summary analysis and response essay

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Summary/Response Essays: Overview

A summary/response essay may, at first, seem like a simplistic exercise for a college course. But the truth is that most academic writing requires us to successfully accomplish at least two tasks: summarizing what others have said and presenting what you have to say. Because of this, summarizing and responding are core skills that every writer should possess.

Being able to write an effective summary helps us make sense of what others have to say about a topic and how they choose to say it. As writers, we all need to make an effort to recognize, understand, and consider various perspectives about different issues. One way to do this is to accurately summarize what someone else has written, but accomplishing this requires us to first be active and engaged readers.

Along with the other methods covered in the Reading Critically chapter , writing a good summary requires taking good notes about the text. Your notes should include factual information from the text, but your notes might also capture your reactions to the text—these reactions can help you build a thoughtful and in-depth response.

Responding to a text is a crucial part of entering into an academic conversation. An effective summary proves you understand the text; your response allows you to draw on your own experiences and prior knowledge so that you can talk back to the text.

As you read, make notes, and summarize a text, you’ll undoubtedly have immediate reactions. Perhaps you agree with almost everything or find yourself frustrated by what the author writes. Taking those reactions and putting them into a piece of academic writing can be challenging because our personal reactions are based on our history, culture, opinions, and prior knowledge of the topic. However, an academic audience will expect you to have good reasons for the ways you have responded to a text, so it’s your responsibility to critically reflect on how you have reacted and why.

The ability to recognize and distinguish between types of ideas is key to successful critical reading.

Types of Ideas You Will Encounter When Reading a Text

• Fact: an observable, verifiable idea or phenomenon
• Opinion: a judgment based on fact
• Belief: a conviction or judgment based on culture or values
• Prejudice: an opinion (judgment) based on logical fallacies or on incorrect, insufficient information

After you have encountered these types of ideas when reading a text, your next job will be to consider how to respond to what you’ve read.

Four Ways to Respond to a Text

• Reflection. Did the author teach you something new? Perhaps they made you look at something familiar in a different way.
• Agreement. Did the author write a convincing argument? Were their claims solid, and supported by credible evidence?
• Disagreement. Do you have personal experiences, opinions, or knowledge that lead you to different conclusions than the author? Do your opinions about the same facts differ?
• Note Omissions. If you have experience with or prior knowledge on the topic, you may be able to identify important points that the author failed to include or fully address.

You might also analyze how the author has organized the text and what the author’s purposes might be, topics covered in the Reading Critically chapter .

Key Features

A brief summary of the text.

Include Publication Information. An effective summary includes the author’s name, the text’s title, the place of publication, and the date of publication—usually in the opening lines.

Identify Main Idea and Supporting Ideas. The main idea includes both the topic of the text and the author’s argument, claim, or perspective. Supporting ideas help the author demonstrate why their argument or claim is true. Supporting ideas may also help the audience understand the topic better, or they may be used to persuade the audience to agree with the author’s viewpoints.

Make Connections Between Ideas. Remember that a summary is not a bullet-point list of the ideas in a text. In order to give your audience a complete idea of what the author intended to say, you need to explain how ideas in the text are related to one another. Consider using transition phrases.

Be Objective and Accurate. Along with being concise, a summary should be a description of a text, not an evaluation. While you may have strong feelings about what the author wrote, your goal in a summary is to objectively capture what was written. Additionally, a summary needs to accurately represent the ideas, opinions, facts, and judgments presented in a text. Don’t misrepresent or manipulate the author’s words.

Do Not Include Quotes. Summaries are short. The purpose of a summary is for you to describe a text in your own words . For this reason, you should focus on paraphrasing rather than including direct quotes from the text in your summary.

Thoughtful and Respectful Response to the Text

Consider Your Reactions. Your response will be built on your reactions to the text, so you need to carefully consider what reactions you had and how you can capture those reactions in writing.

Organize Your Reactions. Dumping all of your reactions onto the page might be useful to just get your ideas out, but it won’t be useful for a reader. You need to organize your reactions. For example, you might develop sections that focus on where you agree with the author, where you disagree, how the author uses rhetoric, and so on.

Create a Conversation. Avoid the trap of writing a response that is too much about your ideas and not enough about the author’s ideas. Your response should remain engaged with the author’s ideas. Keep the conversation alive by making sure you regularly reference the author’s key points as you talk back to the text.

Be Respectful. We live in an age when it’s very easy to anonymously air our grievances online, and we’ve seen how Reddit boards, YouTube comments, and Twitter threads can quickly devolve into disrespectful, toxic spaces. In a summary/response essay, as in other academic writing, you are not required to agree with everything an author writes—but you should state your objections and reactions respectfully. Imagine the author is standing in front of you, and write your response as if you value and respect their ideas as much as you would like them to value and respect yours.

Distinguish Between an Author’s Ideas and Your Own

Signal Phrases. A summary/response essay, especially your response, will include a mix of an author’s ideas and your ideas. It’s important that you clearly distinguish which ideas in your essay are yours, which are the author’s, and even others’ ideas that the author might be citing. Signal phrases are how you accomplish this. Remember to use the author’s last name and an accurate verb.

Examples of Signal Phrases

Poor Signal Phrases: “They say…” “The article states…” “The author says…”

Effective Signal Phrases: “Smith argues…” “Baez believes…” “Henning references Chan Wong’s research about…”

Drafting Checklists

These questions should help guide you through the stages of drafting your summary/response essay.

• Have you identified all the necessary publication information for the text that you will need for your summary?
• Have you identified the text’s main ideas and supporting ideas?
• What were your initial reactions to the text?
• What new perspectives do you have on the topic covered in the text?
• Do you ultimately agree or disagree with the author’s points? A little of both?
• Has the author omitted any points or ideas they should have covered?
• Has the author organized their text effectively for their purpose?
• Have they used rhetoric effectively for their audience?
• Have your reactions to the text changed since you first read it? Why or why not?

Writing and Revising

• Does your summary clearly tell your reader the author’s name, the text’s title, the place of publication, and the publication data?
• Has your summary effectively informed your reader about the text’s main ideas and supporting ideas? Have you made the connections between those ideas clear for your reader by using effective transition phrases?
• Would your reader think your summary is objective and accurate?
• You haven’t included any quotes in your summary, right?
• Does your response present your reactions to the text in an organized way that will make sense to your reader?
• Does your response create a conversation between you and the author by regularly referencing ideas from the text?
• Would your reader think that your response is respectful of the author’s ideas, opinions, and beliefs?
• Have you used signal phrases to help your reader recognize which ideas are the author’s and which ideas are yours?
• Have you carefully proofread your essay to correct any grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and spelling errors?
• Have you formatted your document appropriately and used citations when necessary?

Sources Used to Create this Chapter

Parts of this chapter were remixed from:

• First-Year Composition by Leslie Davis and Kiley Miller, which was published under a CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Starting the Journey: An Intro to College Writing Copyright © by Leonard Owens III; Tim Bishop; and Scott Ortolano is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Helping Students Summarize and Respond to Texts

Being able to accurately and effectively summarize and respond to texts is an important skill for students to develop. The following types are typically taught and practiced in our College Composition classrooms.

• Types of Sumamries
• Types of Response
• Citation Information

Types of Summaries

A summary should be accurate and while 100% objectivity isn't possible, the summary writer should strive to stay as close as possible to this position. Most importantly, the summary writer should fairly represent the author's ideas. Writers of summaries should save their own ideas and interpretations for the response, rather than including these things in the summary.

The purpose for the summary can alter how it is written. Also, the reader's needs and interests must be considered when crafting a summary. A key skill to develop for use in written summary is the ability to paraphrase (to express the author's ideas using the summarizer's own words).

There are three types of summary:

Main Point Summary

A main point summary reads much like an article abstract, giving the most important "facts" of the text. It should identify the title, author, and main point or argument. When relevant, it can also include the text's source (book, essay, periodical, journal, etc.). As in all types of summary, a main point summary uses author tags, such as "In her article, Salahub states," or "Ms. Salahub argues/explains/says/asks/suggests." These tags will make it clear which ideas are those of the author and the text being summarized, not the summarizer. This type of summary might also use a quote from the text, but the quote should be representative of the text's main idea or point. A main point summary is often used when writing academic papers as a way to introduce the reader to a source and to place the main point of that source into the context of an argument or discussion of an issue.

"In his essay Dropping the Sat? which is posted on the Affirmative Action and Diversity Project's Website, George Will considers the proposal by some that schools stop using student's SAT scores when choosing which students to admit. Mr. Will explains that at most prominent schools in America, the SAT is a key factor in determining college admissions. Mr. Will argues that the SAT is an important tool in predicting the ability of prospective students to perform in college and therefore, should continue to be a factor in college admissions."

Key Point Summary

This type of summary will have all the same features as a main point summary, but also include the reasons and evidence (key points) the author uses to support the text's main idea. This type of summary would also use direct quotes of key words, phrases, or sentences from the text. This summary is used when it is necessary for the summary writer to fully explain an author's idea to the reader. The key point summary involves a full accounting and complete representation of the author's entire set of ideas. One reason to use this sort of summary would be if the writer intended to respond to the author's argument using an agree/disagree response model. In such a case, there may be some of the author's ideas that the writer agrees with, but others with which the writer disagrees.

In his essay Dropping the Sat? which is posted on the Affirmative Action and Diversity Project's Website, George Will considers the proposal by some that schools stop using student's SAT scores when choosing which students to admit. Mr. Will explains that at most prominent schools in America, the SAT is a key factor in determining college admissions. Will argues that the SAT is an important tool in predicting the ability of prospective students to perform in college and therefore, should continue to be a factor in college admissions. As part of his argument, Mr. Will discusses the origins of the SAT, considers the SAT's effect on campus diversity, challenges the validity of some of the common arguments against using the SAT test, and explains why he believes the SAT to be a necessary tool in determining college admissions. Mr. Will concludes that the SAT is still necessary because we need "some generally accepted means of making millions of annual assessments...roughly predictive of ability to perform well in particular colleges" (2).

