Question:
Using what you have learned in Ch 3. Summarizing and Responding, I would like you to summarize Richard Rodriguez’s opening for his book, Brown . I’m not sure your experience with writing summaries, but you should be aware that writing a summary should feel like it’s creative writing, but creative in a very different sense. Don’t think of it as the creative where you are expressing your earnest thoughts about an idea or feeling. Instead, think of it as creative where you have to discover the wording that will sound natural and objective and concise and pertinent to the description you are offering. Please know that I am definitely grading for how well you can adhere to the guidelines in the textbook. Make sure your opening sentence matches the opening sentence indicated in the textbook. Also, make sure you use “signal phrases” throughout. To my mind, one of the real benefits of Chapter 3 in the Norton textbook is its contrast to the Response. If you’re looking for further contrast, you might take a look at Chapter 14 – Abstracts. It might help call to mind that the summary should be written in present tense, not past.