Summary Assignment (Paper 1: 15/100 points)

Task

For your first paper, you will summarize the following essay:

John Ogbu, ìLiteracy and Schooling in Subordinate Cultures:
The Case of Black Americansî

Due dates

Rough draft: M 9/23

Peer review: W 9/25

Final draft: F 9/27

Purpose and audience

When you write an essay that summarizes another essay, your purpose is to present a hypothesis about what the essay was "about." This hypothesis (or set of hypotheses) is your interpretation. In writing your summary, you are sharing your hypotheses concerning what the essay is about and developing a reasonable and well-supported argument for them.

In general, there are many possible interpretations of any essay, each focusing on diverse aspects of the essay (e.g., patterns of words and images in the essay, ironies, historical and social contexts, etc.). For this assignment, your purpose should not be to cover all these possible aspects of the essay, but to focus on those aspects that the milestones lead you to see and, as space permits, the main/faulty/return paths within the milestones. Even for this assignment, focusing on milestones, there is no single interpretation or best interpretation. But there are more and less plausible interpretations presented more and less convincingly. Note that you should not simply paraphrase the text. Use the milestones to develop an interpretation of the text.

You do not need to come up with a new insight into the essay, though readers are generally pleased if you do. (Since you have been discussing the essay in class, others' readings may be somewhat similar to your own). You should, however, try to come up with a "reading" of the essay supported by argument. You should aim to propose an understandable, focused set of hypotheses that can be supported by numerous examples and quotations from the text.

This assignment will also help you identify and understand the role assumptions (and implications) play in an authorís argument. Recall from class discussion that assumptions are fundamental ways of viewing the world in order to see the tension in an issue in a way consistent with a particular position. Assumptions, then, are the unarticulated beliefs, attitudes, and information which lie behind the way an author sees, defines, and solves a problem. This assignment will help you to identify assumptions by asking you to pose a critical question to the article which highlights one of the authorís assumptions.

For the purposes of this assignment, you should assume that some of the readers or your summary may have read the original essay, and some may not have read the essay. For readers who have read the essay, you need to convince them that your interpretation is reasonable and plausible (especially since they may be entertaining interpretations other than yours); your summary may lead them to a new understanding and appreciation of the essay. For readers who have not read the essay, you need to present enough detail so that they are able to "see" the essay as you do.

Procedure

In building your summary, you may find it helpful to follow the strategies present in the textbook and in class. In particular,

1) Read the essay for an overall sense of direction. Look up unfamiliar words and phrases in a dictionary, noting their definitions and connotations. You should not expect to understand the essay on the first reading.

2) Reread and mark the text, paying special attention to main/faulty/return paths (review the linguistic cues for these in the textbook, Ch. 3, pp. 40-45, for example, "point presented directly," point presented with self-identification," etc.).

3) Review the milestones in the textbook, Ch. 4, pp. 80-90) and your class notes. Reread the text and create hypotheses for how the author sees the issue, defines the problem and chooses a solution. For each of the milestones, try to imagine alternative hypotheses. Annotate anything you notice that is at all relevant to supporting or disconfirming any of the hypotheses. Sketch the milestones and their support.

4) Test the hypotheses against the following criteria for good hypotheses:

a) Evidence (Search for evidence that supports each hypothesis. Note and annotate anything you can find that seems relevant. If you find evidence that contradicts a hypothesis, use it to clarify and revise the thesis. Note any contradictions or outstanding problems. Revise hypotheses or try out new ones as appropriate.)

b) Consistency (Check that any hypothesized definition covers the problem cases; the hypothesized solution mitigates or eliminates the problem. Revise hypotheses or create new ones as appropriate.)

c) Comprehensiveness (Check that the hypotheses account for the entire essay rather than some part of it. Revise hypotheses or create new ones as appropriate)

5) Pose a critical question which highlights and challenges one of the main assumptions underlying the authorís argument (or implications following from it). Provide textual evidence from which you inferred this assumption. (Formula: ìThe author assumes ëXí, however how would the author address ëYí/the author neglects ëYíí). State a counterexample to the assumption/implication.

6) Think about what you have learned. (1) Jot down hypotheses that you think you can support along with their support (reasons and textual evidence) or (2) Jot down alternative hypotheses that you cannot decide among and your reasons. Your summary may be an argument for a particular set of hypotheses at seeing the issue/defining the problem/choosing a solution, or it may be an argument that the essay can be interpreted (according to the milestones) in multiple ways. Your summary should acknowledge any remaining contradictions or problems.

7) Plan your essay. Set goals for the following:

Content. Review the summary criteria for content and reasoning.

Purpose. Review the statement of purpose (above).

Audience. Review the statement of audience (above). Can you think of questions or objections readers might have to your hypotheses? Can you revise the hypotheses to meet the objections or can you answer their questions or refute those objections?

Procedure. Sketch a plan for the draft. In general, it is usually best to proceed by doing a rough draft that gets down the basics, then work to improve it. Review Ch. 5.

8) Draft your essay. If time has gone by since you have read the original essay, skim it quickly, along with your notes.

9) Get critical comments from readers (peer reviews).

10) Using reader's comments and criteria for summaries, identify problems. Plan revisions. Revise and edit to solve problems.

Requirements

Reminder of length. (see course polices) Your summary should be brief, but long enough to convey your hypotheses about the author's line of argument, together with your support for them (1-2 pages, typed, double-spaced, using standard margins, type size and spacing).

Questions or problems? See your instructor.