Outline Summary

This type of summary mimics the structure of the text being summarized. It includes the main points and argument in the same order they appear in the original text. This is an especially effective technique to use when the accompanying response will be analytic, such as an evaluation of the logic or evidence used in a text.

In his essay Dropping the Sat? which is posted on the Affirmative Action and Diversity Project's Website, George Will argues for the continued use of the SAT in determining college admissions. He mentions Richard Atkinson, president of the University of California, as a specific example of those who want to stop using SAT scores in their admissions process. Part of Atkinson's reasoning is that without the SAT, his school would be better able to create a more racially and ethnically diverse campus. However, George Will argues, "something must perform the predictive function assigned to the SAT" (1). George Will goes on to discuss that the SAT was created in order to make an education at a prestigious school available not just to those who could afford it, but also to those with sufficient intellectual merit. However, he states, "[b]y purporting to measure intellectual merit, the SAT served equality of opportunity-but the result was opportunity from which not all racial and ethnic groups benefited equally" (1). Mr. Will says that while some of the original goals of the SAT have been accomplished, it is not yet time to abandon its use. He challenges the validity of some of the most common arguments against the SAT. He suggests that there is currently no better alternative to the SAT, that we can not judge students equally according to grades alone, especially when there is no national standard or curriculum. Mr. Will concludes that the SAT is still necessary because we need "some generally accepted means of making millions of annual assessments...roughly predictive of ability to perform well in particular colleges" (2)."

Types of Responses

When teaching ways of writing a response to a text, it is helpful to consider three types of response. However, keep in mind that once the writer begins to craft an actual response, it is likely that he/she will find him/herself combining elements of more than one response type, or even using elements of all three techniques. Even so, it is beneficial in the beginning to have writers separate the techniques and learn the fundamentals of each one.

Any type or combination of responses should be supported by details, examples, facts, and evidence. This support can take the form of personal experience, evidence from the primary text, or evidence from other texts. Also, the response should focus on making a single, overall main point.

Agree/Disagree Response

This form of response is not merely the writer's opinion. However a writer chooses to respond, he/she should show the reader how and why he/she responded to the text as he/she did. Also, in crafting a response, writers don't have to focus on one or the other. They might find that they disagree with some of the author's points, but agree with others. In that case, their response will be a combination of agreeing and disagreeing. Whether they agree or disagree, or some combination of both, the writer must support their response with details, examples, facts, and evidence. Again, this support can take the form of personal experience, evidence from the primary text, or evidence from other texts.

Interpretive/Reflective Response

In this type of response, writers focus on a key passage or idea from the text, explaining and/or exploring it further. They also might reflect on their own experiences, attitudes, or observations in relation to the ideas of the text. The writer might use their response to consider how the author's ideas might be interpreted by other readers, how the ideas might be applied, or how they might be misunderstood.

Analytic Response

This sort of response analyzes key elements of the text, such as the purpose, the audience, the thesis and main ideas, the argument, the organization and focus, the evidence, and the style. For example, how clear is the main idea? What sort of evidence is used to support the author's thesis and is it effective? Is the argument organized and logical? How are elements such as the author's style, tone, and voice working? This type of response looks at the essay in terms of the effectiveness of specific elements, whether they are working or not. Part of the writer's response might include suggestions for how the author could have made the essay more effective.

• school Campus Bookshelves
• menu_book Bookshelves
• perm_media Learning Objects
• login Login
• how_to_reg Request Instructor Account
• hub Instructor Commons
• Download Page (PDF)
• Download Full Book (PDF)
• Periodic Table
• Physics Constants
• Scientific Calculator
• Reference & Cite
• Tools expand_more
• Readability

selected template will load here

This action is not available.

5.7: Sample Response Essays

• Last updated
• Save as PDF
• Page ID 92549

• City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative

Media Alternative

Listen to an audio version of this page (36 sec):

• Sample response paper "Spread Feminism, Not Germs" in PDF with margin notes     
• Sample response paper "Spread Feminism, Not Germs" accessible version with notes in parentheses     
• Sample response paper "Typography and Identity" in PDF with margin notes  
• Sample response paper "Typography and Identity" accessible version with notes in parentheses  

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Chapter Five: Summary and Response

As you sharpen your analytical skills, you might realize that you should use evidence from the text to back up the points you make. You might use direct quotes as support, but you can also consider using summary.

A summary is a condensed version of a text, put into your own words. Summarizing is a useful part of the analytical process because it requires you to read the text, interpret and process it, and reproduce the important points using your own language. By doing so, you are (consciously or unconsciously) making choices about what matters, what words and phrases mean, and how to articulate their meaning.

Often (but not always), response refers to a description of a reader’s experience and reactions as they encounter a text. Response papers track how you feel and what you think as you move through a text. More importantly, responses also challenge you to evaluate exactly how a text acts upon you—to make you feel or think a certain way—using language or images. While a response is not an analysis, it will help you generate ideas for the analytical process.

Chapter Vocabulary

Identifying main points, concerns, and images.

If you ever watch TV shows with a serial plot, you might be familiar with the phrase “Previously, on _________.” The snippets at the beginning of an episode are designed to remind the viewer of the important parts of previous episodes—but how do makers of the show determine what a viewer needs to be refreshed on? And why am I watching full episodes if they’ll just tell me what I need to know in the first minute of the next episode?

Typically, the makers of the show choose short, punchy bits that will be relevant in the new episode’s narrative arc. For instance, a “Previously, on The Walking Dead ” might have a clip from ten episodes ago showing zombies invading Hershel’s farm if the new episode focuses on Hershel and his family. Therefore, these “previously ons” hook the viewer by showcasing only exciting parts and prime the viewer for a new story by planting specific details in their mind. Summaries like this are driven by purpose, and consequently have a specific job to do in choosing main points.

You, too, should consider your rhetorical purpose when you begin writing summary. Whether you are writing a summary essay or using summary as a tool for analysis, your choices about what to summarize and how to summarize it should be determined by what you’re trying to accomplish with your writing.

As you engage with a text you plan to summarize, you should begin by identifying main points, recurring images, or concerns and preoccupations of the text. (You may find the Engaged Reading Strategies appendix of this book useful.) After reading and rereading, what ideas stick with you? What does the author seem distracted by? What keeps cropping up?

Tracking Your Reactions

As you read and reread a text, you should take regular breaks to check in with yourself to track your reactions. Are you feeling sympathetic toward the speaker, narrator, or author? To the other characters? What other events, ideas, or contexts are you reminded of as you read? Do you understand and agree with the speaker, narrator, or author? What is your emotional state? At what points do you feel confused or uncertain, and why?

Try out the double-column note-taking method. As illustrated below, divide a piece of paper into two columns; on the left, make a heading for “Notes and Quotes,” and on the right, “Questions and Reactions.” As you move through a text, jot down important ideas and words from the text on the left, and record your intellectual and emotional reactions on the right. Be sure to ask prodding questions of the text along the way, too.

Writing Your Summary

Once you have read and re-read your text at least once, taking notes and reflecting along the way, you are ready to start writing a summary. Before starting, consider your rhetorical situation: What are you trying to accomplish (purpose) with your summary? What details and ideas (subject) are important for your reader (audience) to know? Should you assume that they have also read the text you’re summarizing? I’m thinking back here to the “Previously on…” idea: TV series don’t include everything from a prior episode; they focus instead on moments that set up the events of their next episode. You too should choose your content in accordance with your rhetorical situation.

I encourage you to start off by articulating the “key” idea or ideas from the text in one or two sentences. Focus on clarity of language: start with simple word choice, a single idea, and a straightforward perspective so that you establish a solid foundation.

The authors support feminist theories and practices that are critical of racism and other oppressions.

Then, before that sentence, write one or two more sentences that introduce the title of the text, its authors, and its main concerns or interventions. Revise your key idea sentence as necessary.

In “Why Our Feminism Must Be Intersectional (And 3 Ways to Practice It),” Jarune Uwuajaren and Jamie Utt critique what is known as ‘white feminism.’ They explain that sexism is wrapped up in racism, Islamophobia, heterosexism, transphobia, and other systems of oppression. The authors support feminist theories and practices that recognize intersectionality.

In most summary assignments, though, you will be expected to draw directly from the article itself by using direct quotes or paraphrases in addition to your own summary.

Paraphrase, Summary, and Direct Quotes

Whether you’re writing a summary or broaching your analysis, using support from the text will help you clarify ideas, demonstrate your understanding, or further your argument, among other things. Three distinct methods, which Bruce Ballenger refers to as “The Notetaker’s Triad,” will allow you to process and reuse information from your focus text. 1

A direct quote might be most familiar to you: using quotation marks (“ ”) to indicate the moments that you’re borrowing, you reproduce an author’s words verbatim in your own writing. Use a direct quote if someone else wrote or said something in a distinctive or particular way and you want to capture their words exactly.

Direct quotes are good for establishing ethos and providing evidence. In a text wrestling essay, you will be expected to use multiple direct quotes: in order to attend to specific language, you will need to reproduce segments of that language in your analysis.

Paraphrasing is similar to the process of summary. When we paraphrase, we process information or ideas from another person’s text and put it in our own words. The main difference between paraphrase and summary is scope: if summarizing means rewording and condensing, then paraphrasing means rewording without drastically altering length. However, paraphrasing is also generally more faithful to the spirit of the original; whereas a summary requires you to process and invites your own perspective, a paraphrase ought to mirror back the original idea using your own language.

Paraphrasing is helpful for establishing background knowledge or general consensus, simplifying a complicated idea, or reminding your reader of a certain part of another text. It is also valuable when relaying statistics or historical information, both of which are usually more fluidly woven into your writing when spoken with your own voice.

Summary , as discussed earlier in this chapter, is useful for “broadstrokes” or quick overviews, brief references, and providing plot or character background. When you summarize, you reword and condense another author’s writing. Be aware, though, that summary also requires individual thought: when you reword, it should be a result of you processing the idea yourself, and when you condense, you must think critically about which parts of the text are most important. As you can see in the example below, one summary shows understanding and puts the original into the author’s own words; the other summary is a result of a passive rewording, where the author only substituted synonyms for the original.

