English Literature Essay

Summary Response Essay Presentation

Your first writing assignment is a summary response essay. The purpose of the presentation is to give you important information on how to write this type of essay.

Reading Critically • Read through the short fiction and make notes.

• Understand the author techniques to engage you as a reader through plot, conflict, character, and setting.

• Keep a “reader’s log” where you respond to certain points throughout the story.

Whenever you are writing about literature, the first step is to re-read the piece you will be writing about and take notes. Remember, think about what you have learned about plot, conflict, character and setting. Keep a log where you respond to certain points throughout the story.

What to Place in Your Notes • Summary: List main ideas, key features, examples, and evidence the author may provide

• Response: Log your reaction to each main point, record your comments, and questions

In your summary, you will need to list the main ideas, key features, examples, and evidence that the author provides. Before you think about your response, review your prompt carefully, as the prompt will help you in focusing your response. Keeping the topic in mind, make notes of your reactions and questions.

Purpose of this Essay • To understand

• To be able to summarize

• To be able to respond or react

The purpose of a summary response essay is twofold: you want to understand the author’s main ideas and purpose of the story. In order to do this, you will be summarizing the author’s main ideas as they relate to your topic. You will then respond to what the author has said by relating the topic (or the subject) to your own life experiences.

Preparing the Summary • Cite the author and the title of the text.

• Indicate the main ideas of the text.

• Paraphrase main ideas; quote sparingly, use key words, phrases, and sentences.

• Be objective as you jot down the actual plot points.

The summary will come first in your essay. In your summary, you must cite the author, the title, and the main ideas of the text. This usually comes in the introductory paragraph. You do not want to summarize the entire story. You just want to focus on the topic presented in the prompt that you chose. For example, if you chose the Good People prompt, your summary will focus on the conflict the two characters were facing. You can use some quotes to support your ideas but use them sparingly. Instead, use key words and phrases.

Preparing the Response • Your response relates to the prompt you chose.

• You want to use your own experience and tie it to the main points the author is making in the story.

• You may agree or disagree with how the characters responded to the problem as long as you support your opinions.

The purpose of a summary response essay (as we said) is to prepare your summary. The next part of the essay is going to be structuring your response.

Structuring Your Response • Requires your reaction to the text and your interpretation of the text

• A response of this nature will react to the ideas or the argument

• Simply, do you agree with the author? Why or why not?

• Provide evidence based on your experiences to support your reaction

Your response requires that you react to the text and your interpretation of the text as you relate your own experience. You may have reacted differently than the characters in the situation. Why? How does your experience differ from the character’s situation? Do you agree or disagree with the author? Provide evidence based on your experience.

How to Provide Evidence to Support Your Response • Your response requires that you provide evidence to support your opinion that will come from

actual lines in the short fiction.

• Find quotations from the story that seem to support your main ideas.

As you formulate your response, use evidence from the text to support your ideas. You should try to use 1-2 direct quotes in each body paragraph of the essay.

Personal Experience in the Response Section • Use personal experience as examples to demonstrate why you interpret the text the way you

do, why you react the way you do, why you agree or disagree

• Explain how your personal experience supports your response and make certain that you use examples from your experience that are specific.

You will be developing the response section by providing examples from your own life that answers the questions proposed in the prompt. Make sure you keep this in mind as you work your way through this part of the essay.

Introduction • Brief introduction that will state these items:

• Title of the short story; Name of author.

• Any key information you might know about author to help establish author’s background.

• State author’s main idea.

• Thesis: a well thought out statement stating your main point about the short fiction.

Your introduction will state the name of the short story and the author. You might want to give a little background information about the author. Look at the prompt carefully. Use keywords from the prompt to come up with your thesis. For example, the characters in Good People were facing a major decision. If you chose this prompt, you would mention the conflict the characters faced and then mention that you also faced such a decision in your life.

Body Organization: Block • I. Introduction with thesis.

• II. Summary of main points in the short story.

• III. Response to the short story with personal examples.

• IV. Conclusion

There are two different structures that you can use to develop this essay. The block by block method begins with the summary. You would spend one or two paragraphs summarizing the main points in the story that relate to your prompt. The second part of the essay will be your response to the prompt using personal examples. This is probably the easiest structure to do. The point by point method presents one point in the summary followed by one point in the response. You would do this throughout the essay. This works well if you have parallel points, which does not happen very often. So, I would suggest that you look at the block by block method first.