07 Jul L DAVIS FINAL DRAFT: Writing Project #1: Summary and Response Essay – Final Draft
ENGL 111: Writing Project #1: Summary Response Essay
Purpose
A response essay with summary asks the writer to read rhetorically and respond to ideas presented within a text. As a college student, you’ll often be asked to write papers in response to readings. Professors assign response papers because they allow you to demonstrate your ability to read complex texts carefully, understand what they mean, and think critically about them. Response papers invite you to do more than just memorize key course concepts for a test. They invite you to begin taking your place in the college community by “entering a conversation” about those concepts.
Skills: The purpose of English 111 is to help you develop and practice writing and thinking skills essential to your success in college and in your professional life beyond school. Drawing on Blooms Taxonomy of Learning Domains, we will focus on developing writerly moves that characterize strong written communication. This assignment will ask you to practice the following writing skills: Understanding, Applying, and Analyzing.
Knowledge: This assignment will focus on developing knowledge in the following course learning objectives:
- (1) Compose texts that exhibit appropriate rhetorical choices, including attention to audience, purpose, context, genre, culture, and convention.
- (2) Develop and apply strategies for critical reading, critical thinking, and information literacy.
- (5) Develop and advance thesis-driven compositions in an organized progression with appropriate supporting information.
Task
For this assignment, you will consider ideas presented in a text, write a focused summary of those ideas, craft a thesis statement outlining your response to an idea presented in the text and then support that response with evidence from the text.
From Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkensteins They Say/I Say:
the underlying structure of effective academic writingresides not just in stating our own ideas but in listening closely to others around us, summarizing their viewsand responding with our own ideas in kind. Broadly speaking, academic writing is argumentative writing, and we believe that to argue well you need to do more than assert your own position. You need to enter a conversation, using what others say (or might say) as a launching pad or sounding board for your own views. The best academic writing has one underlying feature: it is deeply engaged in some way with other peoples views (3).
In order to prepare for this paper we will read the following article: Lauren Davis’s: Should you really start eating insects?
To approach this assignment you will read the text carefully and begin to consider some of the following questions surrounding a focused idea presented in the text:
- As reader, what was your response to that idea? Why?
- What of the authors appeals to emotions, or reason influence your response?
- Do you trust this authors knowledge and information? Why or why not?
- What of your own knowledge, biases, or pre-conceived notions of the issue influence your response?
In your draft, briefly summarize the reading and develop your paper in response to one idea presented by the author. You will draw quotations and examples from the text to support your response. Information and ideas that you use to support your ideas should be documented with appropriate MLA or APA style in-text citations and a bibliography.
Criteria for Success
The Summary Response Essay final draft is worth a total of 100 points. A successful finished product will meet the following criteria listed on the rubric below.
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Introduction
An introduction to the core text and the narrowed idea you will be discussing in your response in the first paragraph with the thesis at the end of the first paragraph.
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Summary
A focused summary of the text between 150 and 200 words including main idea and supporting points located in the first paragraph only.
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Thesis
A clear and debatable thesis statement outlining the writer’s response to one idea in the text.
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Content and Organization
Body of the essay has clear topic sentences and supports the thesis statement using a variety of evidence; the evidence is not from any outside sources, only from the core reading itself.
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Effective Use of Sources
Writer draws effectively from the core text(s) utilizing mainly paraphrases (and if uses quotations, they are of 6 words or less), uses attributive tags, and explains the meaning and significance of the evidence. Quotes will not be used to start any paragraph.
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Revision
Effective revision choices including consideration of various types of feedback required by the Professor -in this order:
1) Peer feedback 2) Writing Center after Peer feedback |
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Writing Conventions and Exceptions
Mostly follows the conventions of standard written English. Has been effectively revised from the original rough draft. Final draft is at least 850 words (not more than 900 words) in length (about three double spaced pages).
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Formatting and Documentation
Follows the guidelines for APA formatting and documentation. This includes formatting for the paper, in-text citations, a cover sheet, and References.
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Total Points: 100
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