Original Quote: “On Facebook, what you click on, what you share with your ‘friends’ shapes your profile, preferences, affinities, political opinions and your vision of the world. The last thing Facebook wants is to contradict you in any way” (Filloux).

Each of these three tactics should support your summary or analysis: you should integrate quotes, paraphrases, and summary with your own writing. Below, you can see three examples of these tools. Consider how the direct quote, the paraphrase, and the summary each could be used to achieve different purposes.

Original Passage

It has been suggested (again rather anecdotally) that giraffes do communicate using infrasonic vocalizations (the signals are verbally described to be similar—in structure and function—to the low-frequency, infrasonic “rumbles” of elephants). It was further speculated that the extensive frontal sinus of giraffes acts as a resonance chamber for infrasound production. Moreover, particular neck movements (e.g. the neck stretch) are suggested to be associated with the production of infrasonic vocalizations. 2

The examples above also demonstrate additional citation conventions worth noting:

• A parenthetical in-text citation is used for all three forms. (In MLA format, this citation includes the author’s last name and page number.) The purpose of an in-text citation is to identify key information that guides your reader to your Works Cited page (or Bibliography or References, depending on your format).
• If you use the author’s name in the sentence, you do not need to include their name in the parenthetical citation.
• If your material doesn’t come from a specific page or page range, but rather from the entire text, you do not need to include a page number in the parenthetical citation.
• If there are many authors (generally more than three), you can use “et al.” to mean “and others.”
• If you cite the same source consecutively in the same paragraph (without citing any other sources in between), you can use “Ibid.” to mean “same as the last one.”

In Chapter Six, we will discuss integrating quotes, summaries, and paraphrases into your text wrestling analysis. Especially if you are writing a summary that requires you to use direct quotes, I encourage you to jump ahead to “Synthesis: Using Evidence to Explore Your Thesis” in that chapter.

Summary and Response: TV Show or Movie

Practice summary and response using a movie or an episode of a television show. (Although it can be more difficult with a show or movie you already know and like, you can apply these skills to both familiar and unfamiliar texts.)

Watch it once all the way through, taking notes using the double-column structure above.

Watch it once more, pausing and rewinding as necessary, adding additional notes.

Write one or two paragraphs summarizing the episode or movie as objectively as possible. Try to include the major plot points, characters, and conflicts.

Write a paragraph that transitions from summary to response: what were your reactions to the episode or movie? What do you think produced those reactions? What seems troubling or problematic? What elements of form and language were striking? How does the episode or movie relate to your lived experiences?

Everyone’s a Critic: Food Review

Food critics often employ summary and response with the purpose of reviewing restaurants for potential customers. You can give it a shot by visiting a restaurant, your dining hall, a fast-food joint, or a food cart. Before you get started, consider reading some food and restaurant reviews from your local newspaper. (Yelp often isn’t quite thorough enough.)

Bring a notepad to your chosen location and take detailed notes on your experience as a patron. Use descriptive writing techniques (see Chapter One), to try to capture the experience.

What happens as you walk in? Are you greeted? What does it smell like? What are your immediate reactions?

Describe the atmosphere. Is there music? What’s the lighting like? Is it slow, or busy?

Track the service. How long before you receive the attention you need? Is that attention appropriate to the kind of food-service place you’re in?

Record as many details about the food you order as possible.

After your dining experience, write a brief review of the restaurant, dining hall, fast-food restaurant, or food cart. What was it like, specifically? Did it meet your expectations? Why or why not? What would you suggest for improvement? Would you recommend it to other diners like you?

Digital Media Summary and Mini-Analysis

For this exercise, you will study a social media feed of your choice. You can use your own or someone else’s Facebook feed, Twitter feed, or Instagram feed. Because these feeds are tailored to their respective user’s interests, they are all unique and represent something about the user.

After closely reviewing at least ten posts, respond to the following questions in a brief essay:

What is the primary medium used on this platform (e.g, images, text, video, etc.)?

What recurring ideas, themes, topics, or preoccupations do you see in this collection? Provide examples.

Do you see posts that deviate from these common themes?

What do the recurring topics in the feed indicate about its user? Why?

Bonus: What ads do you see popping up? How do you think these have been geared toward the user?

Model Texts by Student Authors

Maggie as the focal point 3.

Shanna Greene Benjamin attempts to resolve Toni Morrison’s emphasis on Maggie in her short story “Recitatif”. While many previous scholars focus on racial codes, and “the black-and-white” story that establishes the racial binary, Benjamin goes ten steps further to show “the brilliance of Morrison’s experiment” (Benjamin 90). Benjamin argues that Maggie’s story which is described through Twyla’s and Roberta’s memories is the focal point of “Recitatif” where the two protagonists have a chance to rewrite “their conflicting versions of history” (Benjamin 91). More so, Maggie is the interstitial space where blacks and whites can engage, confront America’s racialized past, rewrite history, and move forward.

Benjamin highlights that Maggie’s story is first introduced by Twyla, labeling her recollections as the “master narrative” (Benjamin 94). Although Maggie’s story is rebutted with Roberta’s memories, Twyla’s version “represent[s] the residual, racialized perspectives” stemming from America’s past (Benjamin 89). Since Maggie is a person with a disability her story inevitably becomes marginalized, and utilized by both Twyla and Roberta for their own self-fulfilling needs, “instead of mining a path toward the truth” (Benjamin 97). Maggie is the interstitial narrative, which Benjamin describes as a space where Twyla and Roberta, “who represent opposite ends of a racial binary”, can come together to heal (Benjamin 101). Benjamin also points out how Twyla remembers Maggie’s legs looking “like parentheses” and relates the shape of parentheses, ( ), to self-reflection (Morrison 141). Parentheses represent that inward gaze into oneself, and a space that needs to be filled with self-reflection in order for one to heal and grow. Twyla and Roberta create new narratives of Maggie throughout the story in order to make themselves feel better about their troubled past. According to Benjamin, Maggie’s “parenthetical body” is symbolically the interstitial space that “prompts self-reflection required to ignite healing” (Benjamin 102). Benjamin concludes that Morrison tries to get the readers to engage in America’s past by eliminating and taking up the space between the racial binary that Maggie represents.

Not only do I agree with Benjamin’s stance on “Recitatif”, but I also disapprove of my own critical analysis of “Recitatif.” I made the same mistakes that other scholars have made regarding Morrison’s story; we focused on racial codes and the racial binary, while completely missing the interstitial space which Maggie represents. Although I did realize Maggie was of some importance, I was unsure why so I decided to not focus on Maggie at all. Therefore, I missed the most crucial message from “Recitatif” that Benjamin hones in on.

Maggie is brought up in every encounter between Twyla and Roberta, so of course it makes sense that Maggie is the focal point in “Recitatif”. Twyla and Roberta project themselves onto Maggie, which is why the two women have a hard time figuring out “‘What the hell happened to Maggie’” (Morrison 155). Maggie also has the effect of bringing the two women closer together, yet at times causing them to be become more distant. For example, when Twyla and Roberta encounter one another at the grocery store, Twyla brings up the time Maggie fell and the “gar girls laughed at her”, while Roberta reminds her that Maggie was in fact pushed down (Morrison 148). Twyla has created a new, “self-serving narrative[ ]” as to what happened to Maggie instead of accepting what has actually happened, which impedes Twyla’s ability to self-reflect and heal (Benjamin 102). If the two women would have taken up the space between them to confront the truths of their past, Twyla and Roberta could have created a “cooperative narrative” in order to mend.

Maggie represents the interstitial space that lies between white and black Americans. I believe this is an ideal space where the two races can come together to discuss America’s racialized past, learn from one another, and in turn, understand why America is divided as such. If white and black America jumped into the space that Maggie defines, maybe we could move forward as a country and help one another succeed. When I say “succeed”, I am not referring to the “American dream” because that is a false dream created by white America. “Recitatif” is not merely what characteristics define which race, it is much more than. Plus, who cares about race! I want America to be able to benefit and give comfort to every citizen whatever their “race” may be. This is time where we need black and white America to come together and fight the greater evil, which is the corruption within America’s government.

Teacher Takeaways

“This student’s summary of Benjamin’s article is engaging and incisive. Although the text being summarized seems very complex, the student clearly articulates the author’s primary claims, which are a portrayed as an intervention in a conversation (i.e., a claim that challenges what people might think beforehand). The author is also honest about their reactions to the text, which I enjoy, but they seem to lose direction a bit toward the end of the paper. Also, given a chance to revise again, this student should adjust the balance of quotes and paraphrases/ summaries: they use direct quotes effectively, but too frequently.”– Professor Wilhjelm

Works Cited

Benjamin, Shanna Greene. “The Space That Race Creates: An Interstitial Analysis of Toni Morrison’s ‘Recitatif.’” Studies in American Fiction , vol. 40, no. 1, 2013, pp. 87–106. Project Muse , doi: 10.1353/saf.2013.0004 .

Morrison, Toni. “Recitatif.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, Portable 12th edition, edited by Kelly J. Mays, W.W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 138-155.

Pronouns & Bathrooms 4

The article “Pronouns and Bathrooms: Supporting Transgender Students,” featured on Edutopia, was written to give educators a few key points when enacting the role of a truly (gender) inclusive educator. It is written specifically to high-school level educators, but I feel that almost all of the rules that should apply to a person who is transgender or gender-expansive at any age or grade level. The information is compiled by several interviews done with past and present high school students who identify with a trans-identity. The key points of advice stated are supported by personal statements made by past or present students that identify with a trans-identity.

The first point of advice is to use the student’s preferred name and/or pronoun. These are fundamental to the formation of identity and demand respect. The personal interview used in correlation with the advice details how the person ended up dropping out of high school after transferring twice due to teachers refusing to use their preferred name and pronoun. This is an all-too-common occurrence. The trans community recommend that schools and administrators acquire updated gender-inclusive documentation and update documentation at the request of the student to avoid misrepresentation and mislabeling. When you use the student’s preferred name and pronoun in and out of the classroom you are showing the student you sincerely care for their well-being and the respect of their identity.

The second and other most common recommendation is to make “trans-safe” (single-use, unisex or trans-inclusive) bathrooms widely available to students. Often these facilities either do not exist at all or are few-and-far-between, usually inconveniently located, and may not even meet ADA standards. This is crucial to insuring safety for trans-identified students.

