summary and respone
Developed by Amanda Monteleone
For internal use within the Department of English at Texas Wesleyan University
CC BY-NC-SA to Amanda Monteleone
ENG 1301 Summary and
Response
Guidelines
Purpose
Your Summary and Response essay demonstrates your ability to summarize a text in your own
words. Your essay will also demonstrate your analysis of the text’s relevance today.
Content and Arrangement
You will summarize and respond to “Look. Listen. Over There,” first published by Los Angeles
Times editors on November 10, 2002.
Your essay should be arranged as follows:
Title
• Provide a unique title that relates to the contents of your essay. Don’t title the essay
“Summary and Response,” etc.
Summary
• Introduce the title and authors of the assigned reading in your first sentence.
• Briefly describe the major topics of the work based on our class conversations. Make sure
to describe at least three topics. Your summary should come from your own observations
of the essay as well as our class conversations and your small group discussions. You
should consult past PowerPoint slides on Blackboard to jog your memory as well as your
notes. You can use the template on pp. 421-422 from Write What Matters to form your
summary.
• For each major point you bring up in your summary, describe a specific detail as an
example of the topic. See the following example sentences from the template on pp. 421-
422: “First, [author] describes [first topic]. For instance, [specific example from the text
to illustrate this point (can be paraphrase or quote)].”
• Do not consult online sources for this assignment. Part of your task is to demonstrate
your participation in class conversations and your awareness of what we’ve discussed so
far in class. If you have difficulty summarizing the major points from our discussion, see
me during my office hours. Moreover, using ideas from outside sources without giving
credit will result in a plagiarism sanction. It may be helpful to think of this paragraph as a
“test” or “quiz” on what we have covered in class so far about the assigned reading.
Developed by Amanda Monteleone
For internal use within the Department of English at Texas Wesleyan University
CC BY-NC-SA to Amanda Monteleone
• To give credit to ideas generated in class, precede your idea with language like “In our
class conversations, we discussed how…” or “A classmate brought up the interesting
point that…”
• Provide a transitional statement referring to your response about the essay’s relevance in
the following paragraph. Example: “Next, I will examine how this essay, published over
20 years ago, strikes readers today.”
Response
• In your topic sentence of your next paragraph, state the main idea of the essay. Explain
why you think the author has chosen to write about this particular idea.
• Describe the syntax, or sentence structure, used to communicate the main idea. Choose a
detail from the essay to illustrate your point about syntax. Use the quotation sandwich
style we have studied in class. Follow up with plenty of your own commentary to
describe your point about syntax in this quote.
• What conflict(s) do you see expressed in the essay? Provide at least one quotation
sandwich that illustrates a conflict in the essay, accompanied by your explanatory
commentary.
• Explain the degree to which you feel the conflict(s) expressed in the essay are relevant
today. How has our communication changed over the past twenty years, generally
speaking?
• Develop on your response to the previous prompt by providing two examples of
communication today from your own experience. Provide plenty of commentary to back
up your point about how today’s communication styles compare to those expressed in the
essay.
Style
Your audience for this essay is your classmates and instructor. Therefore, your writing style
should be semi-professional.
Each paragraph must have a clear topic sentence. Each paragraph should have a clear purpose in
the essay and relate to a specific point or main idea. For instance, the purpose of your first
paragraph is to summarize “Look. Listen. Over There,” while the purpose of your second
paragraph is to analyze the essay’s relevance today.
Your essay must be double-spaced, with 12-point font size and one-inch margins all the way
around. Your header, heading and title should be formatted in MLA style. See the Purdue OWL
website (https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html) for more information on formatting your
essay in MLA style.
Proofread your work carefully before submission. Use spell-check and grammar-check resources
before submitting your work. I strongly recommend reading your paper aloud before submitting
it to catch missing words or run-on sentences that error-checking resources cannot detect.
Developed by Amanda Monteleone
For internal use within the Department of English at Texas Wesleyan University
CC BY-NC-SA to Amanda Monteleone
Grading
Your essay will be assessed on a scale of 0-100 according to the following criteria:
• inclusion of all required elements in the “Content and Arrangement” section
• well-developed paragraphs with clear topic sentences
• proper MLA formatting and citation styles
• professional formatting and proofreading practices
Your essay must be a minimum of two pages long, not including a Works Cited page, to be
eligible for a passing grade. To meet this requirement, you should have a substantial amount of
text on page “2” of the draft. Extra spaces between lines, paragraphs, or before or after title, and
lengthy quotes within the paper will not count toward this length requirement.
Make sure to include all required elements in your essay. Make these elements clearly
identifiable by using language that repeats the question or prompt along with your answer. Any
degree of generic, “AI-style” writing will automatically receive zero credit and a plagiarism
referral. Protect your integrity by clearly referring to the specified elements (main idea, syntax,
conflicts, etc.) with key words and by personalizing your response to your individual
communication experience.
When quoting from the assigned reading, use the “quotation sandwich” style discussed in class,
sandwiching quotes with important contexts and following with plenty of your own commentary
relating the quote back to the paragraph’s topic.
You must provide a Works Cited entry for the assigned reading.
The Summary and Response essay is worth 10% of your total grade. Your submission will
receive a 10-point deduction for each day late. Your submission will not be accepted after three
days past the initial due date/time.
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Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
