English homework

1. Annotate the Text: Read the essay you’ve chosen a second (or third, or fourth time!) actively. Annotate the article as we’ve discussed in class: mark phrases, images, or ideas that strike you as interesting or important; note the ways the essayist uses language to convey his or her ideas. Respond in the margins with your intellectual and emotional impressions. Take notes and jot down your thoughts on separate paper for use later. You are trying to find out what the essay means to you. Consider any of the following as you respond:

• How does my experience and background, especially in regards to education, compare to the writer or characters?

• Can I relate to the writer or characters? Do we share similar hopes, passions, troubles?

• Am I affected or changed by this reading? How so? • What questions has he or she raised that I want to

examine further? What has the writer left unsaid about this idea?

• How might this issue or idea impact my life, community, or the larger society in which I live?

• Play “What if?” What if this was my life? What if I were one of the characters?

• Do I have a story to tell that relates to this idea in some way?

2. Write your Summary: Your summary should be close to 100 words, covering the main ideas in the text, rather than details.

• Do not insert your own opinion into the summary. Strive to be accurate, objective, and concise.

• Introduce the author and the title of the text you are discussing in the first line of your summary.

• Use MLA documentation with parenthetical citations for any brief quotes you choose to include.

• Provide a Works Cited list. During this Progression, we’ll cover documentation generally, but see The Little

Seagull Handbook for help here. 3. What is your Response? Use your notes and annotations to respond to the text. What are your ideas, connections, associations with the text? Do you have a story that relates somehow? What do you think? Your response should be 150-250 words.

MSS Notes:

• Exercise 1.1 & 1.2 should be about 2 typed, double-spaced pages in total for both the summary and response. You’ll have to think carefully about what to include; don’t add words merely to fill a quota. As always, spell check and proofread your document before turning it in! Be sure to clearly mark each section; i.e., “Summary” and “Reponse.”

Your annotation, Summary/Response is due in class as homework on ________. Plan to turn in these exercises with the finished Project Text Essay