Other recommendations are that schools engage in continual professional development training to insure that teachers are the best advocates for their students. Defend and protect students from physical and verbal abuse. Create a visibly welcoming and supportive environment for trans-identified students by creating support groups, curriculum and being vocal about your ally status.

The last piece of the article tells us a person who is trans simply wants to be viewed as human—a fully actualized human. I agree whole-heartedly. I believe that everyone has this desire. I agree with the recommendations of the participants that these exhibitions of advocacy are indeed intrinsic to the role of gender-expansive ally-ship,

While they may not be the most salient of actions of advocacy, they are the most foundational parts. These actions are the tip of the iceberg, but they must be respected. Being a true ally to the gender-expansive and transgender communities means continually expanding your awareness of trans issues. I am thankful these conversations are being had and am excited for the future of humanity.

“The author maintains focus on key arguments and their own understanding of the text’s claims. By the end of the summary, I have a clear sense of the recommendations the authors make for supporting transgender students. However, this piece could use more context at the beginning of each paragraph: the student could clarify the logical progression that builds from one paragraph to the next. (The current structure reads more like a list.) Similarly, context is missing in the form of citations, and no author is ever mentioned. Overall this author relies a bit too much on summary and would benefit from using a couple direct quotations to give the reader a sense of the author’s language and key ideas. In revision, this author should blend summaries, paraphrases, and quotes to develop this missing context.”– Professor Dannemiller

Wiggs, Blake. “ Pronouns and Bathrooms: Supporting Transgender Students .” Edutopia , 28 September 2015

Education Methods: Banking vs. Problem-Posing 5

Almost every student has had an unpleasant experience with an educator. Many times this happens due to the irrelevant problems posed by educators and arbitrary assignments required of the student. In his chapter from Pedagogy of the Oppressed , Paulo Freire centers his argument on the oppressive and unsuccessful banking education method in order to show the necessity of a problem-posing method of education.

Freire begins his argument by intervening into the conversation regarding teaching methods and styles of education, specifically responding in opposition to the banking education method, a method that “mirrors the oppressive society as a whole” (73). He describes the banking method as a system of narration and depositing of information into students like “containers” or “receptacles” (72). He constructs his argument by citing examples of domination and mechanical instruction as aspects that create an assumption of dichotomy, stating that “a person is merely in the world, not with the world or with others” (75). Freire draws on the reader’s experiences with this method by providing a list of banking attitudes and practices including “the teacher chooses and enforces his choices, and the students comply” (73), thus allowing the reader to connect the subject with their lived experiences.

In response to the banking method, Freire then advocates for a problem-posing method of education comprised of an educator constantly reforming her reflections in the reflection of the students. He theorizes that education involves a constant unveiling of reality, noting that “they come to see the world not as a static reality but as a reality in process, in transformation” (83). Thus, the problem-posing method draws on discussion and collaborative communication between students and educator. As they work together, they are able to learn from one another and impact the world by looking at applicable problems and assignments, which is in direct opposition of the banking method.

While it appears that Freire’s problem-posing method is more beneficial to both the student and educator, he fails to take into account the varying learning styles of te students, as well as the teaching abilities of the educators. He states that through the banking method, “the student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving what four times four really means, or realizing the true significance” (71). While this may be true for many students, some have an easier time absorbing information when it is given to them in a more mechanical fashion. The same theory applies to educators as well. Some educators may have a more difficult time communicating through the problem-posing method. Other educators may not be as willing to be a part of a more collaborative education method.

I find it difficult to agree with a universal method of education, due to the fact that a broad method doesn’t take into consideration the varying learning and communication styles of both educator and student. However, I do agree with Freire on the basis that learning and education should be a continuous process that involves the dedication of both student and educator. Students are their own champions and it takes a real effort to be an active participant in one’s own life and education. It’s too easy to sit back and do the bare minimum, or be an “automaton” (74). To constantly be open to learning and new ideas, to be a part of your own education, is harder, but extremely valuable.

As a student pursuing higher education, I find this text extremely reassuring. The current state of the world and education can seem grim at times, but after reading this I feel more confident that there are still people who feel that the current systems set in place are not creating students who can critically think and contribute to the world. Despite being written forty years ago, Freire’s radical approach to education seems to be a more humanistic style, one where students are thinking authentically, for “authentic thinking is concerned with reality” (77). Problem-posing education is one that is concerned with liberation, opposed to oppression. The banking method doesn’t allow for liberation, for “liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it” (79). Educational methods should prepare students to be liberators and transformers of the world, not containers to receive and store information.

“I love that this student combines multiple forms of information (paraphrases, quotes, and summaries) with their own reactions to the text. By using a combined form of summary, paraphrase, and quote, the student weaves ideas from the text together to give the reader a larger sense of the author’s ideas and claims. The student uses citations and signal phrases to remind us of the source. The student also does a good job of keeping paragraphs focused, setting up topic sentences and transitions, and introducing ideas that become important parts of their thesis. On the other hand, the reader could benefit from more explanation of some complex concepts from the text being analyzed, especially if the author assumes that the reader isn’t familiar with Freire. For example, the banking method of education is never quite clearly explained and the reader is left to derive its meaning from the context clues the student provides. A brief summary or paraphrase of this concept towards the beginning of the essay would give us a better understanding of the contexts the student is working in.”– Professor Dannemiller

Freire, Paulo. “Chapter 2.” Pedagogy of the Oppressed , translated by Myra Bergman Ramos, 30 th Anniversary Edition, Continuum, 2009, pp. 71-86.

You Snooze, You Peruse 6

This article was an interesting read about finding a solution to the problem that 62% of high school students are facing — chronic sleep deprivation (less than 8 hours on school nights). While some schools have implemented later start times, this article argues for a more unique approach. Several high schools in Las Cruces, New Mexico have installed sleeping pods for students to use when needed. They “include a reclined chair with a domed sensory-reduction bubble that closes around one’s head

and torso” and “feature a one-touch start button that activates a relaxing sequence of music and soothing lights” (Conklin). Students rest for 20 minutes and then go back to class. Some of the teachers were concerned about the amount of valuable class time students would miss while napping, while other teachers argued that if the students are that tired, they won’t be able to focus in class anyway. Students who used the napping pods reported they were effective in restoring energy levels and reducing stress. While that is great, there was concern from Melissa Moore, a pediatric sleep specialist, that napping during the day would cause students to sleep less during that “all-important nighttime sleep.”

Sleep deprivation is a serious issue in high school students. I know there are a lot of high school students that are very involved in extra-curricular activities like I was. I was on student council and played sports year-round, which meant most nights I got home late, had hours of homework, and almost never got enough sleep. I was exhausted all the time, especially during junior and senior year. I definitely agree that there is no point in students sitting in class if they’re so tired they can barely stay awake. However, I don’t know if sleeping pods are the best solution. Sure, after a 20-minute nap students feel a little more energetic, but I don’t think this is solving the chronic issue of sleep deprivation. A 20-minute nap isn’t solving the problem that most students aren’t getting 8 hours of sleep, which means they aren’t getting enough deep sleep (which usually occurs between hours 6-8). Everyone needs these critical hours of sleep, especially those that are still growing and whose brains are still developing. I think it would be much more effective to implement later start times. High school students aren’t going to go to bed earlier, that’s just the way it is. But having later start times gives them the opportunity to get up to an extra hour of sleep, which can make a huge difference in the overall well-being of students, as well as their level of concentration and focus in the classroom.

“I appreciate that this author has a clear understanding of the article which they summarize, and in turn are able to take a clear stance of qualification (‘Yes, but…’). However, I would encourage this student to revisit the structure of their summary. They’ve applied a form that many students fall back on instinctively: the first half is ‘What They Say’ and the second half is ‘What I Say.’ Although this can be effective, I would rather that the student make this move on the sentence level so that paragraphs are organized around ideas, not the sources of those ideas.”– Professor Wilhjelm

Conklin, Richard. “ You Snooze, You Peruse: Some Schools Turn to Nap Time to Recharge Students .” Education World, 2017 .

Bloom, Benjamin S., et al. Tax onomy of Educational Objectives: T he Classification of Educational Goals . D. McKay Co., 1969.

Also of note are recent emphases to use Bloom’s work as a conceptual model, not a hard-and-fast, infallible rule for cognition. Importantly, we rarely engage only one kind of thinking, and models like this should not be used to make momentous decisions; rather, they should contribute to a broader, nuanced understanding of human cognition and development.

In consideration of revised versions Bloom’s Taxonomy and the previous note, it can be mentioned that this process necessarily involves judgment/evaluation; using the process of interpretation, my analysis and synthesis require my intellectual discretion.

Mays, Kelly J. “The Literature Essay.” The Norton Introduction to Literature , Portable 12th edition, Norton, 2017, pp. 1255-1278.

“Developing a Thesis.” Purdue OWL , Purdue University, 2014, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/616/02/ . [Original link has expired. See Purdue OWL’s updated version: Developing a Thesis ]

Read more advice from the Purdue OWL relevant to close reading at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/4/17/ .

One particularly useful additional resource is the text “Annoying Ways People Use Sources,” externally linked in the Additional Recommended Resources appendix of this book.

Essay by an anonymous student author, 2014. Reproduced with permission from the student author.

This essay is a synthesis of two students’ work. One of those students is Ross Reaume, Portland State University, 2014, and the other student wishes to remain anonymous. Reproduced with permission from the student authors.

Essay by Marina, who has requested her last name not be included. Portland Community College, 2018. Reproduced with permission from the student author.

the verbatim use of another author’s words. Can be used as evidence to support your claim, or as language to analyze/close-read to demonstrate an interpretation or insight.

author reiterates a main idea, argument, or detail of a text in their own words without drastically altering the length of the passage(s) they paraphrase. Contrast with summary.

a mode of writing that values the reader’s experience of and reactions to a text.

a rhetorical mode in which an author reiterates the main ideas, arguments, and details of a text in their own words, condensing a longer text into a smaller version. Contrast with paraphrase.

