Active reading and responding - An introduction to reading, writing, and learning in college

Successful college writing, Eighth edition - Kathleen T. McWhorter 2020

Active reading and responding
An introduction to reading, writing, and learning in college

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In this chapter you will learn to

✵ develop an active approach to reading

✵ review and focus before reading

✵ think and interact while reading

✵ review and organize after reading

✵ respond to a reading assignment, using summary, annotation, synthesis, analysis, and evaluation

✵ write a focused response essay

Writing Quick Start

ANALYZE

Assume you saw this photo with the caption “A Street in China: Technology at Work” on an online news site. What technology does the photo illustrate? What feelings does it elicit? What issues does it raise? What information does the caption add?

WRITE

After you have studied the photograph, draft a paragraph explaining its relevance to the lives of Chinese citizens. Be specific in your response.

CONNECT

To explain the photograph, you had to think beyond the obvious. You first had to understand that the photo depicted East Asian people — from children to the aged — being subjected to facial recognition software. Then you had to consider the caption: “A street in China: technology at work.” The caption tells you that this facial recognition technology is “at work” in China, but it does not tell you the nature of this “work.” You need to put all these details together to decide on the main point of the photograph and perhaps read the article to learn what kind of work the software is being put to.

Reading words involves a similar process of comprehension and evaluation. You must not only understand what the author says, but you must also determine what the author means. Both parts of the process are essential. This chapter will focus on understanding, interpreting, and responding to what you read, while Chapter 3 will consider how to analyze, evaluate, and think critically about the text and images you read.

A Guide to Active Reading

To read effectively, especially on the college level, students must engage words actively to understand how they work together to express ideas. To clarify the distinction between active and passive, think of sports fans watching a game. Diehard fans cheer some players and boo others, evaluate plays and calls, and shout out advice. By contrast, nonfans let the game take its course with little or no personal involvement or reaction and may well not even recall the score after the game is over.

HOW WRITERS READ

ACTIVE VERSUS PASSIVE READING


PASSIVE READING

ACTIVE READING

BEFORE READING

Passive readers simply begin reading without considering the author or topic.

Active readers preview, or familiarize themselves with, the text; they think about what they already know about the author and subject; and they form questions to guide their reading.

WHILE READING

Passive readers read without asking themselves questions about what they’re reading and without engaging actively with the text.

Active readers read the essay while looking for answers to questions and key elements, and they highlight key points and work to understand passages they find challenging.

AFTER READING

Passive readers simply close the book when they’re finished and most likely forget most of the details they have read.

Active readers check and consolidate their learning and make connections by reviewing headings and highlights, paraphrasing difficult passages, and drawing graphic organizers.

Like fans of a sports team, active readers get involved with the material they read. They become active participants by questioning, thinking about, and reacting to ideas using the process outlined in Graphic Organizer 2.1. In fact, it is this kind of active involvement in what they read that helps effective readers understand and remember a selection long after they finish the page. The sections that follow explain in detail each of the steps in reading actively.

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GRAPHIC ORGANIZER 2.1 The Active Reading Process

"The three stages are as follows. Before reading, while reading, and after reading. Before reading includes preview; activate background knowledge; and form guide questions. While reading includes look for key elements; highlight key points; and work to understand difficult readings. After reading includes review; paraphrase to check understanding; and draw a graphic organizer."

Active readers achieve understanding and recall by engaging with the material before they read, while they read, and after they read. This chapter will explain what to do at each stage, and the readings throughout this book will guide you in applying these techniques at each stage.

Before Reading: Write to Preview and Create Guide Questions

To read actively, start your reading by preparing your mind: Preview the selection and write guide questions to help you discover what the reading is about and focus your mind on the topic.

Preview

Previewing is a quick way of familiarizing yourself with an essay’s content and organization. It helps you decide what you need to learn, and it has a number of other benefits as well:

✵ It helps you get interested in the material.

✵ It helps you concentrate on the material because you have a mental outline of it before you begin reading and therefore know what to expect.

✵ It helps you remember more of what you read.

To preview a reading selection, use these guidelines:

1. Read the title, subtitle, headnote, and author. The title and subtitle may tell you what the reading is about. Check the author’s name to see if it is one you recognize. Read the headnote to glean important background information about the author, topic, and publication in which the reading originally appeared.

2. Read the introduction or the first paragraph. These sections often provide an overview of the selection.

3. Read any headings and the first sentence following each one. Taken together, headings often form a mini-outline of the selection. The first sentence following a heading often explains the heading further.

4. For selections without headings, read the first sentence in a few of the paragraphs on each page.

5. Look at the photographs, tables, charts, and drawings.

6. Read the conclusion or summary. A conclusion draws the selection to a close and may repeat the main idea (or thesis) of the essay and the key supporting ideas, providing a summary.

7. Read any end-of-assignment questions. These questions will help focus your attention on what is important and what you might be expected to know after you have read it.

Remember to read only the parts of an essay that are listed. The following essay has been highlighted to illustrate the parts you should read while previewing. Preview it now.

READING

American Jerk: Be Civil, or I’ll Beat You to a Pulp

Todd Schwartz

Todd Schwartz is a writer based in Portland, Oregon. A longer version of this essay originally appeared in the Oregon Humanities Review in 2008 under the title “The Great Civility War.” The version below was published in 2009 in the Utne Reader.

1It was the most civil of times, it was the least civil of times, it was the age of politeness, it was the age of boorishness, it was the epoch of concern, it was the epoch of who cares, it was the season of hybrid, it was the season of Hummer, it was the spring of Obama, it was the winter of hate speech …

2With apologies to Mr. Dickens (or not: screw him), we have arrived at simultaneously the most and least civil moment in U.S. history. A moment when a roomful of even relatively evolved people will react with discomfort to an off-color joke about people of color — and when those same people have no compunction whatsoever about loudly ignoring one another as they blather into their cell phones.

3We have never been more concerned about the feelings of minority groups, the disabled, and the disadvantaged. Yet we have never been less concerned about the feelings of anyone with whom we share the road, the Internet, or the movie theater.

4Political correctness holds such sway that holidays go unnamed for fear of insulting or excluding someone. Schools won’t let teachers use red pens to correct papers, because little Ethan’s or Emily’s self-esteem might be bruised. No one is “poor,” but many are “socioeconomically disadvantaged.” Civility and thoughtfulness in speech have never been so complete or so codified.

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5All of which is well intentioned and mostly a wonderful thing. I’m all for being polite and caring and Golden Rule-ish. Sadly, like a lovely field of wildflowers — which in reality is filled with bloodsucking ticks and noxious pollen — we live oh-so-politely in what must certainly be the rudest era in recorded history. Maybe even prehistory.

6Neanderthals were probably nicer to each other than we are.

