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Analytical Summary (10%)

Due: Tuesday, January 26th 2016 by 8am

Technicalities and Must-Haves: 3-4 pages, Times New Roman; 12 font; Standard margins; Double spaced; Last name and page number on top right corner; Title of work (Do not title your work “Analytical Summary”); MLA formatting (please reference: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/); Works Cited page.

Your Task:

Throughout your academic and professional career you will be asked to summarize and respond to materials you engage with, much like your Summary Response you do for this class. Your first assignment in this class asks you to look Holly Devor’s article “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” and write an analytical summary. An analytical summary gives a condensed account of the article in an analytical manner. For this assignment, you will write an essay in which you analyze the strengths and/or weaknesses of Devor’s argument. Your purpose is to establish and support a position agreeing with, disagreeing with, or taking a mixed position toward an author’s viewpoint. Some ideas for what you might analyze could be:

· The claims the author makes,

· how well the author’s points are made,

· the credibility of the evidence or sources used to support those points,

· whether or not the evidence is viable and why,

· what points the author may have overlooked,

· whether or not the author gave enough context/explanation of concepts,

· the organization and structure of the essay,

· the author’s language and tone,

· the strengths and/or weaknesses of the author’s rhetorical moves and writing strategies (transition words, presenting the opposing argument before introducing her own argument, etc.),

· etc.

· etc.

While you should give a short overview of the whole article in your summary, your main focus should be on something that the writer says and the way the writer supports that point. So the bulk of your paper will not be an overall summary of all the points in the essay but rather will focus on the one aspect of the article, analyzing what the author is saying in this particular moment or how the author uses a particular writing strategy. For instance, how does the author support a particular point? What evidence does she use? Is the evidence viable or believable? Why does it work or not work?

The skills you will acquire by writing this essay are the following: reading comprehension and accurate summary of the author’s main points, paraphrase, moving from description to interpretation, writing an analytical summary that goes beyond mere agreement/disagreement, introduction to revision, and grammar issues.

Audience:

Your audience for this assignment will be your instructor and your classmates. Even though your readers know the text you writing about, you should still thoroughly represent its main ideas and key points, and provide accurate textual evidence throughout.

Requirements:

Your summary should be about one page. To achieve your purpose with your audience, use the following strategies in your summary:

· Introduce the text and the author at the beginning. This way your readers know which text you are summarizing.

· Focus on the author’s argument (i.e. their thesis). Here you should show your understanding of the author’s purpose and how they support it.

· It is always good to signal your reader and thus phrases such as "Devor says/notes/states," "According to Devor," and "for Devor, the solution appears to be," etc. should be used.

· Remember to not use the author’s first name.

Your response should be a page length and should answer the following questions: Was the author(s) successful at reaching their purpose with their intended audience? Here you should answer this question by including a thesis, reasons for supporting your thesis, and evidence supporting your reasoning. Chose at least one of the following features to focus your response on:

· Purpose

· Audience

· Context

· Thesis

· Organization and evidence

· Language and tone