EmpoWORD: A Student-Centered Anthology and Handbook for College Writers Copyright © 2018 by Shane Abrams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Working with sources
• How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples

How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples

Published on November 23, 2020 by Shona McCombes . Revised on May 31, 2023.

Summarizing , or writing a summary, means giving a concise overview of a text’s main points in your own words. A summary is always much shorter than the original text.

There are five key steps that can help you to write a summary:

• Read the text
• Break it down into sections
• Identify the key points in each section
• Write the summary
• Check the summary against the article

Writing a summary does not involve critiquing or evaluating the source . You should simply provide an accurate account of the most important information and ideas (without copying any text from the original).

Table of contents

When to write a summary, step 1: read the text, step 2: break the text down into sections, step 3: identify the key points in each section, step 4: write the summary, step 5: check the summary against the article, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about summarizing.

There are many situations in which you might have to summarize an article or other source:

• As a stand-alone assignment to show you’ve understood the material
• To keep notes that will help you remember what you’ve read
• To give an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review

When you’re writing an academic text like an essay , research paper , or dissertation , you’ll integrate sources in a variety of ways. You might use a brief quote to support your point, or paraphrase a few sentences or paragraphs.

But it’s often appropriate to summarize a whole article or chapter if it is especially relevant to your own research, or to provide an overview of a source before you analyze or critique it.

In any case, the goal of summarizing is to give your reader a clear understanding of the original source. Follow the five steps outlined below to write a good summary.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

You should read the article more than once to make sure you’ve thoroughly understood it. It’s often effective to read in three stages:

• Scan the article quickly to get a sense of its topic and overall shape.
• Read the article carefully, highlighting important points and taking notes as you read.
• Skim the article again to confirm you’ve understood the key points, and reread any particularly important or difficult passages.

There are some tricks you can use to identify the key points as you read:

• Start by reading the abstract . This already contains the author’s own summary of their work, and it tells you what to expect from the article.
• Pay attention to headings and subheadings . These should give you a good sense of what each part is about.
• Read the introduction and the conclusion together and compare them: What did the author set out to do, and what was the outcome?

To make the text more manageable and understand its sub-points, break it down into smaller sections.

If the text is a scientific paper that follows a standard empirical structure, it is probably already organized into clearly marked sections, usually including an introduction , methods , results , and discussion .

Other types of articles may not be explicitly divided into sections. But most articles and essays will be structured around a series of sub-points or themes.

Now it’s time go through each section and pick out its most important points. What does your reader need to know to understand the overall argument or conclusion of the article?

Keep in mind that a summary does not involve paraphrasing every single paragraph of the article. Your goal is to extract the essential points, leaving out anything that can be considered background information or supplementary detail.

In a scientific article, there are some easy questions you can ask to identify the key points in each part.

If the article takes a different form, you might have to think more carefully about what points are most important for the reader to understand its argument.

In that case, pay particular attention to the thesis statement —the central claim that the author wants us to accept, which usually appears in the introduction—and the topic sentences that signal the main idea of each paragraph.

Scribbr Citation Checker New

The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:

• Missing commas and periods
• Incorrect usage of “et al.”
• Ampersands (&) in narrative citations
• Missing reference entries

Now that you know the key points that the article aims to communicate, you need to put them in your own words.

To avoid plagiarism and show you’ve understood the article, it’s essential to properly paraphrase the author’s ideas. Do not copy and paste parts of the article, not even just a sentence or two.

The best way to do this is to put the article aside and write out your own understanding of the author’s key points.

Examples of article summaries

Let’s take a look at an example. Below, we summarize this article , which scientifically investigates the old saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

Davis et al. (2015) set out to empirically test the popular saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Apples are often used to represent a healthy lifestyle, and research has shown their nutritional properties could be beneficial for various aspects of health. The authors’ unique approach is to take the saying literally and ask: do people who eat apples use healthcare services less frequently? If there is indeed such a relationship, they suggest, promoting apple consumption could help reduce healthcare costs.

The study used publicly available cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants were categorized as either apple eaters or non-apple eaters based on their self-reported apple consumption in an average 24-hour period. They were also categorized as either avoiding or not avoiding the use of healthcare services in the past year. The data was statistically analyzed to test whether there was an association between apple consumption and several dependent variables: physician visits, hospital stays, use of mental health services, and use of prescription medication.

Although apple eaters were slightly more likely to have avoided physician visits, this relationship was not statistically significant after adjusting for various relevant factors. No association was found between apple consumption and hospital stays or mental health service use. However, apple eaters were found to be slightly more likely to have avoided using prescription medication. Based on these results, the authors conclude that an apple a day does not keep the doctor away, but it may keep the pharmacist away. They suggest that this finding could have implications for reducing healthcare costs, considering the high annual costs of prescription medication and the inexpensiveness of apples.

However, the authors also note several limitations of the study: most importantly, that apple eaters are likely to differ from non-apple eaters in ways that may have confounded the results (for example, apple eaters may be more likely to be health-conscious). To establish any causal relationship between apple consumption and avoidance of medication, they recommend experimental research.

An article summary like the above would be appropriate for a stand-alone summary assignment. However, you’ll often want to give an even more concise summary of an article.

For example, in a literature review or meta analysis you may want to briefly summarize this study as part of a wider discussion of various sources. In this case, we can boil our summary down even further to include only the most relevant information.

Using national survey data, Davis et al. (2015) tested the assertion that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” and did not find statistically significant evidence to support this hypothesis. While people who consumed apples were slightly less likely to use prescription medications, the study was unable to demonstrate a causal relationship between these variables.

Citing the source you’re summarizing

When including a summary as part of a larger text, it’s essential to properly cite the source you’re summarizing. The exact format depends on your citation style , but it usually includes an in-text citation and a full reference at the end of your paper.

You can easily create your citations and references in APA or MLA using our free citation generators.

APA Citation Generator MLA Citation Generator

Finally, read through the article once more to ensure that:

• You’ve accurately represented the author’s work
• You haven’t missed any essential information
• The phrasing is not too similar to any sentences in the original.

If you’re summarizing many articles as part of your own work, it may be a good idea to use a plagiarism checker to double-check that your text is completely original and properly cited. Just be sure to use one that’s safe and reliable.

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• ChatGPT vs human editor
• ChatGPT citations
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Using ChatGPT for your studies
• What is ChatGPT?
• Chicago style
• Paraphrasing

 Plagiarism

• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Consequences of plagiarism
• Common knowledge

A summary is a short overview of the main points of an article or other source, written entirely in your own words. Want to make your life super easy? Try our free text summarizer today!

A summary is always much shorter than the original text. The length of a summary can range from just a few sentences to several paragraphs; it depends on the length of the article you’re summarizing, and on the purpose of the summary.

You might have to write a summary of a source:

• As a stand-alone assignment to prove you understand the material
• For your own use, to keep notes on your reading
• To provide an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review
• In a paper , to summarize or introduce a relevant study

To avoid plagiarism when summarizing an article or other source, follow these two rules:

• Write the summary entirely in your own words by paraphrasing the author’s ideas.
• Cite the source with an in-text citation and a full reference so your reader can easily find the original text.

An abstract concisely explains all the key points of an academic text such as a thesis , dissertation or journal article. It should summarize the whole text, not just introduce it.

An abstract is a type of summary , but summaries are also written elsewhere in academic writing . For example, you might summarize a source in a paper , in a literature review , or as a standalone assignment.

All can be done within seconds with our free text summarizer .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, May 31). How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 11, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/how-to-summarize/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, how to paraphrase | step-by-step guide & examples, how to quote | citing quotes in apa, mla & chicago, the basics of in-text citation | apa & mla examples, unlimited academic ai-proofreading.

✔ Document error-free in 5minutes ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts

• Skip to right header navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

Best Summary and Response Essay Strategies for Student Writers

July 13, 2020 //  by  Lindsay Ann //   3 Comments

Sharing is caring!

Have you tried summary and response essays in your English language arts classroom? In this post, we’ll explore the benefits of summary and response, and I’ll offer questions you can use to help your students find just what they want to say in a They Say, I Say assignment.

It is my hope as an English teacher that my students will write with frequency and with voice . 

To this end, I frequently ask them to compose written responses to various texts we read in class, from short stories, to poems, to nonfiction articles.

Goals of a Summary and Response Essay

First, I want students to closely read the text . This means reading (and re-reading) for critical understanding of the text, making marginal notes, and marking important passages. As students closely read, they should be thinking about the author’s message, style, and impact on them as readers .

Although a summary-response paper may be intended to demonstrate that students have read the required text(s), I want more than simple reading comprehension . 

I want students to think critically.

Therefore, I teach students to read for comprehension  so that they can join the conversation started by the author. 

In this conversation, students must be prepared to respond and evaluate, adding unique thought and analysis prompted by the original text, extending the author’s thoughts with their own . This is what summary and response essay writing is all about.

To state it simply, I often use the analogy of a dinner table conversation. I tell students that reading a text is like pulling up a chair to the dinner table (the text is the main course). To join the dinner conversation, they must be unique, they must do more than summarize the original text, and they must spend time thinking .

Summary Writing Tips

Writing a summary is a lot like the “echo back” step in a good conversation. It’s a check for understanding. Before I move on to add my own thoughts into the conversation, I want to make sure that first I am hearing and understanding what the other person is saying. 

This is the “they say” part of response writing. 

➡️ It should be in students’ own words. It should be brief, yet long enough to fully represent the author’s main claim and key supporting points. 

❗️ Summary writing is one of the BEST ways for students to improve their reading comprehension, and with increasingly complex texts, students must learn to represent increasingly complex ideas and nuanced organizational structures used by an author to convey his or her ideas. 

The first step in writing a good summary is to mark the text. I model this for students, showing them how I recognize what a paragraph or section of the text or the text as a whole is about. I talk out loud, state what I wonder and what I notice. Then I ask students to join the conversation by doing the same. 

As I do this, I am emphasizing that this is a conversation students are preparing to join. We have to first understand the message that an author is saying.

• So, what is this author trying to say? 
• What points is the author making? 
• What organizational choices does the author use to convey his or her ideas? 
• What relationships are directly stated or implied between ideas? 
• What is the larger context for this conversation? 
• How does the author’s message fit into the context?
• What bigger picture significance of this topic does the author discuss or imply?