7Pick your poison: reality television, slasher movies, video games, online porn, cell phones, automated answering systems, giant assault vehicles for trips to the grocery store, car stereos played at volumes easily heard on Jupiter, web-powered copyright infringement, people who will not shut their inane traps in movie theaters, and, lord help us, now even people who won’t shut their inane traps during live theater.

8We’re all talking to someone all the time, but it’s ever more rarely to the people we are actually with. Our cell phones blare ringtones that no one else wants to hear. We love to watch TV shows about the stunningly predictable results of hand-feeding a grizzly bear or lighting a stick of dynamite with a cigarette. We also love shows where people lie to others for money and programs where snarky, slightly talented folks say vicious things to hopeful, and usually more talented, contestants.

9Civility rules, friends.

10Civility is dead, jerks.

11Why? I have a few theories.

12The first is that America is in the same position as Rome found itself in about 420 CE, meaning that we’ve reached the peak of our civilization and now everything is going to Tartarus in a chariot. We’re too far from our food and energy sources, and fewer and fewer of the Druids and Visigoths like us anymore. So we desperately cling to a patina of civility while we grab a snack and watch large, toothy predators devour people.

13The second is that sunlight contains tiny spores that lodge in the cerebellum, making the infected believe they are the center of the universe.

14My final and somewhat less cutting edge theory is that a large percentage of people are just clueless, distracted, and self-absorbed, unable to process concepts such as spatial awareness (for example: when you are walking in the same direction with several hundred people in, say, an airport terminal, DON’T JUST STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOW!).

15But I digress.

16I am not here to judge whether being civil and considerate is somehow better than being a mindless dillweed. You must make that choice for yourself. We inhabit the most civil of times and the least — and I completely honor and respect your freedom to choose your side in the Great Civility War.

17Just don’t get in my way. I’m on my cell in the Escalade, and I can’t be bothered.

EXERCISE 2.1

TESTING YOUR RECALL AFTER PREVIEWING

Based only on your preview of the essay “American Jerk,” indicate whether each of the following statements is true or false. If most of your answers are correct, you will know that previewing helped you gain a sense of the essay’s context and organization. (For the answers to this exercise, see the last page in this chapter.)

✵ 1. The reading is primarily about civility and the lack of it.

✵ 2. The author blames the Internet for our society’s lack of civility.

✵ 3. The author suggests that political correctness does not go far enough.

✵ 4. People are often not intentionally rude but simply are distracted or unaware.

✵ 5. Society is unconcerned about minorities.

Activate Your Background Knowledge and Experience

After previewing, take time to discover what you already know or have experienced about the topic. For example, after previewing the essay in Chapter 1 on multitasking, think of how and when you multitask and whether it has helped you to be (or hindered you from being) productive and efficient. Think of situations when you have observed others multitasking and whether it seemed effective. Activating your prior knowledge will make the reading more meaningful, more interesting, and easier to remember.

EXERCISE 2.2

ACTIVATING YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

Activate your knowledge and experience about the ideas presented in “American Jerk” by listing three situations that demonstrate civility or the lack of it.

Form Questions to Guide Your Reading

Asking and answering questions will strengthen your comprehension and recall of the material. Before you begin reading, devise questions about the selection based on sections you previewed. Then, as you read, answer those questions. The following examples will help you start devising your own questions:

Essay Titles

Questions

✵ “Part-Time Employment Undermines Students’ Commitment to School”

✵ Why does part-time employment undermine commitment to school?

✵ “Human Cloning: Don’t Just Say ’No’”

✵ What are good reasons to clone humans?

Headings


✵ “Types of Territoriality”

✵ What are the types of territoriality?

✵ “Territorial Encroachment”

✵ What is territorial encroachment, and how does it occur?

Not all essays lend themselves to these techniques. In some essays, you may need to dig deeper into the introductory and final paragraphs to form questions. Look again at your preview of “American Jerk.” Using the introductory paragraphs of that essay, you might decide to look for answers to this question: Why is the author, Todd Schwartz, negative toward Americans?

EXERCISE 2.3

FORMING GUIDE QUESTIONS

List three questions that you expect to be able to answer after reading “American Jerk.”

While Reading: Write to Think and Interact with the Text

While you are reading, be sure to think about and interact with the reading, figuring out which ideas are important and which are less so by

✵ identifying and examining key elements

✵ highlighting key points

✵ making marginal notes, called annotations, about any ideas that occur to you (Annotation may be done more completely on a second read, after you have finished reading, understand the gist, and are ready to delve deeper.)

For more about annotating, see “Generate and Record Ideas” later in this chapter.

As you read, figure out the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary and be prepared to strengthen your comprehension of challenging reading assignments.

See the Just-in-Time Guide for tips on mastering challenging words and expanding your vocabulary.

Look for Key Elements

As you read, pay particular attention to the following key elements:

1. The title and subtitle. Although you read these while previewing, now examine them to determine how the title and subtitle relate to the subject and what they reveal about the author’s point of view.

2. The introduction. The opening paragraph or paragraphs often provide background information, announce the topic, and grab the reader’s attention.

For more about introductions and conclusions, see Chapter 7.

3. The author’s main point. Look for a thesis statement that directly expresses the one big idea that the essay explains, explores, or supports. Writers often place the thesis in the first or second paragraph to let readers know what lies ahead. But the thesis may appear at the end of an essay or may be implied or suggested rather than stated directly.

For more about thesis statements, see Chapter 5.

4. The support and explanation. Usually, each paragraph in the body of an essay supports the author’s main point. Look at each paragraph to determine what it is about — the paragraph’s main idea may be stated in a topic sentence — and consider how it relates to the thesis. Take note of the kinds of evidence the author supplies, such as facts and statistics, examples, anecdotes, or comparisons.

To learn more about topic sentences and supporting details, see Chapter 6.

5. The conclusion. The essay’s final paragraph or paragraphs often restate the author’s main point or offer ideas for further thought.

The parts you examine when you read are those you use when you write. You’ll learn much more about each part of an essay in Chapters 4—7.

Now read “American Jerk,” paying attention to the marginal notes that identify and explain its various parts.

American Jerk: Be Civil, or I’ll Beat You to a Pulp

Todd Schwartz

Todd Schwartz is a writer based in Portland, Oregon. A longer version of this essay originally appeared in the Oregon Humanities Review in 2008 under the title “The Great Civility War.” The version below was published in 2009 in the Utne Reader.

Title and subtitle: Suggest idea of conflict over behavior

1It was the most civil of times, it was the least civil of times, it was the age of politeness, it was the age of boorishness, it was the epoch of concern, it was the epoch of who cares, it was the season of hybrid, it was the season of Hummer, it was the spring of Obama, it was the winter of hate speech …

Introduction: Illustration suggests contradictory attitudes.

