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 English 99
Final
Essay—Summary-and-Response
As
we have already learned, the Summary-and-Response essay assignment teaches
us how to incorporate another writer’s words with our own. The process begins by carefully reading
another writer’s essay. We then
begin our essay with an opening paragraph that identifies the writer, the
name of the essay we read, and briefly summarizes its content. The rest of our essay is made of our
words and ideas with selected words from the other essay occasionally
blended in for added effect and impact.
If
you would like to visit the Collier—“Anxiety:
Challenge by Another Name” example, please use the two links below:
The Collier essay
Example—the beginning of a
Summary-and-Response to Collier.
As
you read the example above, please notice how the essay opens with a
paragraph that identifies the author and the professional essay, provides a
brief summary of the professional essay’s main point, and then transitions
into the thesis. Here are the five requirements of the first paragraph in
list form:
1.
name the author
2.
name the work
3.
add a brief summary
4.
build a bridge to
your thesis (a transition)
5.
state your thesis at
the end of the paragraph
6.
If you would like
more examples of opening paragraphs, please click on the link below:
Summary-and-Response
opening paragraph examples
Back
to the Collier example, please notice how the rest of the essay is the
student’s words and ideas with occasional words from Collier’s essay blended
in for impact and effect.
Finally,
notice how the student credits the use of the other writer’s words.
The Assignment
(100 points
possible)
Write a Summary-and-Response essay
to one of the following professional essays:
(You
can find the following three essays by using the ProQuest Advanced Search through our library)
- “Your Kid’s Going to Pay
for Cheating—Eventually” by Leonard Pitts
- “Lessons of Abu Ghraib” by Mark Bowden
- “Fathers Do Best: Why
Dedicated Dads are Usually Healthier and Happier” by Rosalind Barnett
Or
one of the two professional essays left over from the last essay
assignment: The professional articles were
“Don’t
Let Stereotypes Warp Your Judgments” by Robert Heilbroner,
“Let’s
Really Reform Our Schools” by Anita Garland,
“The
Good Old Days Are Now: What Today’s Families Are Doing Right” by Delores
Curran.
Computer Lab 1220-G help—Friday,
March 4 and Monday, March 7
Peer Editing Day is Tuesday,
March 8—must
have a completed rough draft to participate.
The essay is due Tuesday,
March 15 at
the beginning of class.
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