Summary/Response Essay
Learning Objectives:
Students will practice:
Closely and actively reading a complex text by reading the text multiple times and
annotating the text
Identifying the controlling and supporting ideas in a text
Summarizing a text by focusing on the controlling idea/s
Organizing a paper around a strong thesis and topic sentences
Supporting claims about the text with evidence, such as logic, reason, direct
quotes, personal observation, etc.
The Assignment:
Active reading, which includes close reading, annotating, and making personal
connections to the text, naturally leads to summary and response. Active reading and
writing summaries are common practices in college. Active reading helps you understand
complex texts and writing summaries helps you pull together the conclusions and
approaches of experts who have researched and written about a specific concept.
For this assignment, you will summarize and respond to Platos The Allegory of the Cave.
An allegory is a type of story that reveals a hidden meaning. By definition, allegories are
open to interpretation, meaning you might find a different meaning than your classmates.
In this type of essay, your goal is to capture the controlling idea and the supporting
details of a text in the summary, then respond by describing your reaction to the text.
The Summary:
Discuss The Allegory of the Cave in a forum and will work together to identify the controlling and supporting ideas. You will also watch a video explaining several
popular interpretations of the allegory. You should take notes and are free to use ideas we
generate in the forum or see in the video in your essay. However, you shouldnt rely solely on class discussion or outside sources to prepare you for writing the essay. You should read the text closely, more than once, and annotate on your own. Use the class discussions to supplement your notes, rather than as the primary source for your notes. After active reading (reading closely and annotating the text) and class discussion, write a summary of the text. Rather than trying to rewrite the original text line-by-line, focus on
explaining the authors main idea/s and showing how supporting points support the main idea.