2With apologies to Mr. Dickens (or not: screw him), we have arrived at simultaneously the most and least civil moment in U.S. history. A moment when a roomful of even relatively evolved people will react with discomfort to an off-color joke about people of color — and when those same people have no compunction whatsoever about loudly ignoring one another as they blather into their cell phones.

Main idea: Thesis states main idea and refers to Dickens, who used “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” in his novel A Tale of Two Cities.

3We have never been more concerned about the feelings of minority groups, the disabled, and the disadvantaged. Yet we have never been less concerned about the feelings of anyone with whom we share the road, the Internet, or the movie theater.

Support: Offers examples of contradictory attitudes toward groups

4Political correctness holds such sway that holidays go unnamed for fear of insulting or excluding someone. Schools won’t let teachers use red pens to correct papers, because little Ethan’s or Emily’s self-esteem might be bruised. No one is “poor,” but many are “socioeconomically disadvantaged.” Civility and thoughtfulness in speech have never been so complete or so codified.

5All of which is well intentioned and mostly a wonderful thing. I’m all for being polite and caring and Golden Rule-ish. Sadly, like a lovely field of wildflowers — which in reality is filled with bloodsucking ticks and noxious pollen — we live oh-so-politely in what must certainly be the rudest era in recorded history. Maybe even prehistory.

6Neanderthals were probably nicer to each other than we are.

7Pick your poison: reality television, slasher movies, video games, online porn, cell phones, automated answering systems, giant assault vehicles for trips to the grocery store, car stereos played at volumes easily heard on Jupiter, web-powered copyright infringement, people who will not shut their inane traps in movie theaters, and, lord help us, now even people who won’t shut their inane traps during live theater.

Support: Provides examples of rudeness

8We’re all talking to someone all the time, but it’s ever more rarely to the people we are actually with. Our cell phones blare ringtones that no one else wants to hear. We love to watch TV shows about the stunningly predictable results of hand-feeding a grizzly bear or lighting a stick of dynamite with a cigarette. We also love shows where people lie to others for money and programs where snarky, slightly talented folks say vicious things to hopeful, and usually more talented, contestants.

Support: More examples

9Civility rules, friends.

10Civility is dead, jerks.

11Why? I have a few theories.

Contradictions: Refer back to information and introduce reasons to follow

12The first is that America is in the same position as Rome found itself in about 420 CE, meaning that we’ve reached the peak of our civilization and now everything is going to Tartarus in a chariot. We’re too far from our food and energy sources, and fewer and fewer of the Druids and Visigoths like us anymore. So we desperately cling to a patina of civility while we grab a snack and watch large, toothy predators devour people.

Support: First reason

13The second is that sunlight contains tiny spores that lodge in the cerebellum, making the infected believe they are the center of the universe.

Support: Second reason

14My final and somewhat less cutting edge theory is that a large percentage of people are just clueless, distracted, and self-absorbed, unable to process concepts such as spatial awareness (for example: when you are walking in the same direction with several hundred people in, say, an airport terminal, DON’T JUST STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOW!).

Support: Third reason

15But I digress.

16I am not here to judge whether being civil and considerate is somehow better than being a mindless dillweed. You must make that choice for yourself. We inhabit the most civil of times and the least — and I completely honor and respect your freedom to choose your side in the Great Civility War.

Conclusion: Affirms thesis statement and ends on a humorous note

17Just don’t get in my way. I’m on my cell in the Escalade, and I can’t be bothered.

Highlight Key Points

As you read, you will encounter many new ideas, some more important than others. You will agree with some and disagree with others. Later, as you write about what you have read, you will want to return to the main points to refresh your memory. To locate and remember these points easily, read with a highlighter or pen in hand. Caution: Highlighting is an active reading strategy only when you use it to distinguish important ideas from less important ideas, so be selective. (If you highlight every idea, none will stand out.) The following guidelines will make your highlighting as useful as possible:

1. Before you begin reading, decide what kinds of information to highlight. What types of tasks will you do as a result of your reading? Will you write a paper, participate in a class discussion, or take an exam? Think about what you need to know, and tailor your highlighting to the needs of the task.

2. Read first; then highlight. First read a paragraph or section; then go back and mark what is important within it. This approach will help you control the tendency to highlight too much.

3. Highlight key elements, words, and phrases. Mark the thesis statement, the topic sentence in each paragraph, important terms and definitions, and key words and phrases that relate to the thesis. While you read, you may also want to jot down any ideas that you do not understand or record your own thoughts about the author’s ideas. These activities are part of the process of annotation, covered later in the chapter in the section on responding to reading.

EXERCISE 2.4

HIGHLIGHTING KEY POINTS

Reread “American Jerk,” highlighting as you read.

Work to Understand Difficult Readings

Some readings are straightforward, but much of the reading you’ll do in college will be challenging. The subject matter may be complex, the sentences and paragraphs may be long or involved, or the writer may use difficult or unfamiliar vocabulary. Whatever the problem, however, you know you must complete the assignment. The Just-in-Time Guide to Reading and Responding following Chapter 3 provides tips for overcoming challenges in your reading. Dip into it to find useful solutions whenever you find yourself facing reading challenges.

Read Digital Text Differently

A growing body of research demonstrates that online reading is not only strikingly different from reading a printed text; it is also more challenging and needs to be approached with a different set of skills. Consider the following differences between print and online texts:

1. Print text is linear; digital text is multidirectional. When reading print text, your eye moves from left to right and top to bottom, with only an occasional photo or graphic interrupting the flow. Digital text, on the other hand, has images, sidebars, links, and other distractions that encourage you to move around the screen and from screen to screen in just about any order. It is hard to know where to begin reading and where to stop.Image

"On the left, the illustration shows print text with two titles, “Factors that contribute to success”, and “The new Marshmallow Test Students Can’t Resist Multitasking” by Annie Murphy Paul. On the right, the screenshot shows an internal web page of Buzzfeed, displays various trending videos, with articles over it. On the digital media page there are line arrows showing the different directions that the text could be read in — these extend in lots of different directions. On the print screen shot there are five line-arrows that run over text — these run left to right and follow sequentially."

2. Print and digital text differ in the types of reading they encourage. Online readers tend to skim texts rather than read them. Their eyes move across the top of a page looking for information or interesting bits and then scan down the left edge of the page, noting what appears there. Their eyes tend to skate across the text without really interacting with it or responding to the ideas they encounter. Critical analysis and response suffer, and digital readers tend to forget the details and lose the sequence of ideas and logical structure of an argument. Research substantiates that comprehension is stronger when reading print text than when reading digital text.

3. Readers of print and digital text face different mental challenges as they read. While reading, both print and digital readers must decide what is and is not important, but digital readers face decisions that print readers don’t. These include

o whether to ignore the links, follow them now, or check them out later

o where the most important information appears on the screen

o what material (like sidebars and ads) can be skipped, should be skimmed, or should be read carefully

o Digital readers, then, often have to work harder to make sense of what they’re reading.

