Summary Response Essay 800 words Instructions Now that you have .docx

Summary Response Essay 800 words Instructions
Now that you have learned about many of the elements of
fiction and have read several short stories, it is time for you to
reflect and write about what you have read. In this module, you
will be choosing a topic and writing a response essay on one of
the stories you have read so far. This is a wonderful
opportunity to seriously consider what the author was trying to
say in the story and to connect the main points in the story to
your own life.
At the completion of this module you will be able to
Compose an 800 word summary response essay on a selected
topic.
Review all the following attached:
Review: Summary-Response Essay Lecture Presentation
Review: How to Summarize a Short Story Presentation
Review & Choose: Topic Choices for the Summary-Response
Essay
Read: Re-read the story that is related to your topic taking notes
of plot elements that relate to your response (I have attached the
story I am using Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin)
Review: Template for the Summary-Response Essay
Review: Student Sample for the Summary-Response Essay
Complete: Summary-Response Essay (800 words)
NO PLAGERISM! Check grammar
Summary Response Essay 800 words
Instructions
fiction and have read several short stories, it
is time for you to reflect and write about what you have read.
In this module, you will be choosing a
topic and writing a response essay on one of the stories you
have read so far. This is a wonderful

say in the story and to connect the main
points in the story to your own life.
At the comple
tion of this module you will be able to
topic.
Review: Summary
-
Response Essay Lecture Presentation
Review & Choo
se: Topic Choices for the Summary
-
Response Essay
Read:
Re
-
read the story that is related to your topic taking notes of plot
elements that relate to your
response
(I have attached the story I am using Sonn
y
’
s Blues by James Baldwin)
Review: Template for the Summary

-
Response Essay
Review: Student Sample for the Summary
-
Respons
e Essay
Complete: Summary
-
Response Essay
(800 words)
Summary Response Essay 800 words Instructions
fiction and have read several short stories, it
is time for you to reflect and write about what you have read.
In this module, you will be choosing a
topic and writing a response essay on one of the stories you
have read so far. This is a wonderful
say in the story and to connect the main
points in the story to your own life.
At the completion of this module you will be able to
topic.
Review: Summary-Response Essay Lecture Presentation
Review & Choose: Topic Choices for the Summary-Response
Essay
Read: Re-read the story that is related to your topic taking notes
of plot elements that relate to your

response (I have attached the story I am using Sonny’s Blues by
James Baldwin)
Review: Template for the Summary-Response Essay
Review: Student Sample for the Summary-Response Essay
Complete: Summary-Response Essay (800 words)
Found online at:
http://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/seminar1fall2010hong/file
s/2010/08/Baldwin-Sonnys-Blues.pdf

How to Summarize a Short Story
Summarizing any text is a good way to show that you
understood what you have read. When you
summarize a short story, you should follow these steps.
Divide the Content in Logical Sections:
For a short story summary, you would want to make sure you
don’t forget any important information so
a good place to start might be to set up your sections as follows:
Historical Context and Background Information: this would be
the introduction. You would include
the title of the story and the author. You might want to include
when the story was published,
where it first appeared, and how well it was received. You
should end this section with a statement
about the main point of the story (theme). This section should
be about 100 words and should
include at least one citation.
Introduce and describe the major characters and the setting: tell
the reader where the story took

place and briefly describe each of the main characters. Provide
a concise but accurate description of
each character. You might want to use some direct quotes from
the text to support your
characterization. This section should be about 50-100 words.
Summarize what happens in the story focusing on the major
conflicts that the characters face. You
might sketch this out in an outline by listing the events that lead
up to the climax, the climax, and
the events that happened after the climax. Once you have the
events clear in your mind, write a
paragraph summarizing what occurs in the story. Your
summary should be concise but complete
(about 100 words).
In your final paragraph you should discuss the major themes of
the story (what was the main point
the author was trying to make?) and any symbols that are
important to understanding the theme.
Remember:
A summary consists of the most important elements in a word.
It retells the beginning, rising action,
climax, falling action, and ending. A good summary captures
the essential elements about the main
characters and the setting where the action unfolds.
Template for the Summary-Response Essay
Introduction: Introduce the short story by providing the title of
the fiction and the author's name—with perhaps a small amount
of information about the author.
State the thesis of the essay, including the summary and

