Week 2 — Summary First, Then Response: Reading Eisenhower's Farewell Address

Assignment 2 of the term — audit a chatbot's summary of a real speech, write your own summary and response to it, and explain the speech to someone who has not read it.

This adaptive assignment uses a coaching dialogue to help you turn a first attempt into a fair summary and a reasoned response. You remain the author. The coach asks questions, checks the reasoning you show, and waits for you to revise before it produces the required report. Last week you asked the five questions of the rhetorical situation about your own writing; this week you point them at someone else's text and keep "what it says" apart from "what I think". This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and Writing Studio practise the same moves from other angles; this assignment is where you put them together.

The task

Your text is Eisenhower's farewell address, delivered on national television on 17 January 1961, three days before he left the presidency. Read the full transcript at the National Archives (the link is on this module's Readings & Resources page). You may quote the address only in these two sentences, copied exactly:

• "We recognize the imperative need for this development."
• "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."

Describe everything else in your own words.

Part A — audit a chatbot's summary. Here is an illustrative summary of the address of the kind a chatbot might produce. It was written for this course to contain mistakes; it is not a real chatbot's output and not Eisenhower's words.

1. In his famous and prophetic farewell address of 17 January 1961, Eisenhower warned Americans about the military.
2. He said, "we must guard against the military-industrial complex."
3. He granted that a large defense establishment was necessary.
4. He also cautioned that federal research money could let experts steer public policy.
5. He urged the nation not to use up resources that later generations would need.
6. Sadly, his wise call for disarmament was ignored by everyone who came after him.

Work this problem, showing your reasoning:

1. The illustrative chatbot summary in the task has 6 sentences; 2 contain an opinion-leak and 1 contains a quotation the transcript does not contain. How many of its sentences can stay unchanged?

Then name the sentences you would change, explain what is wrong with each (an opinion-leak, a topic swapped in for the claim, a quotation you cannot find in the transcript), and rewrite each one. Search the transcript for the quoted words before you decide.

Part B — your own summary and response. Work this problem:

1. A complete summary of the farewell address names its 1 claim, its 1 concession, and its 3 other warnings. How many required elements must your summary cover?

Then write a summary of the address in 4–6 sentences, in your own words, that covers all of those elements and contains no judging word. Below it, in its own paragraph, write a response of 120–200 words that agrees, disagrees, or complicates, with at least two reasons that point to something in the address. Your response evaluates how the address makes its case; it does not need to take a side on any policy.

Explain it to a non-expert

A coworker at your part-time job saw a headline that mentioned the "military-industrial complex" and asks you what Eisenhower actually said. Write a 3–5 sentence message that tells them, in everyday words, what the address claims and what it concedes, and names one honest limit of your explanation — for example, that a short summary leaves out detail the full transcript holds. Explain any term your coworker might not know.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a neighbor who missed a two-page letter from your building's management. Model answer: "The letter says the boiler is being replaced, so the hot water will be off for one day. It also says rent is not going up this year, which surprised a few people. It does not say which day the work happens yet, so watch for a second notice. If you want the exact wording, the letter is posted by the mailboxes."

Use that pattern for your coworker, with your own explanation of the address.

Reflect on your revision

After you revise, answer one of these two options in 2–4 sentences; they carry the same weight:

• (a) Which change made your summary more neutral or more complete, and what in the transcript showed you it was needed?
• (b) Which change made your response more reasoned, and what reason about the text did you add?

Part 1 — Student instructions

1. Draft Part A, Part B, your message to your coworker, and nothing else before opening a chatbot.
2. Open any course-approved chatbot. Copy the entire Coach Prompt box, including its first and last marker lines, and paste it as one message. The coach will ask for your draft and then work one question at a time.
3. Answer in your own words. Use the coach's feedback to revise at least one part of your summary or response, even if your first attempt was strong, and then answer reflection option (a) or (b).
4. Continue until the prompt's exit condition is met.
5. Save the chat's share link and copy the final report exactly as the coach gives it.

The chatbot is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It must draw out your reasoning rather than write your summary or response for you.

Coach Prompt

COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
ROLE: You are a careful writing coach for a first-year college writing course. Draw out and challenge MY thinking about summary and response. Do not write my summary, my response, or my message for me, and do not invent work I did not show.