4. Sources are cited differently. Compare the following excerpts. How do they differ? To cite sources, print text includes footnotes or in-text citations with a list of works cited at the end. In contrast, digital texts often have embedded links that direct readers to additional sources or references, combining reading and research into a single process. While links can be extremely useful and convenient, they also lure readers away from what they are reading, interrupting the flow of ideas and diverting attention from the content at hand.

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"The print text on the left reads, 3 Success and Likeability. In 2003, then Columbia Business School Professor Francis Flynn and New York University professor Cameron Anderson ran an experiment to text perceptions of men and women in the workplace. They started with a Harvard Business School case study about a real-life entrepreneur named Heidi Roizen. The case described how Roizen became a successful venture capitalist by using her “outgoing personality … and vast personal and professional network open bracket that close bracket included many of the most powerful leaders in the technology sector.” (2) 1 A discussion and analysis of this study were provided by Professor Francis H. Flynn in discussion with the author, June 22, 2011. 2. To read this case study, see Kathleen McGinn and Nicole Tempest, Heidi Roizen, Harvard Business School Case Study hash 9-900-229 (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2009). The digital text on the right is titled, “Likability and Success Hardly Go Hand-in-Hand,” by Marianne Cooper, April 30, 2013 Below it, the options are labeled as follows. Save, share, comment, H Text Size, Print, and Buy copies at dollar 8.95. The text below reads, In their blog post, “New Research Shows Success Doesn’t Make Women Less Likeable,” Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman conclude … that “likeability and success actually go together remarkably well for women.” As a sociologist who focuses on gender, work, and family it is always nice for me to hear when things are going well for women at work. In the above paragraph, the sentences, “New Research Shows Success Doesn’t Make Women Less Likeable,” and “sociologist who focuses on gender, work, and family,” are underlined."

Strategies for Reading Digital Text

Because digital text is different from print, it must be read differently. Use these strategies to read digital text actively and critically:

Expect to spend as much — or more — time reading digital text. Since it’s more work to read digital text, you’ll need to slow down and reread the parts that matter most.

Define your purpose for reading and make decisions about what — and how — to read. Decide what you need to read based on your purpose. Are you reading an article to discuss in class, studying for an exam, or looking for information to support a claim you’re making in a research project? If you’re looking for a fact or verifying something you already know, you’ll read a lot differently than if you’re trying to understand, interpret, analyze, or compare.

Preview (or browse) before reading online text. Take a few minutes to understand the page’s organization and features before diving in. Decide, too, whether to mentally filter out graphics, inserts, color, and so forth. Remember, these “add-ons” make reading online a more complex mental process.

Avoid skipping and skimming. When you are reading for ideas, rather than to locate a specific fact, read everything as you would in a print text. Read a digital article through once before checking any links. Then decide which, if any, promise to deliver what you need.

Remember that reading is not learning. Check your comprehension as you go and review after reading. Annotate the article if the platform allows (or make notes on paper, if it doesn’t). Paraphrasing, taking notes, writing outlines, drawing maps, and summarizing are crucial to retention.

Think critically. It is easy to glide through digital content without analyzing and evaluating the ideas presented. Be sure to subject the information to close scrutiny.

Use reputable sources and learn to spot the tell-tale signs of disinformation. (See “Detect Disinformation” in Chapter 3 and “Evaluate Sources” in Chapter 21.)

EXERCISE 2.5

READING DIGITAL TEXT

Imagine you are working on a research paper on artificial intelligence and want to find information on the risks associated with facial recognition software. Find three to four different types of sources on the topic, such as an article from an online magazine or newspaper, a chapter or excerpt from a book, a blog post, and a scholarly article from a database your library subscribes to. (If you need help finding sources, consult Chapter 22 or ask a librarian at your school for help.) Then write a paragraph comparing what you found. You might address the following questions:

a. How do the sources differ in format and layout?

b. Which of the sources include links? Which (if any) include in-text citations to sources? Are the links important and useful in the digital material you located? What about the in-text citations?

c. What sections or portions of the digital page contain the most important information?

d. What sections, if any, did you skip? Why did you decide to skip them?

After Reading: Review and Organize to Consolidate Understanding

When you finish reading an assignment, it may be tempting to close the book, periodical, or browser window and move immediately to another task. However, doing so increases the likelihood that you will forget most of what you have read because you will not have had time to process the material. The following strategies will help get you ready to write about what you have read.

Review to Consolidate Your Understanding

Review immediately after you finish reading to pull all the ideas in the reading together and make them stick in your mind. You will probably also discover more about how the ideas are connected. Reviewing should not take much time; your goal is to touch on each main point one more time, not to embark on a long and thorough study. To review material after reading, use the same steps you used to preview the reading. (See “Before Reading” earlier in this chapter.) Pay particular attention to the following elements:

✵ the headings

✵ your highlighting

✵ your annotations

✵ the conclusion

Write new annotations about ideas or connections that come to you or become clearer as you review.

Draw a Graphic Organizer to Examine Relationships among Ideas

Think of a graphic organizer as a means of tracking the author’s flow of ideas. Your graphic organizer should include all of the key elements of an essay listed on pages 26—27. Graphic Organizer 2.2 shows a sample format for a graphic organizer. A graphic organizer for “American Jerk” appears in Graphic Organizer 2.3. Work through the organizer, rereading the essay paragraph by paragraph at the same time.

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GRAPHIC ORGANIZER 2.2 Key Elements to Include

"Text at the top of the organizer reads, Title. Introduction includes Background information, Thesis statement. Body Paragraphs include main ideas with key details. These main ideas are interconnected. Conclusion includes the final statement (summarizes ideas, suggests new directions, reinforces thesis)."

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GRAPHIC ORGANIZER 2.3 “American Jerk”

"The title reads, American Jerk. Introduction reads, “There is a strange mixture of civility and incivility in today’s society, with an emphasis on incivility.” It branches further into three text boxes, as follows. People are uncomfortable with jokes about people of color but rudely ignore each other. We are concerned about the feelings of groups yet are unconcerned about the feelings of individuals. Political correctness affects holidays, the way papers are graded, and the words used to describe the poor. Text inside the second box below reads, Politeness is practiced, but at the same time we are rude to each other. It branches furthermore into two text boxes, as follows. Entertainment and media highlight poor behavior. Cell phones are used rudely. Text inside the third box below reads, There are reasons for our rudeness. It branches further into three text boxes, as follows America has become too detached from food and energy sources. People are self-centered. People are distracted, self-absorbed, and unable to process basic concepts such as spatial awareness. The conclusion reads, Everyone has a choice about whether to behave in a civil or an uncivil manner."