response: For example, you might state the following thesis:
Sarty in “Barn Burning” displays the typical qualities of a
young man growing up in the post-Civil War South, which are
similar to some of the aspects of my own upbringing.
Write the Summary point by point.
Write the Response point by point.
Conclusion: End the essay by making a final statement about the
author and your response to his/her short fiction.
I. Introduction
II. Summary
2 or 3 paragraphs.
Remember you are only summarizing the main points in the
story that will connect with your response.
A. Main Point 1
B. Main Point 2
C. Main Point 3
III. Response
2 or 3 paragraphs.
A. Respond to the main points by agreeing or disagreeing in
connection to your own life. For example, if you summarized
two main points about Sarty’s young life, you would then
connect to similar events in your own life and how both the
character and you experienced similar events.IV. Conclusion
Don’t forget to include the following essay elements:
· Include ample evidence (explanation based on your reading
and experience) to support your response.
· Provide appropriate transitions from one point to the next.
· Include adequate explanation to distinguish the author's points
from yours.
· Include an adequate summary by including the most important

point the author makes.
· Provide a correct MLA citation for any author quotations from
the short story.
Template for the Summary
-
Response Essay
the fiction and the author's
name
—
with perhaps a small amount of information about the author.
State the thesis
of the essay, including the summary and response: For
example, you might
state the following thesis: Sarty in “Barn Burning” displays the
typical qualities of a young man
growing up in the post
-
Civil War South, which are similar to some
of the aspects of my own
upbringing.

author and your response to
his/her short fiction.
I. Introduction
II. Summary
2
or 3 paragraphs.
story that will connect with your
response.
A. Main Point 1
B. Main Point 2
C. Main Point 3
III. Response
2 or 3 paragraphs.
A. Respond to the main points by agreeing or disagreei
ng in connection to your own life. For
example, if you summarized two main points about Sarty’s
young life, you would then connect
to similar events in your own life and how both the character
and you experienced similar
events.

Template for the Summary-Response Essay
the fiction and the author's
name—with perhaps a small amount of information about the
author.
State the thesis of the essay, including the summary and
response: For example, you might
state the following thesis: Sarty in “Barn Burning” displays the
typical qualities of a young man
growing up in the post-Civil War South, which are similar to
some of the aspects of my own
upbringing.
author and your response to
his/her short fiction.
I. Introduction
II. Summary
2 or 3 paragraphs.
story that will connect with your
response.
A. Main Point 1
B. Main Point 2
C. Main Point 3
III. Response

2 or 3 paragraphs.
A. Respond to the main points by agreeing or disagreeing in
connection to your own life. For
example, if you summarized two main points about Sarty’s
young life, you would then connect
to similar events in your own life and how both the character
and you experienced similar
events.
Student’s Last Name 1
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
ENC 1102 -- Literature
Date
The Weights Men Carry
In his short story “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien
makes his characters carry themselves, a grisly combination of
gear and fear, across the dangerous lands of Vietnam. “They
carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief,
terror, love, longing – these were intangibles, but the
intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had
tangible weight” (126). Not only did their emotional baggage
have tangible weight, it sometimes even outweighed their
physical gear. The fear of dying greeted these men at every
junction, but they were forced to carry on, no matter what. But
what drove them to carry on? What coping mechanism is able to
keep these men marching straight towards danger even when
they witness their comrades die? The soldiers had to face their
fears in the same way that I did when my father became ill and,
subsequently, passed away. Comment by Martyambrose: Add
your thesis here.
“First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl
named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New
Jersey” (117). After long, hot days Lieutenant Cross would slip
away into a fantasy world of camping trips and dark movie

theaters, far away from the sweaty lands of Vietnam. He did his
best to imagine himself gently caressing her knee instead of
dealing with a ferocious war. His mental escapism is a perfectly
human reaction to the great atrocities that he is forced to deal
with. He finds it difficult to grasp the situation he is thrown in
to, so he creates his own world, greatly removed from reality.
“His mind wandered. He had difficulty keeping his attention on
the war. On occasion he would yell at his men to spread out the
column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away
into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the
Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing” (120). However
his mental wandering catches up with him and snaps him back
to reality in very harsh way. Comment by Martyambrose: In
the first half of the essay, summarize the main points from the
short story that relate to your thesis. Comment by
Martyambrose: Comment by Martyambrose: When you
quote from the short story, use quotation marks and the page
number from the story.
Lee Strunk had just finished clearing a tunnel and the men
were making zombie jokes when Ted Lavender was shot in the
head. “He [Lieutenant Cross] felt shame. He hated himself. He
had loved Martha more than his men and as a consequence
Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have
to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war”
(124). This moment is a drastic turning point for the lieutenant;
he confronts his deadly mistake and vows to never let it happen
again. The morning after Lavender died, Lieutenant Cross
burned Martha’s letters and photographs and refused a response
to an imaginary visualization of her. He did it as symbol to
himself of letting go of his fantasies and reengaging life as a
soldier, and above that as a commander. “He was now
determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence.
It wouldn’t help Lavender, he knew that, but from this point on
he would comport himself as a soldier” (128).
I, like Lieutenant Cross, have faced a harsh reality in my
life and I, again like Cross, detached myself from the situation.