All of this starts with the question of “what do you notice?”  

As students make observations, I help them start to weave together these observations so that they can notice patterns and the author’s overall claim or message.

And, with practice, students begin to do this on their own in a summary and response essay.

Best Ways to Respond to a Text

➡️ After students are able to fully understand and represent the author’s ideas and convey this in the “They Say” portion of their response, we add the “I Say” portion of the response. 

❗️ In the beginning of the year, we focus solely on the “They Say” in writing until students are demonstrating proficiency. As they do this, I frontload “I Say” skills through informal conversation and debates in the classroom. That way, when I ask students to formalize their thoughts in an “I Say” written response, they are ready. 

For the “I Say,” it’s important to recognize the connection between written opinion and voiced response. Some students need to talk through their opinions before fully developing them in writing. 

For students to be able to add their own ideas to the author’s ideas in a summary and response essay, they must first have something unique and important to say. 

➡️ A sign of undeveloped thinking in response is if a student simply regurgitates the author’s ideas without extending these ideas through new examples or divergent thinking. 

❗️ I want my students to say “yes, AND” or “yes, BUT” to the author. I want them to make their own opinions and examples heard as a part of the conversation as if they are sitting down to dinner with the author and discussing the focus topic in detail.

Questions for Response Writing

The following list will help students shape the thinking that they will produce in response to different texts.

➡️ For all of these suggestions, students should always connect back to the original text(s) with in-text citations, quotes and paraphrasing when appropriate ( but be careful not to over-quote or over-paraphrase – you want this paper to be based on the original text, but also a reflection of your own thinking ).

Ways to Say “Yes, And” or “Yes, But” in Response

Ask a Question:  

• Pose a related question to the author and explain how the author might answer it
• Generate a question that the text prompts of you and answer it
• Generate a question that the text prompts of you, and use additional research to extend the author’s ideas

Use Comparison/Contrast:

• Compare an author’s claim to the claim(s) made in a different text or by a different author
• Show how an author’s perspective or claim is different from something else or someone else’s idea

Try Analysis:  

• Explain an emotional response to the piece you had and analyze what made you have this reaction:  was it something about yourself, culture, or society?
• Explain why you had a hard time connecting with a text or an author’s claim
• If responding to an older text or a different cultural text, explain how the author’s claim might function or malfunction in today’s society or your culture
• Explain how this text could be seen differently through another person’s or another theory’s perspective
• Explain how a controversy or other historical situation may have given rise to the author’s essay
• Expose how your own bias or assumptions may interfere with your reading experience

Say “Yes, And”:

• Extend one of the author’s ideas into a broader context discussion.  In other words, what is this idea a part of?
• Pose an observation or realization this text sparks in you
• Pose an important word or concept and explain how the author might define it
• Examine a similar or parallel issue that this text is related to

Use Argumentation For or Against an Idea Offered by the Author:

• If you turned the subject of this text into a question on which people would vote, how would you vote – and why?
• State one of the author’s claims and bring in additional outside reasons and evidence (personal or researched) for or against this claim
• Explain your subtly different definition of a term or perspective of a claim, and why this difference, while subtle, is important
• Expose an author’s assumption or bias and explain why this assumption or bias weakens or strengthens his/her idea

Use Argumentation For or Against the Way an Author Presents Ideas:

• Evidence:   Do facts and examples fairly represent the available data on the topic?  Are the author’s facts and examples current, accurate?
• Logic:   Has the author adhered to standards of logic?  Has the author avoided, for instance, fallacies such as personal attacks and faulty generalizations?
• Development:   Does each part of the presentation seem well-developed, satisfying to you in the extent of its treatment?  Is each main point adequately illustrated and supported with evidence?
• Fairness:   If the issue being discussed is controversial, has the author seriously considered and responded to his opponents’ viewpoints?
• Definitions:   Have terms important to the discussion been clearly defined – and if not, has lack of definition confused matters?

Audience:   Is the essay appropriate for its audience – does it convince who it’s intended to convince?

Wrapping Up

Thanks for reading this post! Phew, it was a long one, but I hope that you found questions that will help your students be successful with summary and response essay assignments. Please leave a comment below to let me know what you thought and if I can help!

Hey, if you loved this post, I want to be sure you’ve had the chance to grab a  FREE copy of my guide to streamlined grading . I know how hard it is to do all the things as an English teacher, so I’m over the moon to be able to share with you some of my best strategies for reducing the grading overwhelm.

Click on the link above or the image below to get started!

About Lindsay Ann

Lindsay has been teaching high school English in the burbs of Chicago for 19 years. She is passionate about helping English teachers find balance in their lives and teaching practice through practical feedback strategies and student-led learning strategies. She also geeks out about literary analysis, inquiry-based learning, and classroom technology integration. When Lindsay is not teaching, she enjoys playing with her two kids, running, and getting lost in a good book.

Related Posts

You may be interested in these posts from the same category.

31 Informational Texts for High School Students

Tardies & Chronic Absenteeism: Fighting the Good Fight

Open Ended Questions That Work

Project Based Learning: Unlocking Creativity and Collaboration

Empathy and Understanding: How the TED Talk on the Danger of a Single Story Reshapes Perspectives

Teaching Story Elements to Improve Storytelling

Effective Classroom Management Strategies: Setting the Tone for Learning

Figurative Language Examples We Can All Learn From

18 Ways to Encourage Growth Mindset Versus Fixed Mindset in High School Classrooms

10 Song Analysis Lessons for Teachers

10 Tips for Making the Most of Blended Learning

Must-Have Table Topics Conversation Starters

Reader Interactions

[…] reading, making marginal notes, and marking-up important passages. Teaching students how to write a summary and response as a result of their critical reading is an important next […]

[…] a “they say, I say” blog post as a way to enter the cultural conversation in response to a […]

[…] students write in a “They Say, I Say” format because our focus is cultural criticism. I want them to discover the conversation and […]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Summary, Analysis, Response: A Functional Approach to Reading, Understanding, and Responding to Nonfiction

This resource gives students a way to approach reading and responding to nonfiction without requiring them to write an essay. It is relatively formulaic but builds skills through scaffolding concepts and encouraging students to develop the confidence necessary to start reading critically and making arguments about the nonfiction they read.

Find below a PDF of the SAR GUIDELINES :

Find below a PDF of two types of PEER REVIEW forms for the SAR:

Find below a PDF of two types of ASSESSMENT forms for the SAR: 

********************************************************************************************

CLICK HERE for a link to guidelines for writing a Summary, Analysis, Response as well as a sample SAR, tips and warnings.  Hard copy is below, but the formatting is kind of messed up. 

SAR (Summary, Analysis, Response) Guidelines,  2015 / Ramsey

--SARs should be exactly three paragraphs long and no longer than two typed, double-spaced pages.

--Include a title:  SAR #1: “Title of Essay” (or SAR #2: “Title of Essay,” etc.)

--SARs should be free of errors in conventions, written in present tense in an academic tone (often more formal than the tone of the essay you’re writing about), and MLA formatted.

Paragraph 1 (of 3): SUMMARIZE.   See page 4.

Summarize the ideas, mainly with your own words, including BRIEF (2-5 word) cited direct quotations when necessary. Include the author’s first and last names—correctly spelled—as well as the essay title in quotation marks. This should be the shortest of the three paragraphs.

Paragraph 2 (of 3):  ANALYZE.   See pages 5 – 7.

Identify parts of the reading, including . . .

  a.   The  context in which the essay was written (a contribution to discussion or debate about what?)

  b.   The  audience for whom the essay was intended.

  c.   The  purpose of the essay. (Remember, most essays have at least some element of persuasion.)

  d.   The  organizational form(s) of the essay. Don’t describe it—identify which TYPE it is.

  e.   The  tone(s) of the essay. Include a “blend” quotation proving the strongest of the essay’s tones.

          See pages 8 - 9 for information about blending quotations.

  f.   The  tools used to accomplish the essay’s purpose. Identify at least THREE tools, and include a

         “blend” quotation that illustrates at least one of these tools.  

  g.   The  thesis of essay. The thesis could be explicitly stated in the essay or more obliquely implied.

Include discussion of all seven things above (a-g, plus direct quotations for tone and tools), in the order outlined above .

Paragraph 3 (of 3): RESPOND / REACT.

Give a personal response to the reading. What ideas do you find interesting? Why? (Even if you don’t like the essay, you should still be able to find something interesting about it.) Do you agree with the author’s “message”? You can also evaluate and/or challenge the essay in this paragraph. Is the author’s purpose achieved? How well does the author prove her/his argument? What could someone on the other side of this argument say, and how valid would that criticism be? What flaws in logic do you see in the author’s argument?

This is the only paragraph where you should use the first-person “I.”

************************************************************************************

HERE’S A SAMPLE SAR

A  Student     

Ramsey                                

Writing 122

23 September 2015

                                       SAR #1:  “The Culture of American Film”

    In “The Culture of American Film,” Julia Newman argues that analyzing movies for “cultural significance” (294) can lead to greater understanding of changes in our society.

    This essay was written in the context of a growing movement in academia toward viewing popular films as literature and analyzing movies as cultural text. Newman’s intended audience is probably university-level scholars, but her ideas are accessible to anyone interested in examining film as it suggests underlying societal structures. One purpose of this essay is to explain how to view films as indications of what’s going on in our society, but Newman also wants to persuade the reader that there’s more to movies than just entertainment. The organizational form of the essay is classification, as Newman places movies into categories of those that do reflect changes in our society and those that do not, then she compares and contrasts these categories. In addition, the essay employs a chronological organizational form in which Newman describes the plots of various movies from 50 years ago to the present. The tone of the essay is consistently encouraging and knowledgeable. There’s a sort of majestic tone to the introduction, too, as Newman pronounces that the “significance of storytelling has diminished over the decades, and cinema has risen to take its place” (291).  Tools Newman uses to accomplish her purpose include specific examples of film analyses, an impressive balance between academic and accessible word choices, and concessions to the opposition, like when she writes, “However, it is easy to overstate these connections” (292). The thesis of the essay appears on page 298: “But as cinematic forms of storytelling overtake written forms of expression, the study of movies as complex text bearing cultural messages and values is becoming more and more important.” In other words, we can learn a lot about structural shifts within our culture through studying popular film as literary text.