Paraphrase to Check Your Understanding

Earlier in the chapter you learned to form questions to guide your reading. The process of paraphrasing key passages — answering your guide questions by putting ideas and information from the text into your own words and sentences — will help you check your understanding: If you are unable to restate what you have read in fresh words and sentences, you probably do not fully understand it.

Paraphrasing is especially useful when reading academic writing that may contain challenging ideas expressed in unfamiliar academic jargon and complicated sentence and paragraph structures. The paraphrasing you do can also help you think through, make sense of, and connect key ideas and avoid overquoting when writing about the text.

Below is an excerpt from “The American Jerk” alongside student Karen Vaccaro’s paraphrase of this passage. Notice how Vaccaro puts the author’s ideas into her own words and sentences, using quotation marks to set off a key term she defines but cannot replace. She cannot avoid using all terms from the original — after all, the paraphrase does address the same topic — but she does her best to avoid using Schwartz’s language and sentence structures, and she refrains from evaluating the writer’s ideas. (The words she repeats from the original are highlighted in yellow.)

Original Paragraph

Paraphrase

Political correctness holds such sway that holidays go unnamed for fear of insulting or excluding someone. Schools won’t let teachers use red pens to correct papers, because little Ethan’s or Emily’s self-esteem might be bruised. No one is “poor,” but many are “socioeconomically disadvantaged.” Civility and thoughtfulness in speech have never been so complete or so codified.

Schwartz claims that “political correctness,” the effort to avoid offending members of disadvantaged groups, has become so extreme that referring to the poor as poor, commenting on students’ writing in a way that makes the errors stand out, or even wishing someone a merry Christmas is practically forbidden. Our words and behavior, he argues, are now totally controlled by concern for the feelings of others.

Note that the ideas do not have to appear in the same order as the original, the author’s exact words are not used, and interpretation or reaction to what the author says is omitted.

EXERCISE 2.6

WRITING A PARAPHRASE

Paraphrase paragraph 5 of “The American Jerk.”

Apply Your Skills: Read a Selection Actively

The following reading selection will give you an opportunity to practice the active reading strategies you have just learned in this chapter. It will also be used as the reading assignment on which to base a response essay described in the following section.

Before Reading

1. Preview. Preview the reading using the steps listed in the “Before Reading” section earlier in this chapter, and answer the following questions:

o What issue will the reading address?

o Do you expect the author to offer examples of the issue? Why or why not?

2. Connect. Activate your knowledge and experience on the topic by answering the following questions:

o Do you usually evaluate a friend request before accepting it? Why or why not?

o Have you ever encountered a fake social media profile? If so, how did you spot it?

o In your opinion, what would motivate someone to create fake social media profiles?

While Reading

Highlight the key elements of the essay. Make marginal notes of any ideas that come to mind as you read.

READING

Why Do So Many People Fall for Fake Profiles Online?

Arun Vishwanath

This essay originally appeared on the Web site The Conversation on September 20, 2018. The Conversation is an international online media outlet that publishes academic and scientific content related to news and current affairs. Dr. Arun Vishwanath, the author of this reading, is a widely published cybersecurity and online deception expert.

1The first step in conducting online propaganda efforts and misinformation campaigns is almost always a fake social media profile. Phony profiles for nonexistent people worm their way into the social networks of real people, where they can spread their falsehoods. But neither social media companies nor technological innovations offer reliable ways to identify and remove social media profiles that don’t represent actual authentic people.

2It might sound positive that over six months in late 2017 and early 2018, Facebook detected and suspended some 1.3 billion fake accounts (Wagner and Molla). But an estimated 3 to 4 percent of accounts that remain (“Fake Accounts”), or approximately 66 million to 88 million profiles (Murphy), are also fake but haven’t yet been detected. Likewise, estimates are that 9 to 15 percent of Twitter’s 336 million accounts are fake (Confessore et al.; Confessore and Dance; Newberg).

3Fake profiles aren’t just on Facebook and Twitter, and they’re not only targeting people in the U.S. In December 2017, German intelligence officials warned that Chinese agents using fake LinkedIn profiles were targeting more than 10,000 German government employees (“German Spy Agency”). And in mid-August, the Israeli military reported that Hamas was using fake profiles on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to entrap Israeli soldiers into downloading malicious software (Gross et al.).

4Although social media companies have begun hiring more people and using artificial intelligence to detect fake profiles, that won’t be enough to review every profile in time to stop their misuse. As my research explores, the problem isn’t actually that people — and algorithms — create fake profiles online. What’s really wrong is that other people fall for them.

5My research into why so many users have trouble spotting fake profiles has identified some ways people could get better at identifying phony accounts — and highlights some places technology companies could help.

People Fall for Fake Profiles

6To understand social media users’ thought processes, I created fake profiles on Facebook and sent out friend requests to 141 students in a large university. Each of the fake profiles varied in some way — such as having many or few fake friends, or whether there was a profile photo. The idea was to figure out whether one or another type of profile was most successful in getting accepted as a connection by real users — and then surveying the hoodwinked people to find out how it happened.

7I found that only 30 percent of the targeted people rejected the request from a fake person. When surveyed two weeks later, 52 percent of users were still considering approving the request. Nearly one in five — 18 percent — had accepted the request right away. Of those who accepted it, 15 percent had responded to inquiries from the fake profile with personal information such as their home address, their student identification number, and their availability for a part-time internship. Another 40 percent of them were considering revealing private data.

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Responses to Friend Requests

"The bar graph titled, ""Friend requests,"" plots percentage of friend requests on the vertical axis, ranging from 0 percent to 60 percent, at an equal interval of 10. The graph shows three bins. The data from the graph are as follows. Friend requests accepted: 18 percent. Still considering friend requests (2 weeks after request): 52 percent. Friend requests rejected: 30 percent. The data from the pie chart titled, ""Provided personal information?"" are as follows. 45 percent: Didn't provide. 40 percent: Considering providing. 18 percent: Provided."

But Why?

8When I interviewed the real people my fake profiles had targeted, the most important thing I found was that users fundamentally believe there is a person behind each profile. People told me they had thought the profile belonged to someone they knew, or possibly someone a friend knew. Not one person ever suspected the profile was a complete fabrication, expressly created to deceive them. Mistakenly thinking each friend request has come from a real person may cause people to accept friend requests simply to be polite and not hurt someone else’s feelings — even if they’re not sure they know the person.

9In addition, almost all social media users decide whether to accept a connection based on a few key elements in the requester’s profile — chiefly how many friends the person has and how many mutual connections there are. I found that people who already have many connections are even less discerning, approving almost every request that comes in. So even a brand-new profile nets some victims. And with every new connection, the fake profile appears more realistic, and has more mutual friends with others. This cascade of victims is how fake profiles acquire legitimacy and become widespread (Vishwanath, “Diffusion of Deception”).