In December of 2005 my father became sick with what we
thought was the flu. Throughout the four weeks that followed he
went from the emergency room, to intensive care, to hospice,
and ultimately to his grave. During his time in the hospital I
visited him often, but it was very difficult to be there. He was
noiselessly coughing blood into a tube in his trachea and could
not speak; it was always too quiet, too cold and too sterile. I
had never lost someone in my immediate family so I refused to
believe that he would leave the hospital in any condition other
than healthy and hounding me about my grades. I never faced
the reality of the situation; I never even considered the
possibility he might not be alive in a week. I rejected facts,
charts, results, and professional medical advice because I could
not even fathom a life without my father. Comment by
Martyambrose: The second half of the essay connects the theme
to something personal; here, it is the student’s reaction to his
father’s illness/death.
It wasn’t until after his funeral that it really began to sink
in that I would never see my father again. And once this idea
became planted in my mind I thought of nothing else. I became
severely depressed and angry. I hated the world because it was
unfair and had dealt me a bad hand. For years I carried an
intolerable weight of anger, self-loathing, and self-pity. I
carried all the emotional baggage of a person who saw no point
in living. These dark ages took control of my life until enough
time had passed that I was able to rid myself of this dead
weight.
I faced my situation head on and realized that life wasn’t
bringing me down, I was. I was choosing to carry those weights
and from that point forward, I was choosing not to. I took
control of my life and began to see the endless possibility of
choices I had. I could choose any school, any profession, any
life I wanted; I would choose my own weights to carry.
Unfortunately for both First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and
myself, it took very jarring situations for us to realize that we
needed to turn ourselves around. We both experienced harsh

realities and it took the sacrifices of others for us to see the
depths of our issues and, eventually, our salvations. I suspect
the lieutenant marched on, carrying the responsibility of his
men’s lives with dignity and diligence; I, myself, go on with
life carrying the ghost of my father, a weight I choose to carry.
Comment by Martyambrose: Add a conclusion about what
this topic means in larger sense to all people.
Work Cited Comment by Martyambrose: Include a citation
that includes the short story in our textbook.
O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.” Literature and the
Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth
McMahan, Susan X Day, Robert Funk, and Linda S.
Coleman. 11th ed. Boston: Longman. 2016. 108 - 119. Print.
Student’s Last Name
1
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
ENC 1102
--
Literature
Date

makes
his characters carry
themselves,
a grisly combination of gear and
fear,
across the dangerous land
s of Vietnam.
“They
terror, love, longing
–
these were
intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific
gravity, they had tangible
weight” (126).
Not only did their emotional ba
ggage have tangible weight, it sometimes even
outweighed their physical gear. The fear of dying greeted these
men at every junction, but they
were forced to carry on, no matter what.
But what drove them to carry on? What coping
mechanism is able to keep th
ese men marching straight towards danger even when they
witness
their
comrades
die? The soldiers had to face their fears in the same way that I
did when my

father
became ill and, subsequently, passed away.
“
First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross
carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at
Mount
Sebastian College in New Jersey” (117).
After long, hot days Lieutenant Cross would
slip
away into a fantasy world of camping trips and dark movie
theaters
, far awa
y from the
sweaty lands o
f Vietnam.
He did his best to imagine himself gently caressing her knee
instead of
human reaction to the great
atrocities that he is forced to deal with. He finds it difficult to
grasp the si
tua
tion he is thrown in
Student’s Last Name 1
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
ENC 1102 -- Literature
Date

makes his characters carry
themselves, a grisly combination of gear and fear, across the
dangerous lands of Vietnam. “They
terror, love, longing – these were
intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific
gravity, they had tangible
weight” (126). Not only did their emotional baggage have
tangible weight, it sometimes even
outweighed their physical gear. The fear of dying greeted these
men at every junction, but they
were forced to carry on, no matter what. But what drove them to
carry on? What coping
mechanism is able to keep these men marching straight towards
danger even when they witness
their comrades die? The soldiers had to face their fears in the
same way that I did when my
father became ill and, subsequently, passed away.
“First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named
Martha, a junior at
Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey” (117). After long, hot
days Lieutenant Cross would
slip away into a fantasy world of camping trips and dark movie
theaters, far away from the
sweaty lands of Vietnam. He did his best to imagine himself
gently caressing her knee instead of
human reaction to the great
atrocities that he is forced to deal with. He finds it difficult to
grasp the situation he is thrown in
Summary Response Essay Presentation

