CO150 College Composition

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Overview: Throughout your academic career you will be asked to summarize and respond to the materials you engage with. This assignment will ask you to choose a text and explain its purpose within the context of our course theme. To prepare for this assignment we will critically examine the rhetoric of “green” as displayed in a series of texts that address environmental issues. While we will consider the content of each of these texts, our primary concern for this assignment will be in how the message of the text is conveyed to its potential audiences. As we read and discuss these texts, we will practice various strategies for summarizing and responding.

Purpose: Your purpose for writing this essay will be to accurately represent the ideas of the text, to critically examine and analyze the text, and to thoughtfully respond to the text. Choose one of the following texts to examine critically, summarize accurately and objectively, and respond to with a thoughtful analysis.

Readings:

•  “A Path of Hope for the Future,” by Daniel Quinn
•  “How to Remake the World,” by Paul Hawken
•  “Green, Greener, Greenest,” Daniel Stone and Anne Underwood

Audience: Your audience for this assignment is your instructor and your classmates. Although your readers are familiar with the text you’ve chosen, you should thoroughly represent its main ideas and key points, and provide accurate textual evidence throughout.

Requirements:  Your summary should accurately and objectively represent the authors’ purpose and main ideas in less than 300 words (about one page).  It should also adhere to the guidelines for academic summary covered in class.

To achieve your purpose with your audience, use the following strategies in your summary:

• Introduce the text in the beginning of your summary so your readers know which text you are summarizing. Include the author (or authors’) names, the date of publication, and the publication title within the first few sentences;
• Focus on the writer (or writers’) arguments by reporting the text’s thesis and supporting ideas. Show that you understand the “big picture”—the writer’s (or writers’) purpose and how he or she supports it;
• Avoid giving examples and evidence that are too specific, to maintain the focus of the overall argument of the article. Feel free to generalize about types of evidence, kinds of examples, and rhetorical strategies used by the authors to support their argument;
• Use author tags so that your reader understands that you are reporting authors’ ideas;
• Use an objective tone and a mix of paraphrased and quoted source material.

Your response should be at least 300 words (about one page) and should answer the following question:  Was the author(s) successful at reaching his or her purpose with his or her intended audience? Your response should answer this question by including a thesis, reasons to support your thesis, and evidence to support your reasoning.  Critically Respond to the text’s effectiveness by analyzing one or more of the following rhetorical features.  Choose at least one of the following features on which to focus your response:

• Purpose: Are the text’s aims clear?
• Audience/Reader:  Will the intended audience accept the author’s claim?
• Occasion/Genre/Context: Does the author effectively respond to the occasion?
• Thesis/Main Ideas:  Do the main ideas support the thesis?
• Organization & Evidence: Did the author support his or her contentions in a logical order?
• Language & Style: Did the tone and style support the author’s purpose?

Overall Strategies:

• Begin your essay with a summary of the article and then lead into your response with an effective transition from an objective academic summary to an analytical response that is well supported with textual examples. Although writers have successfully combined summary and response, it’s best to keep them separate for this assignment;
• To improve credibility with your audience, avoid spelling and grammar mistakes;
• Type your essay in a readable, 12-point font and double-space it. Submit your essay in a pocket folder along with supplemental materials specified in class.

Paper Length: 600-700 words (about 2 pages)

Due Date: TBD
Worth: 10% of your final course grade