On-campus English 101

Essay Assignment #2: Summary-and-Response

• Value: up to 100 points

• Due: Beginning of class, Tuesday, May 16

• Peer Editing Workshop—Monday, May 8--attendance and participation with a completed rough draft yields 25 points.

• Length: 400-500 words with the following content:

1. An introductory paragraph that summarizes your article.

2. A second paragraph that acts as a transition and states your thesis sentence at its end. (Please see the essay on pp. 417-419 for an excellent example of a first and second paragraph.)

2. Three to four effective response paragraphs to the article that blend words from the article and credit the article correctly. (Please follow the example given in class.)

3. An appropriate, elegant conclusion.

· Sample Outline

Paragraph 1—Summary

Paragraph 2—Transition and thesis sentence

Paragraph 3—Response #1

Paragraph 4—Response #2

Paragraph 5—Response #3

Paragraph 6—An elegant conclusion

Steps to follow:

___1. Review again and again Steps to Writing Well—Reading and Discussion #6: The Summary-and-Response Essay Structure.

___2. Choose one of the following four essays to summarize and respond to:

Either of the essays used in class as examples

Still Learning from My Mother, pp. 319-320

Don’t Let Stereotypes Warp Your Judgments, pp. 347-350

___3. Write a competent summary of the essay you chose, carefully following the advice on pp. 171-172. This will be paragraph #1 of your essay.

___4. Write a second paragraph that serves as a transition and states your thesis sentence. An excellent example is paragraph #2 of the student essay on p. 417.

___5. Write three response paragraphs, each incorporating words from the essay you chose and then presenting your support, examples, position, opinion.

___6. Write multiple drafts until you have something worth sharing with your reader.

___7. Bring two copies of your revised draft to our Peer Editing Workshop and be ready to give and receive constructive, helpful suggestions.

___8. Incorporate into another revision as many of your Writing Group’s comments as you think appropriate and revise again.

___9. Review the Essay Grading Sheet to see how your essay measures up and make necessary adjustments. Please remember that more will be expected from this essay than from the one before it.

___10. Submit your final draft by the due date.