Your first writing assignment is a summary response essay. The
purpose of the presentation is to give
you important information on how to write this type of essay.
Reading Critically
• Read through the short fiction and make notes.
• Understand the author techniques to engage you as a reader
through plot, conflict, character,
and setting.
• Keep a “reader’s log” where you respond to certain points
throughout the story.
Whenever you are writing about literature, the first step is to re-
read the piece you will be writing about
and take notes. Remember, think about what you have learned
about plot, conflict, character and
setting. Keep a log where you respond to certain points
throughout the story.
What to Place in Your Notes
• Summary: List main ideas, key features, examples, and
evidence the author may provide
• Response: Log your reaction to each main point, record your
comments, and questions
In your summary, you will need to list the main ideas, key
features, examples, and evidence that the
author provides. Before you think about your response, review
your prompt carefully, as the prompt
will help you in focusing your response. Keeping the topic in
mind, make notes of your reactions and
questions.

Purpose of this Essay
• To understand
• To be able to summarize
• To be able to respond or react
The purpose of a summary response essay is twofold: you want
to understand the author’s main ideas
and purpose of the story. In order to do this, you will be
summarizing the author’s main ideas as they
relate to your topic. You will then respond to what the author
has said by relating the topic (or the
subject) to your own life experiences.
Preparing the Summary
• Cite the author and the title of the text.
• Indicate the main ideas of the text.
• Paraphrase main ideas; quote sparingly, use key words,
phrases, and sentences.
• Be objective as you jot down the actual plot points.
The summary will come first in your essay. In your summary,
you must cite the author, the title, and the
main ideas of the text. This usually comes in the introductory
paragraph. You do not want to
summarize the entire story. You just want to focus on the topic
presented in the prompt that you chose.
For example, if you chose the Good People prompt, your
summary will focus on the conflict the two

characters were facing. You can use some quotes to support
your ideas but use them sparingly.
Instead, use key words and phrases.
Preparing the Response
• Your response relates to the prompt you chose.
• You want to use your own experience and tie it to the main
points the author is making in the
story.
• You may agree or disagree with how the characters responded
to the problem as long as you
support your opinions.
The purpose of a summary response essay (as we said) is to
prepare your summary. The next part of the
essay is going to be structuring your response.
Structuring Your Response
• Requires your reaction to the text and your interpretation of
the text
• A response of this nature will react to the ideas or the
argument
• Simply, do you agree with the author? Why or why not?
• Provide evidence based on your experiences to support your
reaction
Your response requires that you react to the text and your
interpretation of the text as you relate your
own experience. You may have reacted differently than the
characters in the situation. Why? How does
your experience differ from the character’s situation? Do you

agree or disagree with the author?
Provide evidence based on your experience.
How to Provide Evidence to Support Your Response
• Your response requires that you provide evidence to support
your opinion that will come from
actual lines in the short fiction.
• Find quotations from the story that seem to support your main
ideas.
As you formulate your response, use evidence from the text to
support your ideas. You should try to
use 1-2 direct quotes in each body paragraph of the essay.
Personal Experience in the Response Section
• Use personal experience as examples to demonstrate why you
interpret the text the way you
do, why you react the way you do, why you agree or disagree
• Explain how your personal experience supports your response
and make certain that you use
examples from your experience that are specific.
You will be developing the response section by providing
examples from your own life that answers the
questions proposed in the prompt. Make sure you keep this in
mind as you work your way through this
part of the essay.
Introduction
• Brief introduction that will state these items:

• Title of the short story; Name of author.
• Any key information you might know about author to help
establish author’s
background.
• State author’s main idea.
• Thesis: a well thought out statement stating your main point
about the short fiction.
Your introduction will state the name of the short story and the
author. You might want to give a little
background information about the author. Look at the prompt
carefully. Use keywords from the
prompt to come up with your thesis. For example, the
characters in Good People were facing a major
decision. If you chose this prompt, you would mention the
conflict the characters faced and then
mention that you also faced such a decision in your life.
Body Organization: Block
• I. Introduction with thesis.
• II. Summary of main points in the short story.
• III. Response to the short story with personal examples.
• IV. Conclusion
There are two different structures that you can use to develop
this essay. The block by block method
begins with the summary. You would spend one or two
paragraphs summarizing the main points in the
story that relate to your prompt. The second part of the essay

will be your response to the prompt
using personal examples. This is probably the easiest structure
to do. The point by point method
presents one point in the summary followed by one point in the
response. You would do this
throughout the essay. This works well if you have parallel
points, which does not happen very often. So,
I would suggest that you look at the block by block method
first.

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