10The spread can be fast because most social media sites are designed to keep users coming back, habitually checking notifications and responding immediately to connection requests. That tendency is even more pronounced on smartphones (Vishwanath, “Habitual Facebook Use”) — which may explain why users accessing social media on smartphones are significantly more likely to accept fake profile requests than desktop or laptop computer users.

Illusions of Safety

11And users may think they’re safer than they actually are, wrongly assuming that a platform’s privacy settings will protect them from fake profiles. For instance, many users told me they believe that Facebook’s controls for granting differing access to friends versus others also protect them from fakers. Likewise, many LinkedIn users also told me they believe that because they post only professional information, the potential consequences for accepting rogue connections on it are limited.

12But that’s a flawed assumption: Hackers can use any information gleaned from any platform. For instance, simply knowing on LinkedIn that someone is working at some business helps them craft emails to the person or others at the company. Furthermore, users who carelessly accept requests assuming their privacy controls protect them imperil other connections who haven’t set their controls as high.

Seeking Solutions

13Using social media safely means learning how to spot fake profiles and use privacy settings properly. There are numerous online sources for advice — including platforms’ own help pages. But too often it’s left to users to inform themselves, usually after they’ve already become victims of a social media scam — which always begins with accepting a fake request.

14Adults should learn — and teach children — how to examine connection requests carefully in order to protect their devices, profiles and posts from prying eyes, and themselves from being maliciously manipulated. That includes reviewing connection requests during distraction-free periods of the day and using a computer rather than a smartphone to check out potential connections. It also involves identifying which of their actual friends tend to accept almost every friend request from anyone, making them weak links in the social network.

15These are places social media platform companies can help. They’re already creating mechanisms to track app usage and to pause notifications (Constine), helping people avoid being inundated or needing to constantly react. That’s a good start — but they could do more.

16For instance, social media sites could show users indicators of how many of their connections are inactive for long periods, helping people purge their friend networks from time to time. They could also show which connections have suddenly acquired large numbers of friends, and which ones accept unusually high percentages of friend requests.

17Social media companies need to do more to help users identify and report potentially fake profiles, augmenting their own staff and automated efforts. Social media sites also need to communicate with each other. Many fake profiles are reused across different social networks. But if Facebook blocks a faker, Twitter may not. When one site blocks a profile, it should send key information — such as the profile’s name and email address — to other platforms so they can investigate and potentially block the fraud there too.

Links

✵ Confessore, Nicholas, and Gabriel J. X. Dance. “Battling Fake Accounts, Twitter to Slash Millions of Followers.” The New York Times, 11 July 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/technology/twitter-fake-followers.html.

✵ Confessore, Nicholas, et al. “The Follower Factory.” The New York Times, 27 Jan. 2018, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/27/technology/social-media-bots.html.

✵ Constine, John. “Facebook Prototypes Tool to Show How Many Minutes You Spend on It.” TechCrunch, 22 June 2018, techcrunch.com/2018/06/22/your-time-on-facebook.

✵ “Fake Accounts.” Community Standards Enforcement Report, Facebook, 2019, transparency.facebook.com/community-standards-enforcement#fake-accounts.

✵ “German Spy Agency Warns of Chinese LinkedIn Espionage.” BBC, 10 Dec. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42304297.

✵ Gross, Judah Ari, et al. “After Facebook, Hamas Turns to Instagram to Lure IDF Soldiers, Army Says.” The Times of Israel, 15 Aug. 2018, www.timesofisrael.com/after-facebook-hamas-turns-to-instagram-to-lure-idf-soldiers-army-says.

✵ Murphy, Bill, Jr. “Facebook Says It Disabled Almost 1.3 Billion Fake Accounts. And the Numbers Only Get More Insane from There.” Inc., www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/facebook-says-it-disabled-almost-13-billion-fake-accounts-and-numbers-only-get-more-insane-from-there.html. Accessed 8 Aug. 2019.

✵ Newberg, Michael. “As Many as 48 Million Twitter Accounts Aren’t People, Says Study.” CNBC, 10 Mar. 2017, www.cnbc.com/2017/03/10/nearly-48-million-twitter-accounts-could-be-bots-says-study.html.

✵ Vishwanath, Arun. “Diffusion of Deception in Social Media: Social Contagion Effects and Its Antecedents.” Information Systems Frontiers, vol. 17, no. 6 (Dec. 2015), pp. 1353—67, doi: 10.1007/s10796-014-9509-2.

✵ Vishwanath, Arun. “Habitual Facebook Use and Its Impact on Getting Deceived on Social Media.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 20, no. 1 (Jan. 2015), pp. 83—98, doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12100.

✵ Wagner, Kurt, and Rani Molla. “Facebook Has Disabled Almost 1.3 Billion Fake Accounts over the Past Six Months.” Vox, 15 May 2018, www.vox.com/2018/5/15/17349790/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-fake-accounts-content-policy-update.

After Reading

Working together

In groups of four to five students, discuss possible tell-tale signs of fake social media profiles. If needed, do an Internet search to find samples of fake profiles or tips on how to identify a fake profile. Groups should share their findings with the class.

A Guide to Responding to a Reading

Responding to a reading is usually the next step after careful, active reading. Response is a process of synthesizing, analyzing, evaluating ideas, reflecting on, and sometimes writing about what you read. When an instructor gives a reading assignment, some form of response is always required. For example, you might be expected to discuss it in class, analyze it on an essay exam, or research the topic further and report your findings. By responding to material, you understand and learn it better. Of course, you may go back and forth, returning to active reading as part of forming a response.

A common assignment is a response essay, which requires you to read a selection, analyze it, and write about some aspect of it. Figure 2.1 shows the process of responding to an assignment. It begins with summarizing to check your understanding, moves to creating and organizing a response, and culminates in producing a response, often a written one.

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FIGURE 2.1 Responding to a Reading

"It shows, “responding to a reading,” as the central idea. Further the central idea branches into the following ideas. Analyze and evaluate the reading. Summarize to check understanding. Analyze the assignment and decide on an approach. Annotate to record your reactions and ideas. Synthesize the writer’s ideas with your own. Keep a response journal. Use a reading response worksheet."

For an example of a student’s response essay, see Karen Vaccaro’s “’American Jerk’? How Rude! (but True)” at the end of this chapter.

Many tools and strategies will help you create a reasoned and effective response to what you read. These include analyzing the assignment, annotating and synthesizing your ideas with those of the author, and using a response worksheet or a response journal to analyze and evaluate the reading. A good way to start is first to summarize the selection.