ASSIGNMENT: Work through these two problems in order, one at a time. Do not invent, replace, or reorder a problem. My text is Eisenhower's farewell address (17 January 1961), whose transcript I am reading at the National Archives. The only two sentences of it anyone may quote are: "We recognize the imperative need for this development." and "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex." Never supply any other quotation from the address, from memory or otherwise.
The illustrative chatbot summary I am auditing, written for my course to contain mistakes: (1) In his famous and prophetic farewell address of 17 January 1961, Eisenhower warned Americans about the military. (2) He said, "we must guard against the military-industrial complex." (3) He granted that a large defense establishment was necessary. (4) He also cautioned that federal research money could let experts steer public policy. (5) He urged the nation not to use up resources that later generations would need. (6) Sadly, his wise call for disarmament was ignored by everyone who came after him.
PROBLEM P1: The illustrative chatbot summary in the task has 6 sentences; 2 contain an opinion-leak and 1 contains a quotation the transcript does not contain. How many of its sentences can stay unchanged?
PROBLEM P2: A complete summary of the farewell address names its 1 claim, its 1 concession, and its 3 other warnings. How many required elements must your summary cover?
For P1 I must also name each sentence I would change, say what is wrong with it, and rewrite it, checking any quotation against the transcript. For P2 I must also write a 4-6 sentence summary in my own words with no judging word, then a separate 120-200 word response that agrees, disagrees, or complicates with at least two reasons about the text, then a 3-5 sentence message to a coworker in everyday words that states the claim and the concession and names one limit. After revising, I answer reflection option (a) or (b) from my assignment page.

SCORING CRITERIA: Score only evidence I supply, out of 100 points. Chatbot summary audit (P1): 35 if I identify both leaky sentences and the misworded quotation, count the sentences that can stay unchanged without error, and repair all three; 20 if all three are identified and counted but one repair still leaks, still misquotes, or is missing; 10 if at least one problem sentence is identified and repaired but another is missed or the count is off; 0 otherwise. Neutral, complete summary (P2): 25 if it is in my own words, has no judging word, and covers the claim, the concession, and the three other warnings; 15 if it is neutral but misses one or two of those elements, or is complete with one judging word; 5 if it reports some of the address accurately but misses the claim, keeps more than one judging word, or strings together the author's sentences; 0 if no summary that reports the address faithfully. Response with reasons, kept separate (P2): 20 if it is its own paragraph with at least two reasons that point to the text; 10 if only one such reason or its judgment is mixed into the summary; 0 if missing or only a reaction. Plain-language explanation for a non-expert (P2): 10 if the coworker message uses everyday words, states the claim and the concession, and names a limit; 5 if it can be followed but omits the concession or the limit or leaves a term unexplained; 0 if missing. Revision and reflection (P2): 10 if I show a before-and-after change prompted by feedback plus a reflection on why it is better; 5 if only one of the two; 0 if neither.

Do NOT invent grading rules.

DIALOGUE RULES: Ask exactly one question per message and wait for my answer. Start by asking for my complete first attempt. Build each next question from my exact words. Probe an unsupported claim and ask me to examine its evidence in the transcript. Keep the conversation focused on questions rather than completed work, and take no side on any public question.

ENGAGEMENT GUARDS: A greeting, copied prompt, yes/no reply, or one-word answer is not a substantive exchange. Do not flatter or accept agreement as evidence. Praise only a concrete move I made. If evidence is missing, say what is missing and ask for it. Require a real revision plus a short reflection on why the revision is better. Do not issue the report early.

EXIT CONDITION: Continue until at least five substantive exchanges have occurred AND I have supplied both problems with their audit, summary, response, and coworker message AND revised at least one part AND reflected on the revision. Stop only after whichever requirement happens last.

REPORT: After the exit condition is satisfied, output exactly these labelled lines in this order. Replace X with the exact earned score. Base every line only on evidence in this chat; write "Not supplied" for missing evidence and never raise the score for polished chatbot prose.
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
EVIDENCE FOR THE SCORE: [specific evidence from my audit, summary, response, and message]
REVISION MADE: [what I changed and why]
STRENGTH: [one earned strength]
NEXT STEP: [one concrete improvement]
Then tell me to submit this report, my revised work, and the share link.
COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE

Deliverables

Submit these three items in the assignment entry:

• your revised work: the Part A audit with its rewrites, the Part B summary and response, your message to your coworker, and your reflection — written, or recorded as audio or video with a transcript; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria;
• the coach's five-line report; and
• the conversation share link.

Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

This route assesses the same Week 2 skills — spotting an opinion-leak and a misworded quotation, writing a neutral and complete summary in your own words, writing a response with reasons kept separate from the summary, and explaining a text to someone who has not read it — for comparable time and effort, about 90 minutes, the same as the coached route. Complete Part A, Part B, the message to your coworker, and one reflection option. Then audit your own first draft against the attached scoring criteria, criterion by criterion: circle every judging word in your summary, tick each of the required elements it covers, and mark each reason in your response that points to the text. Write a second draft. Add a 150–200 word revision memo that names one change you made, the evidence in the transcript that prompted it, and one question you still have. Submit the revised work, your completed criteria checklist, and the revision memo in the assignment entry; together they replace the share link and the coach's report. This route uses the same scoring criteria and the same points, with no penalty for choosing it.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

The audit, summary, response, message, revision, and reflection must be your own words. Do not ask the chatbot to write any of them or to add evidence you did not produce. Every quotation you submit must be one of the two sentences above, copied exactly, and you should be able to find it in the transcript. Submit an honest share link from your own dialogue. The equivalent route keeps the same workload and evidence and requires no AI account.

Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com