At the beginning of class, I asked all of you to open up the feedback I gave you on your summaries. I wanted to make sure that you could see both the notes at the top of the page, and the side comments which made specific suggestions. After looking over these notes, we listed of some of the things you have been noticing/working on when writing summaries. We made a list on the board. Here are the observations about what you have learned.
- Summary is a conversation between the writer and the text
- Using language from the templates can set up for a particular focus for the summary
- The summary needs to make references to the quotes/material from the text that you will reply to
- Summaries have a focus
- Use your summary to set up a relationship between the They Say and the I Say of your essay
- What you summarize (which points you refer to) depends on what you will write about (your purpose)
- Summaries need to be developed by making specific references to points in the text
- Writers us summaries in different ways
This is a good list about what summaries are and how they work.
How are you doing? During the next part of class you took stock of your process for writing a summary, and assessed how well the summaries you write meet the expectations for a "good" summary. You used the prompts (Reflecting on Summaries, posted under Assignments to the right) to describe what you have learned and what you need to work on.
Discussion of Olson's essay on Wal-mart. We spent the beginning of the second part of class identifying the main points in Olson's essay. Then you went back to the essay and pulled out the "evidence" in Olson's essay and noted the page numbers - so you knew where to look if you wanted to quote. Below is a copy of our notes from the board. We identified 5 major points, and a few pages/ideas to elaborate on what each of those points discussed. They are not necessarily in the order they appeared in in the essay,
Workers not getting paid enough - opening story, 606; 607 - workers can't aford health insurance
Saff is overworked (stores are under staffed) - "workers asked to stay and help out after they have checked out 613; "working upaid overtime = saving your job" (quote from Wal-Mart worker Judy Danneman 613)
Wal-Mart= important factor in US economy provides 800K jobs p 608. 2% share in economy. In the US 27 M workers earn 8$ or less,
2M at Wal-mart
Wal-Mart is anti union p. 618 fire union workers who join the union
Emlimated departent (meat packing) when those workers unionized
Made being in union personal against magare 618
History Sam Walton 610
Writing a response: Next we looked at the assignment sheet and talked (posted to the right) over Chapter 4 in TS/IS. Chapter 4 states that there are basically 3 ways to respond: agree, disagree, or agree/disagree at the same time (by pointing out parts you agree with and other parts you don't agree with, or some combination). We noted that the authors emphasise that you can't just agree or disagree and re-state what the essay says. If you agree, you need to bring new material to the discussion to support your agreement, and if you disagree you need to explain why. The templates in this chapter are worth noting.
1. Name the essay you chose to reply to (King, Herbst or Olson)
2. State a focus (what you want to say)
The whole class shared ideas - and it sounds like you are in a strong position to get started on this.
For homework, I asked you to:
List points you will make
Do some freewriting or write some associations/discussions about what you will write for each point
(at this point you might want to look for some support in the essay)
Make a bullet points to indicate the order of your points
Remember that as you work on the points you want to make, and as you go through the essay looking for material to support your ideas => you might come up with an even better idea. If that happens - RE-WRITE your thesis! Figuring out what you want to argue (your main focus), and the points you will make to support your focus is a circular process. Take advantage of the way you can get stronger during each time around!
For next class:
Write: Finish your reflective writing on summarizing and paste your reflections into the landing page for Drafts/Summaries.
Post your brainstorming for your response essay to the page for Drafts/Invention, sub-page Response. We will use what you have written here for a workshop on Tuesday.
Read: Chapters 5 & 6. Chapter 5 will help you keep the They Say and the I Say parts of your writing distinct, and Chapter 6 gives you language for arguing points that counter what you have to say.
G
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