UMEI 004C

The Reaction  

The reaction builds on summary in two ways.  First, before you can react to a text, you must be able to summarize its main points.  In other words, you must understand a text on its own terms before you can express an opinion about it.  Second, reaction expands textual meaning by including reader response.  It’s the kind of reader response, however, that distinguishes a good reaction from a bad one.   A good reaction incorporates personal response and supports and develops that response with evidence.  Reaction, then, asks you to go beyond mere summary in order to use it to make and support a point.  This assignment asks you to select any text that we’ve read thus far in the semester that compels your interest and that allows you the opportunity to make a persuasive point about a particular issue.  Your purpose is to summarize a text and use that text to make a point that persuades an academic audience that your opinion is reasonable. Your evidence will come from the text and from your own personal knowledge and insight.  Your language should be descriptive, precise, and persuasive for your chosen audience.  The essay should be approximately 1 ½ to 2 pages (typed, double-spaced) in length.                  Your reaction should contain the following elements:                Paragraph 1—Introduction and context/background                Paragraph 2—Summary of your text                Paragraph 3—Your own reaction (point 1)                Paragraph 4—Your own reaction (point 2)                Paragraph 5—Conclusion that answers the question “So what?”  (For example, Why should I care?  What should I do?  Why have I learned?) 

            What the reaction is:1) a means of going beyond the literal content of the source2) a tool to summarize ideas from academic sources3) a tool to personalize ideas from academic sources by reacting and making a point4) a means of providing support for that point 

            What the reaction is not:1) a mere expression of personal, unsupported opinion 2) a means of offering only negative criticism of sources while ignoring the positive3) a text that only summarizes sources