ENC 1102 Essay #1: Summary & Response
*See Canvas for due dates.
*Below are the general instructions for this assignment; however, your
professor will provide the reading and more specific instructions for this
assignment.
Assignment—Draft, revise, and edit your text to produce a well-organized essay
of at least 600 words and not more than 800 in response to the assigned reading(s).
Use the text reading as a source and provide at least 1 outside source.
Present your essay in MLA format with correct in-text citations and a Works
Cited page.
Purpose—Why are we writing this assignment? What does it matter? As the
editors of our textbook, The Norton Field Guide to Writing, have observed, “All
academic writing is part of a larger conversation” to which you are “adding your
own voice.” The process of drafting, peer reviewing, revising, and editing your
response to this assignment will help you learn how to first summarize another
writer’s essay and then to analyze his or her text to answer a question that arises
from it.
Skills—This assignment requires you to practice the skills of summary and
analysis. These terms can be defined as follows:
• Summary requires you to identify and then to state in your own words the
main point (thesis) and the key supporting points (perhaps found in topic
sentences) of the source essay. A summary is much shorter than the original
text. Therefore, you must decide which of the author’s ideas to include and
which to leave out.
• Analysis is the act of breaking down text and separating ideas to expand
upon and clarify. When you analyze the text, you should develop a few
major key points and find evidence to support your response.
Checklist—To earn a “C” or better on the assignment, be sure to do the following
things:
• Write at least 700 words and not more than 900.
• Use MLA format throughout your essay.
• Give your essay an interesting and original title.
• Include a brief summary of the source essay. Place this summary in the
introduction or in the first body paragraph.
• State an assertive, insightful, and responsive thesis in the last sentence of
your introduction.
• Integrate at least 1-2 correctly cited quotations or paraphrase from each
source, the assigned reading and outside source.
• Begin each body paragraph with a topic sentence that supports the thesis and
that organizes the sentences which come after it in the paragraph.
• Include correct MLA documentation and a Works Cited page. Note that an
essay with missing or incorrect MLA documentation may not earn a
passing grade.
• Proofread your essay. Integrate complex sentence structures into your essay.
Reread it to find any fragments, run-ons, subject/verb agreement errors,
misspellings, or incorrect punctuation. Note that an essay with numerous
errors in grammar may not earn a passing grade.
• Essay must carefully follow instructions, both written and verbal.
