of precedent that will address the particular needs of its citizens.

Support or background: Lack of precedent
Distinctively different circumstances of South Africa and other countries that have had bill of rights.

Paragraph 3: Problem identified, specific manifestations of the problem are given, and an essential element in its solution is presented.
"¢ South Africa must also contend with the image of the law held by many of its citizens (political climate opposed to government : line 45-53).

"¢ Author’s view/ Conclusion: If a new rights-based culture is to succeed, the government will need to show its citizens that the legal system is no longer a tool of oppression but instead a way to bring about change and help further the cause of justice.

[tommywallach]

Hey Soyeon,

So this is going to sound strange, but I want to encourage you to work on your passage map in a slightly different way.

The point of the passage map is to help you on the LSAT: both in understanding the passage and answering questions. To that end, you should never take notes that are unlike what you would do on the real test.

Your notes here are WAY too long. I'm sure you know this, but at the same time, you only want to practice things that you're actuall going to use. For example, never quote whole sentences from the actual passage in your map.

The reason this is so important is that sometimes we write down a lot of language because it serves us as a crutch. True understanding is usually fairly efficient. Let me show you what my map would look like.

Main Idea: Transition to rights-based law will be tough.

Paragraph 1: Difference between old system and new
Paragraph 2: Some difficulties in transitioning (no precedents)
Paragraph 3: Another difficulty (negative view of laws)

That's pretty much all I would need. See how much more efficient it is. Also, notice that I'm using my own language, rather than quoting the passage.

By the way, none of the stuff you wrote was wrong. Your understanding seems very strong. But in making your map, I want to encourage you to do more synthesizing and synopsizing. You don't need to write down "support areas" for your beliefs or anything like that. Just get down the see-saw (or when there isn't a see-saw, as there isn't here, just write down the main idea) and a basic structural outline (i.e. 1 sentence on what each paragraph is there to accomplish, with less of a focus on content than on structure).

Hope that helps!

-t