*** Choose one of these two essays from Writing from Sources: either Mike Rose’s “Making Sparks Fly” (pp.96-103) or Stephen Marche’s “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely” (pp.103-112), (I’ll send you the sources) and write a full-length, multi-paragraph essay summarizing it. This is a very difficult task–Remember that you are not criticizing the essay, just telling what is in it. Your essay’s thesis sentence will be the original author’s thesis. You may rearrange the supporting details, but remember that a good summary is comprehensive & thorough.You will be writing a whole essay. Perhaps most important: A full-length essay has several paragraphs. The total length will depend on the original article you choose–but these essays will probably be 3-5 pages. You can write more than this if you need to.

Helpful Hints for Doing the Summary Essay

1) Be sure to read the suggestions in the Blue Box on p. 95 of Writing
from Sources. Remember that this assignment is even more
complicated—you are summarizing a complex essay by writing an
essay of your own!

2) No matter which essay you choose to work on, you need to find the
author’s main argument, or Thesis. In your essay you can either
quote it or put it in your own words. The author’s Thesis may even
be more than one sentence long.

3) These are difficult essays. Read and reread them with an
underliner and pencil. Mark the author’s main points and smaller
points. As a warm-up, read the treatment our book gives Bertrand Russell’s essay
“The Social Responsility of Scientists” on pp. 90-95.

4) There are two basic ways to structure a summary essay. The first
and most impressive is to reconstruct the essay your own way. You
can do this by first outlining for yourself the author’s main points
and sub-points. Then construct body paragraphs in the essay by
using a main point for each one. The second method is to march through the essay,
summarizing as you go.

5) Whichever approach you take, your first paragraph must contain the author’s thesis,
either quoted or paraphrased.

6) In your essay try to put some things in your own words (paraphrasing)
and also quote some of the more effective phrases. Quotations can
make an essay more concrete and keep you from rambling too much.

7) Remember that you are just summarizing—Keep your opinions to

yourself. That will be hard with either one of these articles, so you have to keep
focused. And don’t put any personal experiences into your Summary.

8) Be sure to remember the simple advice I give on the actual assignment
page: Your essay need to have several paragraphs. Anyone who tries to
jam all his points into one paragraph hasn’t paid attention.

< a href="/order">