Week 2 — Readings & Resources · Critical Reading: Summary & Response

Course: English Composition (ENGL 1A) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Lindgren
Objective covered: Objective 2 — Read critically: summarize a text accurately and respond to it analytically, distinguishing a writer's claim from its support.

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser, the same way you'd open a YouTube link. Nothing needs to be downloaded, and there is nothing to buy.

This week has one thing the others don't yet: a real text we all read closely. Start there. Then do the short readings on how to read it (active reading + the summary/response distinction). Total time is roughly 40–55 minutes if you do everything — most of it the talk itself.

Reading order that matches the lecture: ① read the talk (our analyzed text) → ② how to read it: active reading + annotation → ③ the key distinction: summary vs. response (and how summary differs from quoting/paraphrasing).

A habit to start now: read the talk with a pen. Underline the one sentence closest to Adichie's main point; bracket two or three examples she uses to support it; jot a question in the margin where you want to push back. A marked-up text is a text you can both summarize and respond to.

① The Text We Analyze This Week (read this first)

Maps to Lecture Segments 2, 5 & 6. This is the real text you'll summarize and respond to in the tutorial, the discussion, the assignment, and the studio. Read it once, closely.

Watch or read — "The Danger of a Single Story," Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (TED, 2009)
🔗 Transcript: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transcript
🔗 Video (same page): https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
Why it's assigned: a short, vivid, widely admired talk by the Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, built around one clear claim — that a single, repeated story about a group flattens it into a stereotype — supported almost entirely by personal narrative (her childhood reading, her family's houseboy, her American roommate). That makes it perfect for our week: the claim is easy to state, and the support is easy to bracket, so you can practice an accurate summary and a reasoned response. Read the transcript (it's free on the page) so you can find and mark the exact moves; the video runs about 19 minutes if you prefer to watch.
⏱ ~19 min to watch, or ~15 min to read the transcript

Note on quoting: a summary is in your own words, so you do not need to quote this talk at all. If you ever do borrow a phrase, put it in quotation marks and copy it exactly from the transcript — never from memory, and never from a chatbot. (This is the citation-integrity habit we build all term.)

② How to Read It: Active Reading & Annotation

Maps to Lecture Segment 2. Critical reading is reading with a pen — marking the claim, the support, and your own questions as you go. The line to carry: a page you've annotated is a page you can summarize.

Reading — "Active vs. Passive Reading" (Excelsior OWL — Online Reading Comprehension Lab)
🔗 https://owl.excelsior.edu/orc/introduction/active-reading/
Why it's assigned: the cleanest plain-language case for active reading — engaging a text before, during, and after, instead of just running your eyes over it — from a free, college-run reading & writing lab. It sets up exactly the with-a-pen habit we use on Adichie's talk.
⏱ ~6 min

Want the practical how-to? The same lab's "Annotating" unit walks through building an annotation system you can reuse all term. 🔗 https://owl.excelsior.edu/orc/what-to-do-while-reading/annotating/ Optional, ~6 min.

③ The Key Distinction: Summary vs. Response

Maps to Lecture Segments 3 & 5. The whole week in one line: a summary says what the text says (neutral, comprehensive, your own words); a response says what you think about it, with reasons. Keep them in separate rooms.

Reading — "Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing" (Purdue OWL)
🔗 https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/using_research/quoting_paraphrasing_and_summarizing/index.html
Why it's assigned: the standard, no-nonsense explanation of what a summary actually is — "putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s)" — and how it differs from quoting (word-for-word) and paraphrasing, from the most widely used writing lab in the country. Notice the emphasis we'll lean on all week: a summary is brief, in your own words, and about the main point — not a string of the author's best sentences.
⏱ ~7 min

Want the after-reading skills in one place? The Excelsior lab's "Summarizing" unit covers writing a summary that conveys the main idea "briefly and accurately in your own words." 🔗 https://owl.excelsior.edu/orc/what-to-do-after-reading/summarizing/ Optional, ~6 min.

Video — "What Is Rhetoric? | Study Hall Writing Composition #10" (ASU + Crash Course)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpooxL-i5UI
Why it earns the click: reading critically means reading rhetorically — asking who's writing, to whom, why, and how they're trying to persuade you. This short, first-year-composition episode gives you the rhetorical lens you'll point at Adichie's talk when you separate her claim from her support. From the Study Hall Composition series we'll return to all term.
⏱ ~12 min

Want a reading-and-response companion? "Critical Thinking and Arguing | Study Hall Composition #8" 🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNkibDGjQq8 connects close reading to evaluating an argument — useful for the response half of the week. Optional, ~12 min.

Optional one-stop reference (free online text)

If you'd like one optional reference to skim all term, the OpenStax Writing Guide with Handbook keeps its full text free to read online — a reputable, currently-available college writing reference whose early chapters cover critical reading, summary, and response, with the rhetorical-analysis and MLA sections we'll use later.
🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/writing-guide
Why it's here: a free, returnable reference for the whole course — entirely optional this week. (Linked as a free reference; this course makes no open-license or copyright claim about it.)

Pick-one quick path (≈25 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these and you'll be ready for the quiz:
1. Read (or watch) "The Danger of a Single Story" — our analyzed text (group ①). This one is not skippable.
2. Read "Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing" (group ③) for what a real summary is.

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails — especially the TED transcript — tell Prof. Lindgren and use the free OpenStax reference above in the meantime. Nothing here is hosted by our course — these are all external resources, linked, not reproduced — and we make no copyright or open-license claim about any of them.