Summary/Response Essay

Learning Objectives:
Students will practice:
 Closely and actively reading a complex text by reading the text multiple times and
annotating the text
 Identifying the controlling and supporting ideas in a text
 Summarizing a text by focusing on the controlling idea/s
 Organizing a paper around a strong thesis and topic sentences
 Supporting claims about the text with evidence, such as logic, reason, direct
quotes, personal observation, etc.
The Assignment:
Active reading, which includes close reading, annotating, and making personal
connections to the text, naturally leads to summary and response. Active reading and
writing summaries are common practices in college. Active reading helps you understand
complex texts and writing summaries helps you pull together the conclusions and
approaches of experts who have researched and written about a specific concept.
For this assignment, you will summarize and respond to Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave.
An allegory is a type of story that reveals a hidden meaning. By definition, allegories are
open to interpretation, meaning you might find a different meaning than your classmates.
In this type of essay, your goal is to capture the controlling idea and the supporting
details of a text in the summary, then respond by describing your reaction to the text.
The Summary:
We will discuss The Allegory of the Cave in a forum and will work together to identify
the controlling and supporting ideas. You will also watch a video explaining several
popular interpretations of the allegory. You should take notes and are free to use ideas we
generate in the forum or see in the video in your essay. However, you shouldn’t rely
solely on class discussion or outside sources to prepare you for writing the essay. You
should read the text closely, more than once, and annotate on your own. Use the class
discussions to supplement your notes, rather than as the primary source for your notes.
After active reading (reading closely and annotating the text) and class discussion, write a
summary of the text. Rather than trying to rewrite the original text line-by-line, focus on
explaining the author’s main idea/s and showing how supporting points support the main
idea. Summaries should always be written in your own words, although you can include
short quotes from the text if you decide the author’s or speaker’s words summarize a
point more precisely.
The Response:
For this essay, your response will connect personal experiences, ideas, observations,
and/or opinions to the text you have been actively reading. The response section provides
an opportunity to explain your thoughts about the author’s claims. You can discuss what
you agree with or disagree with and you may also choose to include comments about
concepts from the text that you find intriguing, surprising, exciting, disturbing, etc.
You will likely agree with some aspects of the text and disagree with others. Instead of
trying to catalog your response to every aspect of the text, focus on your reaction to the
controlling idea/s, then explain the thought process behind that reaction.