Write a 3-4 page essay summarizing and responding to a single source. Your essay should be written in MLA format (double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1 inch margins).
Class-specific Skills Assessed: Critical Reading, Summarizing, Organization, Quoting, and Formatting Response writing calls for you to express the content of the article you’ve read in your own words and then provide your own perspective on that article (not that entire issue). In other words, I am looking for you to stay close to the source text and include specific points with which you agree or disagree. Each paragraph you write should have some reference to the article, whether you’re quoting or paraphrasing.
You do not necessarily need to agree or disagree with everything the author says in order to argue effectively. It is perfectly acceptable to have a fair amount of common ground along with some new perspective of your own. No matter which approach you choose, you will write as if you’re communicating with an audience that has not read the article that you’re responding to. You’ll need to explain what is contained in the original piece and why it is important that you respond to it; then you can develop your own opinions while making specific references to the article.
Developing Your Essay
You should develop your essay as described here. An essay with the following structure will work very well for this assignment:
An introduction that includes a thesis statement.
A summary of the article you’ve chosen.
Your own reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the author. This section should be the most substantial part of the essay and should be several paragraphs. I recommend using each paragraph to focus on a given quote or idea from the article.
A conclusion that rephrases the thesis statement.
A works cited entry. Since we have not covered these yet, I have created them for you and posted them on Canvas. Cut and paste the relevant entry into your document. Your Works Cited page does not count towards the paper’s length requirement.
Remember, you are to imagine that you are writing for an audience that has not read the article you’ve chosen, so you will need to be especially careful with the summary. Use the strategies you’ve already learned to craft your summary of the article without plagiarizing, meaning that your summary must include the author’s name and the title of the work, and any borrowed language must be marked with quotation marks.
