|
How
to Write a Summary-and-Response Essay Assignment 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. The best way to get a sense for the structure
of a summary-and-response essay is to study a few examples, so please do
the following: Begin
by reading the professional essays below and the student examples that
follow. First, notice how each student essay begins with a
paragraph that identifies the author, the professional essay, and provides
a brief summary of the professional essay’s main point. Second,
notice how the rest of the student essay is the student’s words and
ideas with occasional words from the professional essay blended in for
impact and effect. Finally, notice how the student credits the use
of the other writer’s words. 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 As
a first example, please read the professional essay Don’t
Let Stereotypes Warp Your Judgment
by
Robert Heilbroner. Once done, study the two
student examples that follow, by locating the requirements mentioned
above. Also study how both writers blended Heilbroner’s words with their own and credited Heilbroner for the words that were his. Student
Summary-and-Response Example #1--Heilbroner Student
Summary-and-Response Example #2—Heilbroner Student
Summary-and-Response Example #3--Heilbroner Here
is yet another example. First, follow the ProQuest
Steps
to find the professional essay "Still Learning from My Mother" by Cliff
Schneider. After
reading Schneider’s essay, please return to this page, and then read the
student example, keeping the following in mind: Notice
in this student sample that the writer has fulfilled the five requirements
above by using two paragraphs rather than one. (This is because the first
paragraph offers a much more extensive summary.) In the first paragraph,
the student writer identifies the author, the essay, and offers a detailed
summary (requirements 1, 2, and 3). The student writer then uses a second
paragraph to provides a transition that leads
into the thesis stated in the final sentence (requirements 4 and
5). Student
Example Summary-and-Response to
"Still Learning From My Mother" by Cliff Schneider Student
Example #2 with some corrections IMPORTANT
NOTE: Before beginning your Summary-and-Response essay, please be sure you
have read and understood the information in Working with Words from a
Source, located at this link
as well as located later in this Prep folder Part
of your grade on this essay will be determined by how well you have
mastered blending others' words with your own, so you will likely need to
refer to Working with Words from a Source quite often. |