ENG 1520 Summary Response Essay
(General Education Outcome – Critical Thinking, Information Literacy)
As students, critical thinking is one of the most valuable skills you will develop. Simply put, critical thinking is the objective analysis of information to form a judgement. A summary response essay requires you to think critically about the ideas presented in a text, and offer a response to them after you have summarized the author’s key points. Summarizing an author’s ideas shows that you understand the material as it’s presented, and a response shows that you have thought carefully about them.
In this assignment you will be inserting your voice into an on-going academic discussion as you will summarize and respond to the ideas in an article of your choice. It’s time to begin thinking about the topic for your final research project. The article you choose is the start of your research. Get started by thinking about issues you care about. No conspiracy based or religious themed topics are acceptable for your final project. Your article must come from a credible source. I suggest using the OCC Library to start your search.
Begin by summarizing the author’s ideas. State the title and author of the source within the first 1-2 lines. You will also need to state the main idea of the text in your own words early in your essay. As you continue summarizing, note the author’s key points that support the main idea, and how these claims are justified (examples, explanations, and details). Be mindful to use summarizing language to distinguish your words from the author’s (“According to,” “The author states,” “The author asserts,” “As noted in the article” etc.).
After summarizing the article, get started on your response. Use your own experiences, views, and prior knowledge to develop this section of the paper. What did you think about the author’s points? What points did you agree with? Disagree with? As you present your own views, remember that it is not enough to merely agree or disagree with the author. You must provide good reasoning and/or evidence to support your ideas. Your response may also include an assessment of the effectiveness of the text. Even if you agree with the main point of the article, you may take issue with the quality or nature of the supporting evidence.
Assignment guidelines:
• MLA formatting guidelines (Times New Roman, 12 font, 1 inch margins, double-spaced)
• A minimum of two pages
• Summary must be in your own words
• Summary should not include your opinion or ideas; just note the author’s main points. Save your ideas/thoughts/opinions for your response
• Works Cited page if you quote the article
Due Thursday, March 31
