Summary and Response Reflection

When writing the summary and response paper, I learned how to summarize an article without including every single detail. I always had trouble finding the details that really mattered, but through this process, I learned how to cut out the information that wasn't important, and include information that helped prove my point, and the point of the article. When I was reading the article, I found myself stopping and asking questions more frequently than I normally do I noticed myself thinking about the article rhetorically, and focusing on the structure of the article and the rhetorical elements before I focused on the actual content. This helped me better interpret the meaning behind the piece, and what the author was trying to prove. I learned that I am pretty good at putting things in my own words, but still portraying what the author was trying to say. I thought this would be hard, but the way I went about doing this was by saying it out loud as if I was telling a friend or family member about what the sentence was saying. That helped me write it down on paper, and synthesize it into meaningful terms. As a student, I found that if I place myself in a quiet room where I can focus on my thoughts, the paper comes out clearly, and I don't get distracted by little things that get me off track.

One thing I struggled with during this assignment was relating the article back to myself. I found little details that I agreed with, but it was hard to put it together in a big picture, and show how it related to my life, and the lives of others. The way that I chose to handle this, was by taking each of the author's points, and thinking of a time in my life when I felt the same way, or did the same thing. This challenged me to look beyond the text, and find how the author was trying to connect with my beliefs and life experiences. Next time I write a response to an article. I am going to sit down and do this before I even begin the writing process, that way I am not trying to add in personal stories after the piece is finished.

Norman Maclean pretty much sums up my annotation and thinking process during this assignment. When Norman Maclean says " all there is to thinking...is seeing something noticeable, which makes you see something you weren't noticing, which makes you see something which isn't even visible", I can relate to each of those points.When I read through the article the first time, I saw the facts and details he presented, but I didn't really see the meaning. That was what Maclean describes as seeing something noticeable.  As I read it a second time, I annotated the article, and started to see what his meaning and purpose were for including those details. I started to see what he was trying to tell the reader, and why it was important to the point he was trying to prove. That, as Maclean describes was seeing something that I didn't notice. Then as I started to analyze the text closely, and analyze the meaning behind the details he included, I started to make personal connections that weren't even included in the article. That is my idea of seeing something that isn't even visible. This writing process taught me a lot about how to read, find and interpret details as well as analyze the details, and connect them back to my own life. I feel like I am better prepared to read and understand the next assignments, and I have a firm foundation on how to take better notes on the reading.