Summary & Response  

Summarizing an article and responding to the author's points.  Your draft may be  Your draft will be "rough" in that it might contain mistakes or not be in top form just yet, but note that it must still be complete in terms of length and content. 

 Assignment Description

For this paper, you're going to read Steven Pinker's article "Mind Over Mass Media" (pg. 382-384 in your textbook).  Then, you'll summarize his main points and respond to them by agreeing, disagreeing, or both.  You'll need to explain why you feel the way you do and provide examples to support your reasoning.   

Please Do Not Use Quotes from the Article

 not take exact words that the author uses in the article and put them in your paper.  We'll learn how to do that properly later on. 

 Basic Requirements

Your essay should contain

• 750 - 900 w
• an introduction that states the name of the author and the title of the article that you read
• a thesis statement that clearly explains the main argument of the article and gives your general impression of that argument
• 2-3 body paragraphs in which you explain the author's main points and respond to them from your own perspective.  Follow the outline in 4 Steps to Getting Started in Modules. Use a clear topic sentence each time, and be sure to place only one main idea in each paragraph
• a conclusion paragraph in which you re-state your thesis (in different words), sum up your general response to the article's claims about technology, and explain why this topic is important

Format

Your essay should be written in , which means that it needs to:

•  with no extra blank lines after each paragraph
• have your LAST name and the page number in the top RIGHT-hand corner of each page
• contain your name, class name (Composition I), instructor's name, and date (written with the day first like this: 22 June 2014) in the top LEFT-hand corner of the first page
• include the word count directly below the last line of the paper

 Watch the Writing Lab's quick MLA paper setup video below if you need help:

https://youtu.be/Vb0UYrWwNz0 (Links to an external site.)

Please place your word count at the end of your paper. In most programs, you'll see the amount in the bottom, left-hand corner of the screen--it looks like this: