9.16 Revising Summaries and Quotation

On Thursday 9.18 ENG 1031 meets in CAS 352, and ENG 1032 meets in CAS 245.

I started class Tuesday by drawing your attention to the revised calendar.  The plan for finishing work on the summary and response essay is pretty much mapped out.  At the end of that unit we will be choosing the essays you want to read for the persuasive essay, so be looking through readings in the section on the cost of college education, the section you chose for this essay.

Quotation:  During the discussion of what TS/IS had to say about using quotations, you identified the following points as central:

• don't leave dangling quotations=> be sure to integrate the quote into the discussion of your ideas
• blend the authors words with yours
• don't use too many quotes
• choose quotes carefully => they must be relevant to your discussion
• frame your quote (set it up, present the quote, discuss what it shows)
• use the author's exact words

We then looked over the handout on quoting and paraphrase with particular attention to the bullet points on WHEN to use quotes, and HOW to construct them.  The points on how to shorten or reword quotes using brackets [  ] and ellipses will be particularly imporatnt for you => since quotes sometimes do not havequite the right focus or wording to fit into your writing without making minor changes to their wording.

Using quotes.  During the next section of class we worked together on revising one of the focused summaries you worked on for the Brandon King essay.   Revising a summary so that it makes more definite references to the reading you are summarizing.

Strategies for revising. During the next part of class we looked at Group 1's summary, and worked on it as a while class to make a plan for how to revise it.

We began by asking: do we have all the main ideas in this draft that I am going to need to write this assignment?  These ideas included:a statement of King's overall focus; the points King makes to develop his focus which we will refer to in our focus; a statement of our focus (the transition to our response).

On reviewing the essay we decided that all these elements were present, but sometimes in ways that were too general or in the wrong order.  Our plan for revising the essay included the following.

Development: Add more about what King says about: the changing American dream, different dreams, and his definition of the American Dream.
This part should include a quote or two for the most important statements (we decided a quote might be important either for the definition or for his explanation of why dreams change).

Organiation: Put King's main idea earlier (at the beginning).  Set up some context before presenting our "I Say".

You then spent some time in class getting started on this revision.

SECOND HALF OF CLASS

Summarizing Herbert. During the second half of class, you used what we have practicing for identifying main points, finding a focus, and writing summaries to summarize Bob Herbert's "Hiding from Reality."

We started out by doing some whole class brainstorming to identify Herbert's points. We noticed that his focus was on the responsibility of the American people, the government or "we" for "fixing" problems with the American Dream.  We stated that his overall position was pretty much that the American Dream was in ruins, and we were in denial about what we needed to do to fix it.

The supporting points in his argume focused on the WAY the government (we) were going about tryig to represent and/or fix what was happening.

 In the example about the economy - he pointed out that reports on jobs make it look like things are getting better when in fact they aren't .  And the example about schools points out that because our leaders are not experts (or even competent) - and because they are in denial about what is really wrong - their solutions are unworkable.

Ideas for replying to Herbert:  
1) agree= government needs to get out of denial and be more responsible for its role in mending the American dream
2) enter an on-going debate, or argue that his focus implies addition points he has not fully explored: Herbert overlooks the responsibilty of the American people - doesn't talk about their role;  or Herbert overlooks the role/responsibilities of employers/corporations/the rich.
3)disagree = if Herbert had chosen different examples about jobs and schools - he could not support this argument; the American dream is fine (as King argues) etc
4) agree with part of what Herbert writes=> agree with points about schools and their importance to the American Dream

For next class:
Write: Finish revising the summary we worked on in class & post it to your portfolio.  It should be named LastNameRevGrpSum.
Finish and post the summary you wrote of Herbert.  Post this summary to your portfolio page as YourLastNameHerbert.
Read: Ch 4, and "Up against Wal-mart," p. 606.