Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:
For this assignment, you will be writing a summary of and response to “Monstrous Beginnings” by W. Scott Poole. Poole covers a lot of ground in his essay about European settlers, the New World, and the “monsters” they found there. Your task is to summarize Poole’s main ideas and draw connections between them to demonstrate critical reading and thinking. You’ll then narrow in on one or more of his main points and analyze more deeply, crafting an insightful response of your own.
You might find it useful to review your Reading Response 2; you are allowed to include elements of what you wrote for that assignment in your summary/response. Make sure that if you do include any of your previous response that you integrate it smoothly into your essay, editing and expanding as needed.
As you conduct research for other writing projects, you will often come across lengthy articles and book chapters. They may prove helpful for your paper, but you’ll find that there is a lot of information to process before you hit upon the ideas that you’ll cite in your own work. It’s important to read thoroughly, understand the work as a whole, and then be able to narrow in on the information of most use and interest to you without “cherry-picking” and losing the context that the rest of the source provides.
Further still, this assignment gives you the chance to join an academic conversation by engaging thoughtfully with a source. As the editors of our textbook, The Norton Field Guide to Writing, have observed, “All academic writing is part of a larger conversation” to which you are “adding your own voice.” The process of drafting, peer reviewing, revising, and editing your response to this assignment will further hone your skills in summary and analysis, which are key to all research writing and will aid you in subsequent ENC 1102 assignments.
The Summary:
A summary is a concise paraphrase of the main ideas of an essay. It cites the author and the title; it contains the essay’s thesis and supporting ideas; it will not usually cite the author’s examples or supporting details unless they are central to understanding the main idea. Most summaries present the major points in the order that the author made them and continually refer back to the author (i.e. “Poole argues that ….” or “Poole points out that …”). The summary should not feel like a list, however. Make sure to draw connections between each idea summarized, showing how they serve the author’s overall thesis.
The Response:
A response is subjective but must still be structured with care and written with precision. Your response should engage directly with a specific element(s) of Poole’s essay. Some questions you might consider as you develop your response:
What is Poole’s overall message?
