This directly applies to my research topic because it presents the central idea of democracy that everybody is "unique" and therefore each person has their own "measure" and they matter in society.

Here, Taylor is placing his argument in a wider context. This adds credibility and better explains his stance.

1) The assertion made here is that rap music can be perceived in many different ways that goes beyond the idea that it is merely a threat or that rappers are merely violent criminals. This claim is sufficiently evaluative and possesses the potential scope for a well-developed essay. In this paragraph, it is hard to determine how exactly the essay will be structured, but it leaves it open for many possibilities. 2) This paragraph involves two different sources in which the sources are concisely summarized. In the beginning, you touch briefly on the context for N.W.A. as does "Mark of Criminality" and then you contrast that with the "potentially 'threatening' word choice" in reference to the "Threat or Art" article. These sources work well together as they create a tension between the two. A stronger idea, as I'm sure you will do in your actual essay, would be to quote more of the language used in both of the sources to differentiate the opposing ideas. 3) If you are arguing that the violent nature of rap music can be seen in a different light, then the paragraph does begin to effectively analyze the relationship with the two sources towards that argument. If you wish to deepen the argument, or qualify it any way, then further analysis into the sources would be required. 4) The arrangement of your sentences work well to summarize the sources and place them together in tension with one another. However, if you want to further the argument then you may need to lead with a source citation and then analyze it until it almost comes into "contact" with the other source. This might help add a closer reading of the sources and can strengthen your argument even more.

This claim may be an extension of the author's general motive, but it is also certainly an argument made from close reading. This assertion is effective in expressing the importance of music as it "binds our culture." Without close reading, it would be hard for the author to argue this level of significance of "oral art."

This claim demonstrates an effective argument based on close reading. The author is making an assertion about where the music industry is headed with evidence as to how this is so from the changing ways songs are becoming hits.

This is a very interesting thing to notice, it is distinguishing these types of poems from other type of literature and making it much more personal.