Summary-Response writing

         One of the most common types of writing that you will do in college and in your profession after college is summary-response writing. Let's start with college.

         Your history professor asks you to read Chapter 2 in the textbook about the the American Revolution and write a summary-response paragraph about it. The paragraph is due the next class in five days. You have a lot of work to do. First you have to read the chapter and make sure you understand the main ideas and points. Don't focus on all the details. When you think that you understand the main ideas and themes of the chapter, write an outline of what you are going to write. Then write the paragraph, making sure that you have a title, an introduction topic sentence, a summary of the main ideas of the chapter, then your response (opinion, evaluation) to the chapter, and end with a conclusion sentence. Your professor will be impressed that you know how to write a good, well organized summary-response paragraph. You will probably get an A.

        After you graduate from college and start your first job, your boss might ask you to write a report for him. Let's say that you are working for a company that manufactures car parts. Customers have been reporting problems with one of the parts that your company makes. Your boss doesn't have time to read all the customer complaints, so he asks you to read them and write a summary of what the main problems are, along with your response to the summary stating which of the problems appear to be the most serious. This allows your boss to read your short summary report instead off all the complaints, and then decide what to do. This saves your boss a lot of time and will make you a valuable employee. Maybe you will get a raise and promotion if you do a good job.

         In conclusion, knowing how to write different kinds of paragraphs and essays will help you not only in college, but in your work and life after college. This is especially true of summary-response writing.

KISS

          KISS has two meanings. It is an acronym that means Keep it Short & Simple. And it is the name of a bad (in my opinion) rock band, Kiss KISS live.  The band KISS is okay, but all their costumes, make-up, and fireworks are really better than than their music. The group KISS needs to follow the advice of the KISS acronym and Keep it Short & Simple, make it more about their music, and less about the theatrics.

         The acronym KISS can be good advice for us in our modern world, where everything is so complicated. Maybe it would be better to get back to a little simpler life. Maybe it would be good to listen to good music, and not be so interested in how the band members are dressed and how good their fireworks are. 

        KISS can also be good advice for ESL students.  When you are writing, don't use a big word when you can use a short word that means the same thing. "Use" and "utilize" both have the same meaning. So why not use "use"?  Don't use big words just to impress your reader, because he/she might not understand what you mean. It's better to stick to words you know rather than look up new words you don't know when you are writing.  KISS is a good thing to remember when you are writing a summary. A good summary is better when it is short. Also, the longer your paragraph or essay is, the more likely it is that it will have mistakes.  Besides, in today's world, everyone wants everything short because most people don't have a very long attention span. So take my advice, and Keep it Short & Simple.  What do you think--about the rock group, KISS, and about the KISS acronym?

       

Banana power

        Bananas are the best fruit...in my opinion. Of course, you might not agree, and have your own favorite fruit. I have had a banana and coffee every morning for breakfast for years. Here is why my vote for best fruit is for the banana. First, bananas are the least expensive fruit, at about 50 cents per pound. At that price, you can buy several medium-sized bananas for less than a dollar. Second, bananas are highly nutritious, more than any other fruit, because they are high in many vitamins, minerals, and carbohydrates to give you energy. They are high in important minerals like potassium and manganese. They also have fiber to help your digestion. Third, they have excellent packaging, which means that you don't have to wash them before eating. Just peel and eat. Fourth, they are delicious and the perfect size for a meal.  Finally, after peeling them, you can use the inside of the peelings to clean and polish your shoes or other leather items. They have a kind of natural oil in the peelings. If you don't believe me, just give it a try!  There is one other thing about bananas; they have magical powers, but this is something that you have to see with your own eyes. If you would like, I can show you a banana magic trick in class. So, all things considered, bananas really are amazing. What more could we ask of a simple fruit?

My worst nightmare

        Sometimes, when I am under stress, I have the same nightmare.  Some people call dreams like this stress dreams. In my dream, I have to take a final exam in order to graduate from college. I sit down and look at the test, and realize that I don't know any of the answers to the questions. I look around at the other students, who are answering questions and look fine. This makes me panic. I look back at the test. I realize I don't even understand the questions on the test. I start to sweat, and my heart starts beating fast. What am I going to do?  If I don't pass this test, I won't be able to graduate from college. The teacher says that we only have 30 more minutes to complete the test, and I haven't answered one question yet. At this point in the dream, I usually wake up. I am sweating and feel a terrible panic. Then I slowly realize it was just a dream, and that I graduated from college many years ago. It was just a dream. Only a dream.  It takes me a few minutes to get rid of the bad feelings from the dream. In conclusion, it is hard to understand dreams and especially dreams like this one that repeat. Have you ever had a nightmare like this?

Writing a summary-response essay

      When someone goes to a movie or reads a book, and you want to know what it was about, you say, "How was the movie?" or "How was the book?"  Maybe you want to know a little bit about the book/movie to help you decide if you are going to read the book or watch the movie.  So if someone asks you that question, they don't want a long, 30 minute,  detailed description of the movie or book, they just want a short summary, a couple of minutes speaking or a few paragraphs writing. They want you to summarize the book or movie's main points (not details) in a few words and give your opinion about what you liked or didn't like.

     My daughters like to watch movies. When I ask them about a movie, they think they have to give me all the details from beginning to end. I have to stop them after a few minutes and say, "Could you just give me the short version, and please don't tell me the ending?"  I'm asking them for a summary of the movie and their response, if they liked it or not, and why. That's all. I don't need to know all the details. I'll get those if I decide to see the movie.

     That is basically what you do when you write a book report essay. You write a summary of the book and then evaluate the book, telling what you like, or didn't like, and why. And don't give away the ending, especially if it has a surprise ending. Then the reader won't even want to read the book if they already know the ending.