Instructions: Poo is the author of this piece of writing, so her name appears in the in-text citation. Even though Rothenberg is the editor of the textbook overall, she didnt write the piece we are quoting here. Whoever wrote the words you use in a paper is the name that should appear in the citation. 374 is the page number this quote was found on. A strategy to notice about quoting: if you want to add or slightly modify words in quoted material to better fit with your sentence, use the brackets around new or modified words or letters to show readers that this was your change and therefore the appearance is different than the original.

Even if you quote your selected piece of writing, no Works Cited entry or Works Cited page is required for this essay (we are still working up to that and everyone will be using sources from the textbook, so we know where to find the source). If you want even more help with MLA in-text citation, please use online resources such as Owl Purdue at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/ (Links to an external site.).

This is not a research assignment, so while writing resources may be used for reference (such as a dictionary, thesaurus, a writing guide, etc.), students should not incorporate any other sources in their essay.

A habit I would like you to practice and begin to get used to in summary writing: using in the third person. This means, try to avoid writing in the first person (I think I believe My idea is) or in the second person (You should know that oppressionYour knowledge). Instead, focus on the topic at hand and make it the focus on your sentences (Oppression is Knowledge includes.).

In terms of how the page looks, please use MLA page layout as described in the slideshow in the third weeks module, as exemplified in the example MLA essay, and as given to you in the MLA Microsoft Word Template (which I highly suggest you use). As a reminder, some of these MLA page layout rules include Times New Roman 12 point font, double spacing, a heading on the first page in the upper left corner, a centered title, a header in the upper right corner, and 1 inch margins.

Summary Tips

You have read about how to summarize, but I would like to give you some tips here for your convenience.

– Include the title and author of the selected piece of writing in the first or second sentence of the essay.

– Determine the main ideas of the piece. Plan a way to state them in your own words.

– Condense information. The summary is going to be shorter or less words than the original, so you will have to synthesize and condense the information down to only its most essential content.

– Leave out minor details or examples.

– Leave out any personal opinion or critique. Think of the summary as just a report of what the piece of writing said.         

Critical Discussion Questions

Students must include two critical discussion questions about the reading they selected for the summary at the bottom of their essay. Please see the course syllabus for more information about critical discussion questions.