Summarize to Consolidate Ideas

A summary is a brief restatement of just the major ideas of a reading in your own words and sentences. Writing a summary forces you to decide what is important and enables you to see how ideas relate and connect. Summarizing can also improve your retention and recall of the material. To prepare for discussing a reading in class or writing about it in a response paper or on an exam, writing a summary is a good first step. If you have difficulty writing a summary, you will know you do not fully understand the reading. As you summarize, you may also find that your own thoughts about the reading begin to take shape.

These guidelines will help you write an effective summary:

1. Review your highlighting.

See the section on highlighting in the Guide to Active Reading earlier in this chapter.

2. Start your summary with an opening sentence that states the author’s thesis in your own words. The thesis is the most important idea that the entire essay addresses or explains. Include the author’s name and the title of the selection you are summarizing.

3. Include the author’s most important supporting ideas. Use either highlighted topic sentences or marginal summary notes as a guide for what to include. Be sure to use your own words and sentence patterns — not those of the author.

4. Present the ideas in the order in which they appear in the original source. Use transitions (connecting words and phrases, such as first, next, or as a result) as you move from one major supporting idea to the next.

5. Reread your summary to determine whether it contains enough information. Your summary should include the selection’s main ideas and key supporting points. (Your opinions do not belong in a summary.) A good rule of thumb is that a summary should be about one-fifth the length of the original, but whether this will be too much or too little will depend on the source you are summarizing and your purpose in writing the summary. (A summary may be just one or two sentences in a response essay or research project but may be almost a third of the length of the original if you are using it as a study tool for a complex reading you will be tested on.)

Here is a sample summary by Karen Vaccaro, the student whose response essay, “’American Jerk’? How Rude! (but True),” can be found at the end of this chapter:

The writer expresses Schwartz’s thesis in her own words.

In “American Jerk,” Todd Schwartz claims that, although people believe they are acting politely, rudeness and incivility are on the rise. We overdo political correctness, yet we behave rudely to everyone around us. The author believes that because our civilization has evolved to the point that we are no longer concerned with basic survival, we can act selfishly while pretending to be civil. The author also contends that people often are not intentionally rude but instead are simply distracted and self-absorbed. The bottom line is that people must choose their own behavior and decide how they will act.

The order of ideas parallels the order in Schwartz’s essay.

The writer continues to use her own words — not those of Schwartz.

Many students keep a journal in which they write summaries and other responses to what they’ve read. These journal entries can serve as useful sources of ideas for writing papers.

ESSAY IN PROGRESS 1

WRITING A SUMMARY

This assignment is the first step of a five-part essay-in-progress assignment. The steps lead you through the process of developing and writing a response essay. The writing assignment is as follows:

Write a two- to three-page paper in response to “Why Do So Many People Fall for Fake Profiles Online?” earlier in this chapter (or an essay assigned by your instructor). Choose one problem, question, or issue that the essay addresses and detail your response to it.

As part of the above assignment, complete each of the following tasks:

1. Review Reread your highlighting for the reading.

2. Organize Draw a graphic organizer of the reading.

3. Summarize Write a brief one-paragraph summary of the reading.

Analyze the Assignment and Decide on an Approach

Before beginning your response, make sure you understand the parameters of the assignment.

The task. Will you be discussing the reading selection in class to consolidate your understanding? Review your annotations and any notes you wrote while reading, and bring any ideas or questions you might have about the selection to class.

Your purpose. Will you be analyzing it for an essay exam as a way of demonstrating your command of issues or themes you have studied in class? Consider themes or topics you have discussed in class or in other readings, and think about how the reading selection relates.

Instructor expectations. Will you be writing a response to demonstrate your understanding and analysis as well as your ability to write a clear, cohesive essay? Consider the direction or approach you should take, the length your instructor expects, and whether you are expected (or allowed) to do additional research, as well as how best to organize and develop the response. If you are uncertain about your instructor’s expectations, be sure to ask.

ESSAY IN PROGRESS 2

ANALYZING THE ASSIGNMENT

Essay in Progress 1 gives the following assignment:

Write a two- to three-page paper in response to “Why Do So Many People Fall for Fake Profiles Online?” earlier in this chapter (or an essay assigned by your instructor). Choose one problem, question, or issue that the essay addresses and detail your response to it.

Write a paragraph in which you identify the task, your purpose, and your instructor’s likely expectations.

Generate and Record Ideas: Annotating, Synthesizing, Analyzing, and Evaluating

Once you have created and organized ideas from the reading, it is time to generate and create your own ideas. This involves synthesizing, keeping a response journal, and analyzing and evaluating.

Annotate to Record Your Impressions

When you annotate a reading assignment, you jot down your questions and reactions to the reading in the margins or in a reading journal. Think of your annotations as a personal response to the author’s ideas. You can annotate while you read, but your most useful annotations will often come after an initial reading, as you reread and review the material. You may want to go back to reread and annotate a selection once you have an idea of what you will be writing about. Your annotations can take many forms:

For more about keeping a journal, see Chapter 1.

✵ important points (such as the thesis) to which you react intellectually or emotionally

✵ places where you want or need further information

✵ passages that reveal the author’s reasons for writing

✵ passages that raise questions or that intrigue or puzzle you

✵ ideas you agree or disagree with or that seem inconsistent

✵ themes or ideas that relate to a topic you may want to write about

Later, as you write about or discuss the reading, your annotations will help you focus on major issues and questions. A portion of Karen Vaccaro’s annotations on “American Jerk” are shown below.

Karen Vaccaro’s response to “American Jerk” appears at the end of this chapter.

Image

"The paragraph reads, Sample annotations. Civility rules, friends. Civility is dead, jerks. Why? I have a few theories. An accompanying annotation reads, “A reference to A Tale of Two Cities, a novel about the French Revolution. Is Schwartz implying that Americans are ready to revolt?” The first is that America is in the same position as Rome found itself in about 420 CE, meaning that we’ve reached the peak of our civilization and now everything is going to Tartarus in a chariot. We’re too far from our food and energy sources, and fewer and fewer of the Druids and Visigoths like us anymore. So we desperately cling to a patina of civility while we grab a snack and watch large, toothy predators devour people. The second is that sunlight contains tiny spores that lodge in the cerebellum, making the infected believe they are the center of the universe. My final and somewhat less cutting-edge theory is that a large percentage of people are just clueless, distracted, and self-absorbed, unable to process concepts such as spatial awareness (for example: when you are walking in the same direction with several hundred people in, say, an airport terminal, DON’T JUST STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOW!). In the second paragraph, “Tartarus” is circled and marked with the following annotation: Tartarus equals Hell. Fall of Rome: Are things really so bad now? Romans kept slaves! Is this such a bad thing? We have time to relax and think. “Druids and Visigoths” is marked with the annotation “Rome’s “neighbors”?” “patina of civility” is marked with the annotation “Patina equals only on the surface.” Last paragraph is marked with the annotation “Schwartz’s main point. My boyfriend gets distracted by his phone — a lot! (I do, too, sometimes.)”"

