Instructor CommentsbackBack to Goals of the Assignment
Selecting and Synthesizing Material from Readings: We are looking for an essay that is focused and well supported. Because you are working with multiple sources of information -- your personal experience, your observations, your readings of the articles throughout this unit -- you need to think carefully about how best to use that information to make your point.

One of the dangers of an essay like the Public Literacy Essay is that we are tempted to merely summarize -- and often at length -- relevant texts. This can produce a text that looks like more like a laundry list of summaries, than like a focused response. On a positive note, an essay that simply summarizes information indicates the ability to understand individual texts and experiences. It does not, however, demonstrate the ability to seek and discuss connections among ideas.