    I found the ideas in this essay quite compelling. The essay makes me want to examine the movies of ten or twenty years ago to consider what they suggested about our society then. The essay also makes me think about films that have been nominated for Academy Awards this year, like The Artist, and what the popularity of this silent movie says about changes taking place in our culture right now. I do wish Newman had used more current examples; most of her examples are so old that I’ve never seen them. I also wonder how much knowledge of history is necessary to really apply her thesis. . . . I don’t think I’ll ever have a strong enough understanding of American history to apply Newman’s ideas to movies that have been popular in the past, and I can’t imagine trying to examine currently popular movies for what they suggest about cultural shifts that are happening right now.  It seems like the type of analysis she encourages is only possible in retrospect and with a strong understanding of movements in American history.

Paragraph 1 (of 3): SUMMARIZE.

Summarize the ideas, mainly with your own words, including BRIEF (2-5 word) direct quotations when necessary. Include the author’s first and last names—correctly spelled—as well as the essay title in quotation marks. This should be the shortest of the paragraphs. Keep your summary in the present  tense.

Note:  The verbs you use in summarizing an essay suggest an author’s purpose and can imply a judgment of that purpose.

If you say, “The author . . .

Tells” (suggests the author’s purpose is to explain or narrate)

Explains” (suggests author’s purpose is to explain or inform)Argues” (suggests author is trying to persuade)

Claims” (suggests author is trying to persuade; further suggests you don’t buy what the author is saying)

Informs” (suggests dryly expository writing)

Persuades” (suggests persuasive writing, duh)

Exposes” (suggests author’s purpose is to investigate something hidden)

Teaches” (suggests author is explaining or informing)

Narrates” (suggests author is telling a personal story)

Relates” (suggests author’s purpose is to explain through comparison)

Distinguishes” (suggests author’s purpose is to explain by contrasting topics)

Compares” (suggests author’s purpose is to draw similarities between topics)

Contrasts” (suggests author’s purpose is to find differences between topics)

Warns” (suggests author’s purpose is to persuade through caution)

Suggests” (suggests gently persuasive writing)

Implies” (suggests persuasive writing; further suggests you’re skeptical about the author’s motivations and/or implications)

Note:  Summaries are NOT like movie trailers, designed to entice the viewer into thinking there’s something interesting coming.  Instead, summaries should explain clearly and succinctly (briefly) what those interesting ideas ARE and what the author’s argument is.

Sample summaries

In “The Culture of American Film,” Julia Newman claims that analyzing movies for “cultural significance” (294) can lead to greater understanding of our society and of changes in our society.

In “Nothing But Net,” Mark McFadden uses specific examples, questions directed at the reader, and personal experience to argue that instead of protecting “work rules and the rules of common decency” (paragraph 1), internet spying technology is ultimately ineffectual and creates an atmosphere of mistrust.

Paragraph 2 (of 3): Analyze. Keep analysis in the present tense.

Context :      This essay is a contribution to a larger discussion or debate about

        what? What events or ideas prompted the author to write this essay?

Audience :    Who is likely to read this essay? Where was it originally published,

        and what type of publication is/was it? Who can access this language?

Purpose *:      To entertain?        To persuade?        To congratulate?

                       To instruct?           To warn?              To scold?

                       To inform or explain?                         Some combination of these?

Organizational form :   Chronological? (in order of time)

                                       Cause and effect? (something causes something)

                                       Comparison and contrast? (similarities and differences)

                                        Classification? (putting things into categories)

                                          Some combination of these?

Tone **:                            Resigned?         Antagonistic?     Humorous?

                                          Assured?           Happy?               Confident?

                                          Sympathetic?    Urgent?              Encouraging?

                                         Frustrated?        Energetic?         Pleading?

                                          Detached?         Ambivalent?      Apathetic?

                                          Clinical?            Amused?           Smug?           Some combination?

Tools :                                Facts and figures?            Illustrations?

                                           Direct quotations?            Brevity? (shortness)

                                           Imagery?                           Analogies?

                                           Expert testimony?            Humor or sarcasm?

                                           Personal experience?       Similes?

                                           Questions directed at reader?                Fallacies? (flaws in logic—don’t     

                                           Subheadings?                                           identify fallacies as tools unless you

                                           Concessions to the opposition?               plan to criticize the essay in your

                                            Allusions to other works?                       personal-reaction paragraph)                   

Thesis:    The one or two sentences that best summarize THE POINT of the

                      essay. (Sometimes the point is implied instead of overtly stated.)  

Note: Professional writing does NOT usually look like the traditional five-paragraph form.

*All essays have an element of persuasion.

**Tone usually changes as the essay proceeds.

**********************************************************************************

Name ___________________________________________

OPTIONAL Essay Analysis Worksheet / Ramsey

Use your SAR guidelines to help you fill out the blanks below.

I. Summarize the essay with one to three sentences. The summary should include the author’s full name (correctly spelled), the title of essay (correctly punctuated), and all main ideas. The summary should be written in the present tense and with an academic tone. Include the POINT—this is not like a book jacket.

Example:  In “The Culture of American Film,” Julia Newman claims that analyzing movies for “cultural significance” (294) can lead to greater understanding of our society and of changes in our society.

II. Analyze the essay by filling in the blanks below.

Context:  This essay is a contribution to a larger discussion or debate about . . .

______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

   B.  Audience:  People most likely to read the essay and agree with the author are _________________

   _____________________________________________________________________________________

    C.  Purpose:  The author wrote this essay in order to . . . (circle one or more)

    entertain        explain/inform       persuade*       warn        congratulate   

     instruct        scold        other ________________________________________________

*Every essay has an element of persuasion. I hope you circled “persuade” above.

   D.  The organizational form of the essay is . . . (check one or more)

_____ chronological (from __________________________  to ________________________)    

_____ compare and contrast: author examines similarities and differences between

                          __________________________________ and _______________________________   

_____ classification: author puts types of __________________________________________

                          into these categories: _____________________________________________________

                               ______________________________________________________________________

_____ cause and effect: author claims _____________________________________________

                               _______________________________________________________ cause/contribute to

                              ______________________________________________________________________

                               ______________________________________________________________________

_____ some other form best described as _________________________________________

   E.  The author’s tone (attitude toward the subject of the essay) at the beginning of the essay

    can best be described as ____________________________ and ________________________,

then in page/paragraph number _______, it changes to ________________________________

and __________________________.  The concluding tone is __________________________.   

   F.  Tools the author uses to accomplish his/her purpose(s) include ___________________________,

    _______________________________, and ________________________________________ .

   G.  The author’s thesis appears in paragraph/page number___ and is (copy or put in your own words):

_______________________________________________________________________________

    _______________________________________________________________________________

(If you copied the thesis, did you put the borrowed words in quotation marks?)

Principles of Proper Quotation Format  (MLA format)

Keep quotations as short as possible.

If a sentence begins with quotation marks and ends with quotation marks and contains only words taken from a source, you have not introduced the quotation well. Never have such a "stand-alone" quotation.

A sentence containing a quotation should end with the source and page number (or paragraph number) in parentheses. Usually this parenthetical citation comes before the final period but outside any quotation marks at the end of the sentence.

***************************************************************************************

There are three styles of quotations distinguished by how the passage is incorporated into your own wording:

A.  In a "Tag Quotation," an introductory phrase (usually identifying the source of the quotation) is joined by a comma to a full, sentence-long quotation.    

Example:  According to Grafton, "This need for forbiddenness also accounts for Charity’s voyeuristic impulse to continue watching Harney" (357).

Example:  Smith argues, “This insistence seems strange, even forced” (113).

B.  In an "Analytic Quotation," a complete sentence of analysis by the student is followed by a colon introducing a quotation that illustrates support for the argument. (The quotation illustrates the student’s analysis.)

Example:  Life in North Dormer is intolerably oppressive to Charity:  "She is stifled by its petty bourgeois conventions and longs for adventure" (Singley 113).

Example:  Tom finds himself wondering why he came: “He couldn’t identify a reason for his own behavior, and this troubled him” (Brown 385).

C.  In a "Blend Quotation," a short phrase or even just a single key word is quoted and included in the student’s own sentence in such a fluid way that only the quotation marks may reveal the material to be a quotation.  THIS IS THE BEST TYPE OF QUOTATION.

Example:  Their “silent lies” (Watson 22) prevent the relationship from ever fully recovering.

Example:  From the outset of Edith Wharton's Summer, Charity Royall dramatizes the "American quest for freedom" (Singley 155).

Again, if a sentence begins with quotation marks and ends with quotation marks and contains only words taken from a source, you have not introduced the quotation properly. Never have such a "stand-alone" quotation.

USING DIRECT QUOTATIONS: Work direct quotations directly into the fabric of your sentences.  

Tools Smith uses include professional vocabulary, expert testimony, and personal experience.  “Studies by the Kaufmann Group indicate a 78% increase in depression” (6).

AGAIN, THIS IS POOR USE OF A DIRECT QUOTATION, and it’s completely unclear.  Does it support your identification of professional vocabulary? Expert testimony? Personal experience?  Who knows?!

Instead, write something like this “analytic” quotation:

Smith uses personal experience as a tool. He also uses expert testimony: “Studies by the Kaufmann Group indicate a 78% increase in depression” (6).

Or, even better, this “blend” quotation:

Smith uses professional vocabulary and personal experience as tools to convince his readers and engage them. Other tools include expert testimony, as seen in his reference to the study by the Kaufmann Group, which found a “78% increase in depression” associated with second-hand smoke (6).

Advice and warnings about your first SARs . . .

This type of writing is very formulaic, so don’t worry about being pretty or having an engaging “voice.” Instead, be clear.

Write with an academic tone, so avoid “things,” “stuff,” “you,” “kids,” and “nowadays.” Sometimes your tone will be more formal than the author of the essay.

