1. Summarize: In the first sentence of your paragraph, tell the title and the author of the essay. Always capitalize all the important words in the title of an essay and put it in quotation marks. Give the full name of the author the first time you refer to him/her. Then, restate in your own words the authors claim and the central points of the piece. Develop this paragraph well enough so that the reader has a good idea what the main points of the essay are, but do not write more than 250 words in the summary paragraph. Be sure NOT to tell your personal opinion about the essay in this paragraph. 
2. Respond: In the next paragraph, weave together ideas/material from the reading with your own ideas about it. Your ideas can come from your own personal beliefs and experiences, but you can also consider other information from other sources. This response is personal, so you should use I, but it is an academic personal response, so dont write too informally. Use short quotes from the essay to support the points you are making using correct MLA format. Since the essay is from an online article that I have saved as a Word document and a PDF, you must put the paragraph number in parentheses at the end of the quote like this (par. 3). If the essay were from a textbook or other print source, you would cite the page number in the parentheses like this (55). Since you are only using one source, you dont have to put the authors name. Again, do not write more than 250 words for this paragraph. 

Summary-Response Format Guidelines: Be sure to follow these guidelines to receive full credit for your work.

1. All summary-responses must be double-spaced and only two paragraphs in length. I want each paragraph to be about 175 – 250 words. A summary or response that is too short will lose a significant number of points.
2. Type your summary-responses in 12 pt. Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins.
3. You must use an MLA heading with your name, my name, course name/ number, and date on the top left side. Do NOT insert your heading as a header.
4. Insert the page number and then type your last name and a space. Choose top of the page, plain number 3 when you insert the number.
5. Give your summary-response an original title.
6. Tell the full name of the author in the first sentence of your summary. Afterwards, always refer to the author by his or her last name.

Examples:     Cassidy claims that . . .

According to Cassidy, . . .

7. Use the authors name throughout the summary! Dont write the essay says or it says, write Cassidy says or Cassidy claims that . . .
8. Pay attention to the gender of the author! Dont write he if the author is a she or vice versa.
9. Do NOT use you. Use first or third person pronouns (I, we, one, he/she, they, etc.), or nouns (readers can see that . . . or people should realize that . . . or we can understand how . . .).
10. Dont begin a sentence with a quote! Introduce your quotes clearly and thoroughly. For example (from the essay the sample paper is about):

Bader ends her essay with a powerful quote from the faculty member who allowed homeless students to sleep in her office. This instructor, who Bader refers to as B.R., said that they knew that school would be their saving grace, that knowledge was the only thing that couldnt be snatched (768) or (par. 29).

11. Do not end a paragraph with a quote. Always end with your own words.