Summary and Response Essay:
MLA Format: (Times New Roman, 12 point font, double spaced, one inch margins)
Length: Approx. 1100 words (350 minimum for summary and 750 minimum for Response)
Purpose:
This writing assignment will help you to practice writing a short objective summary of a primary text (Ted Talk or article), then incorporating source material into your own analysis of it, one of the most common forms of college writing.
For this essay, you will use your primary text and then one other text to support your argument.
Two part paper:
Part 1:
You will write an objective summary on the PRIMARY TEXT that explains the author’s thesis and key points.
Part 2: You will then write your response, utilizing the other text to help inform your response. In your response to the summarized text, speak back to its author from your own critical thinking and values, using the second text to help support your reasoning. In your response, you should consider the author’s rhetorical strategies, your own agreement/disagreement with the author’s ideas, and your personal response to the text. Explain how your engaging with the text has expanded and deepened your thinking about its ideas.
Steps:
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Select one primary text (Ted Talk or article).
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Select one other text as a source for your response.
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Summarize the primary text.
- Write a Response that argues what you think about the author’s reasons, using the other article to support your position.
As you work with ideas from the text, remember to use attributive tags/signal phrases, quotation marks for any quoted passages, and MLA documentation (and your own strategies) to distinguish your ideas and language from those of the article you have chosen.
Attributive tags:
Smith states that —–
Smith argues ——
This article claims —-
***The use of someone else’s words or ideas without proper attribution constitutes plagiarism and will be reported to the university.
Topic and (Possible) Article Choices:
Criteria for a Successful Essay
Objective Summaries: Your summaries will provide an explanation of the context of the article (author, place of publication, when it was published, and any other pertinent information). Additionally, the summaries will clearly explain the thesis and all key points of the article. Your summary should rely simply on language that EXPLAINS the content of the article without evaluating or commenting on it.
Strong Response: Your analytical response should clearly identify which of the two articles you are responding to and analyze why you agree. In this analysis, you should respond directly to REASONS used by the author. You will argue why you dis/agreed with the author using specific evidence from the other article or your own personal experiences. Your conclusion should evaluate the impact of this article in light of your own views of the topic. Your response should be clearly organized into multiple paragraphs that include an introduction with a thesis, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Your response should have considerable support and development of your ideas concerning the author’s position and the topic itself. Moreover, you will have clear focus for the response overall (thesis) as well as a clear focus for each paragraph.
Appropriate Use of Sources: Your summaries should NOT rely on any direct quotes and should instead simply overview the article. However, you are expected to quote directly in the response section of the essay from BOTH articles. You must cite properly following MLA style.
Works Cited Page: You must include a works cited page that lists all of the sources cited in the paper in proper MLA format.
Style and Grammar: Your essay should have clear and easy to follow style with few if any grammatical errors and should engage the reader throughout. Consistent grammatical errors will result in a lower grade. Tone, point of view, and word usage should be appropriate for an academic paper.
Organization: Your essay should be organized with a clear plan in mind, with each paragraph flowing logically into the next. Similarly, each individual paragraph should have a clear and unique topic with all information in each paragraph supporting the topic at hand. Transitions should be used appropriately in and between paragraphs.
TED TALK LINK :
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