Throughout this module you have been reading and analyzing your reading selection closely. Build from the work you’ve done so far, including the summary draft. Add the analysis component, noted below. Work with tutors at the Enhancement Center as needed to finalize your draft into the strongest submission possible. Submit the final version here.

Summary and Analysis Essay Overview

Select a reading from the reading anthology available in this course, and apply all steps of the critical reading process to it. The culmination of this close reading will be a Summary and Analysis Essay, which accurately captures the purpose, meaning, and tone of the reading selection. Directed to an audience unfamiliar with your reading selection, your summary will demonstrate the text’s thesis or controlling idea, its major ideas, and its mode of development.

The summary section of the essay will report only what’s in the reading selection, and will not include personal response or interpretation.

The analysis section of the essay will then move into your personal reactions and interpretations of the work. You will report to your readers how well you feel it meets its rhetorical purpose, and how well the components of its style, structure, and evidence serve to support the text’s thesis.

Assignment Details

Look for the Try It pages along the way to help you prepare for and complete the Summary and Analysis Essay.

The finished Summary and Analysis Essay will be 250–500 words long.  It will

• mimic the structure of the reading selection
• report the thesis or controlling idea of the reading selection
• present major supporting details of the reading selection
• include at least one direct quotation
• include multiple paraphrases
• end with a 2-3 paragraph section that analyzes the rhetorical purpose and features of the text, to conclude with your evaluation of how effectively this text meets its purpose for its intended audience.