Your summary should include the author’s first and last name—correctly spelled—and the title of the essay. Use first and last names the first time you use refer to the author (in the summary); use only the last name every other time. Don’t refer to the author by her/his first name only.

Students often forget that an essay can have more than one purpose and all essays have at least some element of persuasion.

Analysis paragraphs are often incomplete.  It should have ELEVEN things: identification of context, audience, purpose, organizational form, tone, 3 tools, thesis, and two direct quotations.

Be sure to identify which TYPE of organizational form the author uses: compare and contrast? classification (putting things in categories)? chronological? cause and effect?    

Don’t be afraid to use “red flag” words to guide your reader through the analysis paragraph. You can actually use the words “purpose,” “tone,” “thesis,” etc. to direct your reader through your SAR.

Limit your opinion to the third paragraph. Much of the second paragraph really is opinion, but state it as fact. This makes you sound like you know what you’re talking about, which is more convincing and more professional.

Remember, longer is not necessarily better, but SOME discussion is good. A one-page SAR is too short. One and a half full pages can be okay, but two full pages is probably best.)

Proofread, use the writing labs, and proofread again before printing.

Re-read the directions, advice, and warnings before printing.  There’s a lot to remember here!

No Alignments yet.

Cite this work

ENG 111 Summary/Response Essay: Home

Getting Started

A summary/response is a natural consequence of the reading and annotating process. In this type of essay, writers capture the controlling idea and the supporting details of a text and respond by agreeing or disagreeing and then explaining why.

• Summary : Write the main ideas of the article in your own words with occasional quotes from the original author(s).
• Response : Explain your thoughts about this article. Evaluate what you think on this issue and relate it to your own experiences or other things you have read.

The best way to write a summary is ask yourself the following questions: 

• What issues are described, explained or resolved in this work? 
• What is the controlling/main idea? 
• What are the supporting details? 
• What results or conclusions are made? 
• What opinion does the author want readers to keep in mind about this topic? 
• What information does the author use to convince readers? 

To move from an outline to a draft of a summary , follow these guidelines: 

State the author’s name and the title of the text you’re summarizing in the first 1-2 sentences of the summary. 

Express the author’s main idea in your own words in the first 1-2 sentences of the summary (no more than three words in a row from the text you’re summarizing.) 

Identify main points that support the main idea. Write the main points in your own words (no more than three words in a row from the text.) 

Use minor details (e.g. examples, explanations and specific details) only when needed to support the main points. 

Arrange the ideas so the organization and transition words in the summary paragraph reflect the original text. 

Show that you are summarizing someone else’s ideas with expressions like “According to” + author’s name or author’s last name + a signal verb. 

A response is a critique or evaluation of the author's essay. Unlike the summary, it is composed of YOUR opinions in relation to the article being summarized. It examines ideas that you agree or disagree with and identifies the essay’s strengths and weaknesses in reasoning and logic, in quality of supporting examples, and in organization and style. A good response is  persuasive ; therefore, it should cite facts, examples, and personal experience that either refutes or supports the article you’re responding to, depending on your stance.

Summary Response Essay Outline Patterns

Need more? Check out these links:

How to Write a Summary, Analysis and Response Essay (with examples)

Summary and Response Essay Examples

How to Write a Summary and Response Essay

• Last Updated: Feb 8, 2024 4:33 PM
• URL: https://es.vccs.libguides.com/summaryresponse

© 2023 Eastern Shore Community College 29316 Lankford Highway, Melfa, VA 23410 Phone: 757.789.1789 ESCC is an equal opportunity institution.

• AI Content Shield
• AI KW Research
• AI Assistant
• SEO Optimizer
• AI KW Clustering
• Customer reviews
• The NLO Revolution
• Press Center
• Help Center
• Content Resources
• Facebook Group

A Guide to Effective Summary Response Essays

Table of Contents

If you’ve been tasked to write a summary response essay but are unsure where to start, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered with this quick guide on the basics of summary response essays. We’ll cover everything from its definition and writing tips to a sample  outline for summary response essay .

This is a less common type of essay that requires a certain style and approach that differs from other types of essays. But with the help of this guide, you’ll be able to make the writing process much easier.

What is a Summary Response Essay

Summary response essays are two-part essays that include a summary of an article, essay, chapter or report and a response to it.

It is not a formal paper or essay because it does not have an introduction, body, or conclusion like other essays. This type of essay instead consists of a summary of the reading followed by a response to the reading.

To better understand this type of essay, it’s best to look at its two parts separately in the next section.

What to Include in Your Essay

The summary is a concise round-up of all the main ideas in an essay or writing. It cites all the relevant details about the work you’re reviewing. Your summary can include the following:

• Author and the work’s title (typically in the first sentence).
• The thesis of the essay and its supporting ideas
• It may use direct quotations to provide forceful or concise statements of the author’s ideas

Most summaries present the main points in the order they were made by the author and continually referred back to the article being summarized. Your summary should not exceed one-third the length of the original work.

Responses are critiques or evaluations of an author’s work. Unlike the summary, it is composed of YOUR opinions for the article being summarized.

This examines ideas that you agree or disagree with. It identifies the work’s strengths and weaknesses by looking at its organization and style. You should use examples and evidence to support the opinions in your response.

A good response must contain

• Personal experiences

Depending on your stance, these can either refute or support the article you’re responding to.

Steps for Writing a Summary Response Essay

Identify the main idea of the reading .

Create a topic sentence that describes the main idea of your reading for your summary. For your response, create a separate thesis statement that states your opinion on the author’s main idea.

Add supporting details for the summary and response.

Next, identify the supporting facts of the reading. In the summary paragraph, it is important to keep the order of the supporting details. Consider how these points relate to the author’s main idea.

Develop the supporting details for the response paragraph, highlighting how your evidence or personal experience supports the thesis statement you’ve created.

Identify the author’s purpose for writing.

It’s helpful to get to know the goal that the author wants to achieve through their work.

For your summary, try to ask yourself:

• Why did the author write this?
• Is there anything specific that the author wants me to know?
• Does the author want me to do something after reading this? 

And in your response, discuss whether or not the author was successful in achieving the goal of their work.

Write a summary response to the reading .

Given all the data you’ve gathered from the first three steps, you can start writing your summary and the response paragraphs. Make sure to include all the necessary information and be detailed but not flowery. 

General Outline for Summary Response Essay

Summary paragraph.

• Provide the title and author’s name to introduce the work the essay will discuss. Additionally, state the author’s main idea.
• Write supporting sentences that describe the supporting details of the work .
• Let this information come together in a sentence that explains the author’s reason or goal for writing the piece.

Response Paragraph

• Clearly state your opinions or thoughts about the author’s main idea. Use the thesis statement you created in the earlier steps. You can also ask yourself: Does my opinion regarding the reading relate to the author’s main idea?
• Put your personal experience into a supporting sentence (or sentences) describing how your opinion or thoughts support or go against the author’s main idea.
• Write a sentence summarizing this information and explain how your opinion or thought relates to the author’s main idea.

Wrapping Up

A summary response essay typically includes a summary of the reading followed by your thoughts and reactions. It may seem like a long and daunting task, but with a little guidance, you can be confident you’re up for the challenge.

Use the writing tips and  outline for summary response essay  sample in this essay to help you easily get started!

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

Explore All Essay Outline Tool Articles

How to write a synthesis essay outline.

One of the most interesting assignments you could have is writing a synthesis essay. For a college or university student,…

• Essay Outline Tool

Learning the Structure of an Informational Essay

Academic writing assignments, primarily essays, are required of all college and university students. That’s because they think it will aid…

The Correct Way to Structure an Article

Writing non-fiction has a set format that can be followed, which makes it not all that different from writing fiction.…

Exploring the Structure of a Response Essay

You will typically be expected to write in a formal and impersonal voice when you are given the assignment of…

Writing a Persuasive Essay? Use This Structure!

Writing essays is a requirement of your academic program as a college student. Whether you love them or loathe them,…

Writing a Proposal Essay? Read This!

Are you writing a proposal essay? To write it correctly, we have to know what a proposal essay actually is.…

Assignment: Summary and Analysis Essay

Summary and analysis essay introduction.

Select a reading from the reading anthology available in this course, and apply all steps of the critical reading process to it. The culmination of this close reading will be a Summary and Analysis Essay, which accurately captures the purpose, meaning, and tone of the reading selection. Directed to an audience unfamiliar with your reading selection, your summary will demonstrate the text’s thesis or controlling idea, its major ideas, and its mode of development.

The summary section of the essay will report only what’s in the reading selection, and will not include personal response or interpretation.

The analysis section of the essay will then move into your personal reactions and interpretations of the work. You will report to your readers how well you feel it meets its rhetorical purpose, and how well the components of its style, structure, and evidence serve to support the text’s thesis.

Assignment Details

Look for the Try It pages along the way to help you prepare for and complete the Summary and Analysis Essay.

The finished Summary and Analysis Essay will be 250–500 words long.  It will

• mimic the structure of the reading selection
• report the thesis or controlling idea of the reading selection
• present major supporting details of the reading selection
• include at least one direct quotation
• include multiple paraphrases
• end with a 2-3 paragraph section that analyzes the rhetorical purpose and features of the text, to conclude with your evaluation of how effectively this text meets its purpose for its intended audience.
• Performance Assessment: Summary Essay. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

Useful Links

Disclaimer: Ireland Assignments provides academic assistance to students so that they can complete their university assignments and projects on time. Our business does NOT deal with ghostwriting services as we are aware of this being one of the academic misconducts. But we do help students by connecting them to online subject experts within an affordable price range. Also, if you’re looking for high-quality resources such as journals and articles, pdf files, videos, research papers, e-books, and other secondary literature to write your assignment task, then we can certainly help you out. Ireland Assignments is not sponsored or endorsed by (Ireland) Quality and Qualification Ireland or any college or university in Ireland or elsewhere in the world. All trademarks, logos and brand names are the property of their respective owners. All university related assistance services, materials and their names used in this website are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, trademarks and brands does not imply endorsement.

Ireland Assignments rated 4.9/5 based on 15000+ customer reviews

Copyright © 2024 Ireland Assignments, All Right Reserved