Description: 4-5 pages (double-spaced, Times New Roman 12pts font, 1”marings)

Due: Complete Rough Draft Due Wednesday 10/1 –one hard copy brought to class for peer review Revised Draft Due Monday 10/8 one .doc or .docx copy submitted via Bb journals by 12:30pm; complete project packet due at beginning of class Rewrite Due Monday 10/22 upload .doc or .docx via Bb journals by 12:30pm

Source: Carter’s “Barbarian’s Running Late,” personal experience/observation, and any pre-writing work

Grading: Paper – 150pts; Packet – 10pts

Background:
A response essay with summary asks the writer to read rhetorically, and respond to, ideas presented within a text. As a college student, you'll often be asked to write papers in response to readings. Professors assign response papers because they allow you to demonstrate your ability to read complex texts carefully, understand what they mean, and think critically about them. Response papers invite you to do more than just memorize key course concepts for a test. They invite you to begin taking your place in the college community by "entering a conversation" about those concepts.

The Assignment:
From the Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing:
A "summary/response" essay…includes: (a) a summary (approximately 150-250 words) of a reading . . . and (b) a strong response to that reading in which you speak back to that reading from your own critical thinking, personal experience, and values. As you formulate your own response, consider both the author’s ideas and the author’s rhetorical choices concerning audience, purpose, genre, and style. Think of your response as your analysis of how the text tries to influence its readers rhetorically and how your wrestling with the text has expanded and deepened your thinking about its ideas and claims.

In order to prepare for the paper, you will read a selection from Stephen Carter’s “Barbarians Running Late,” from Civility: Manners, Morals and the Etiquette of Democracy (1998). You will then begin drafting the paper drawing on support from McGraw-Hill (Guide) Chapter 3, “Writing to Understand and Synthesize Texts” and Chapter 5, “Writing to Share Experiences.”

You will construct a focused summary, detailing a specific passage or claim in the text, you should then assert your thesis (your analytical response to the text) and spend most of the essay defending it with supporting points and textual evidence from Carter’s chapter. Information and ideas that you use to support your claims should be documented with appropriate MLA in-text citations and a Works Cited list.

Outline of the Paper:
I. Introduction that sets up the narrowed topic you are discussing and introduces the text.
II. A summary of between 150 and 250 words (half to two-thirds of a page). Provide a thesis (this may come either in the introduction or after the summary).
III. Support your thesis using ideas and evidence from the text and your personal experience or observation.
IV. Conclusion offering insight into the significance or the larger context of this discussion

Questions to Keep in Mind As You Compose:
1) What is my paper about and what is my purpose?
2) What claim, theme, or use of terms am I summarizing?
3) What is my thesis? What debatable point does my thesis focus on? Am I responding with or against the grain – agreeing with Carter’s claim or disagreeing (or agreeing but complicating)?
4) What points will I use to support the thesis?
5) What evidence from the text will I use to back up my points? What evidence from my