Topic Strings

1. The song itself was written to help those who weren’t there visualize the riots, but that only scratches the surface of the song’s meaning. The listener is supposed to visualize the real tension in the air and the raw emotions felt. Hearing about it is obviously not the same as really being there; strong emotions felt by everyone there were the catalyst for the violence to escalate. It started with some small fights, and became a revolution, as protestors even attempted to tip a bus over. In fact, the song was first played on a one-time only re-opening of the night club, in front of an audience mostly comprised of those who participated in the riots (LA Times). Stills saw the embodiment of hippie counter-culture during the Sunset Strip Riots, the passion and need for change; he attempted to recreate that passion in his song, and show the world what it was really like to be a part of the revolution.

2. The song, The listener, It (the event), It (the event), The song, Stills (writer)

3. This paragraph is less about the characters themselves, and more about how they all come together to clarify the author’s purpose through some historical context. The character is the song, because it is what is affected and influenced by the events mentioned in the paragraph. This paragraph is a mixed topic string, because it focuses on multiple characters, with a centralized emphasis on the main character, the song.

4. The song itself was written to help those who weren’t present visualize the riots, but that only scratches the surface of the song’s meaning. The listener is supposed to visualize the real tension in the air and the raw emotions felt. The event is experienced differently for those who listen to the song than those who were truly present; strong emotions felt by everyone there were the catalyst for the violence to escalate. The protest started with some small fights, but eventually as some protesters tried to even tip a bus over, the event became a revolution. In fact, the song was first played for those who participated in the riots, at a one-time only reopening of the night club. (LA Times). Stills saw the embodiment of hippie counter-culture during the Sunset Strip Riots, the passion and need for change; he attempted to recreate that passion in his song, and show the world what it was really like to be a part of the revolution. *

*Highlighted are the changes made

            5. The topic positions, as previously stated, were anchored to the beginning of the sentences. They weren’t moved at all, as their positions were true to the focus of the sentences. Where I was ambiguous were the stress positions of these sentences. I moved some stress positions to the end to clarify the focus of the characters’ consequences.

            6. The song was experienced differently by people who experienced the event differently. Those who experienced the event differently were aware of the tensions in the 1960s. The tension is what made the protest become a revolution. The revolution was the embodiment of counter-culture. The embodiment of counter-culture was what Stills wrote his song after.