ESSAY IN PROGRESS 3

ANNOTATING

Reread “Why Do So Many People Fall for Fake Profiles Online?” or the reading your instructor assigned. Annotate the essay as you reread.

Synthesize the Writer’s Ideas with Your Own

One way to start ideas flowing for a response is to connect, or synthesize, the ideas expressed in the reading with your own ideas, knowledge, and experiences. Doing so builds a bridge between your ideas and the author’s. You may have begun synthesizing ideas as you annotated, but to synthesize more formally, follow these steps:

1. Look for useful information in the essay that you could apply or relate to other real-life situations. Think of familiar situations or examples that illustrate the subject. For example, for “American Jerk,” which considers incivility in society, you might write a journal entry about incivility among college students.

2. Think beyond the reading. Recall other material you have read and events you have experienced that relate to the reading. In thinking about “American Jerk,” for example, you might recall the behavior of students in the classroom, as described in the reading “The New Marshmallow Test” from Chapter 1. How does student use of digital technology in the classroom relate to the topic of civility, for example?

3. Use the key-word response method for generating ideas. Choose one or more key words that describe your initial response, such as angered, amused, surprised, confused, annoyed, curious, or shocked. Then write for five to ten minutes without stopping in response to your word. You can explain your response or offer examples to support your reaction. Try approaching the reading from many different perspectives. Here is the result of Karen Vaccaro’s key-word response to “American Jerk”:

After reading “American Jerk,” I felt annoyed and insulted. I agree that the world has changed because of cell phones, but I don’t think that these changes have made people ruder. Each generation creates its own rules and values, and the cell-phone generation is doing that. If media and entertainment were horrible and insulting, then people wouldn’t watch them. Humans are evolving, and our expectations have to evolve with technology. Some people do act like they are polite when they actually do rude things all the time. But really, are things as bad as he claims? Isn’t enslaving people a lot worse than talking on the phone when out with a friend?

Possible topic 1: How generations create their own values

Possible topic 2: How behavior changes with changes in technology

Possible topic 3: How bad is rudeness in comparison with evils of earlier times?

ESSAY IN PROGRESS 4

SYNTHESIZING IDEAS

Use synthesis to draw connections between the ideas expressed in “Why Do So Many People Fall for Fake Profiles Online?” or the reading your instructor assigned and your own ideas and experiences.

Analyze and Evaluate the Reading

After you see a movie, you ask a friend, “What did you think of it?” Your friend may praise the plot, criticize the acting, or comment on the characters’ behavior. Your friend is analyzing the film, breaking the film down into its component parts and assessing how well they work together. When you analyze a reading, you may focus on any aspect of the selection, such as how the author tries to reach his or her intended readers by choosing evidence readers will respond to, offering reasons they can accept, or using a tone readers will find appealing. When you evaluate a reading, you consider the author’s fairness or accuracy, the effectiveness of the presentation, the quality of the supporting evidence provided, and the relevance of the selection to your purpose. Numerous techniques for both analysis and evaluation are explored in detail in Chapter 3.

An effective starting point for analysis and evaluation is to devise critical questions. Asking critical questions and then answering them is a useful method for analysis and for discovering ideas for a response. Critical questions go beyond what the author said and explore what he or she meant. These questions may focus on the implications, practicality, accuracy, and application of the author’s ideas, for example. Here are three sample questions and the answers that Karen Vaccaro wrote after reading “American Jerk”:

Can we turn the tide and find a way to return to a polite society?

I think that adults emphasize politeness less than in the past. Parents and teachers hardly try to instill it in children. People no longer have to learn etiquette. To improve manners would require us to rethink how we raise and educate children.

Possible topic: How to teach politeness and effective methods

Is technology causing people to be less civil, or is it just an excuse?

Technology has changed the way that people communicate with one another. Technology makes it easier to have less personal contact with others, but it does not encourage rudeness. It’s possible to use technology and still be civil to other people.

Possible topic: The effects of technology on human behavior

Is American society actually worse than it used to be, as Schwartz seems to claim?

While horrible things still happen here, we no longer have slavery or segregation; women, gay people, and nonwhites have much more freedom and opportunity.

Possible topic: The contrast between the evils of the past and the “evils” of present-day rudeness

ESSAY IN PROGRESS 5

WRITING CRITICAL QUESTIONS

Write critical questions in response to the reading you are preparing to write about. As you read the essay a second time, record additional reactions that occur to you. Some students prefer to use a different color of ink to record their second set of questions. (Refer to the sample student annotation on p. 45.)

Keep a Response Journal

A response journal is a section of your writing journal in which you record reactions or questions that arose as you annotated. Experiment with the following two ways to organize a response journal entry to discover the one that works better for you.

For more about keeping a journal, see Chapter 1.

Map or cluster format

On a blank page, write, outline, draw, or create a diagram to express your reactions to an essay. This open-page format encourages you to let your ideas flow freely. Figure 2.2 shows Karen Vaccaro’s open-page response journal entry for “American Jerk.” This entry suggests several possible topics to write about: identifying generational differences in defining civility, determining standards for civility, and recognizing subjectivity in evaluating behavior.

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FIGURE 2.2 Sample Open-Response Journal Format

"The ideas are as follows. People are always distracted because they are surrounded by many choices. Who decides what is polite and what is rude? Where do the standards come from? What some people view as rude, others see as normal behavior. Older generations always complain about a loss of civility in younger generations. People make choices about what is important to them, and they are always subjective."

Response-to-quotations format

Divide several pages of your journal into two columns or create a table with two columns. On the left, jot down five to ten quotations that state an opinion, summarize a viewpoint, and so forth. On the right, write your response to each quotation. You might explain it, disagree with or question it, relate it to other information in the reading or in another reading, or tie it to your experiences. The two-column format forces you to think actively about an essay while you question what you have read and draw connections. It also provides possible ideas to write about in a response paper. Be sure to keep track of where in the reading you found the quotations so you can cite them properly. Figure 2.3 provides an example of the response-to-quotations format.

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FIGURE 2.3 Sample Response-to-Quotations Journal Format

Possible writing topics are noted.

"The following information in two columns as ""Quotations"" and ""Reponses"" are as follows. Quotation: “A moment when a roomful of even relatively evolved people will react with discomfort to an off-color joke about people of color — and when those same people have no compunction whatsoever about loudly ignoring one another as they blather into their cell phones.” (paragraph 2). “No one is poor,’ but many are ’socioeconomically disadvantaged’” (paragraph 4). Response: This statement implies that racial jokes and talking on your cell phone are somehow on the same level of rudeness. There is a distinction between “poor” and “socioeconomically disadvantaged,” and it’s an important one. The first term has to do with money, but the second one also has to do with culture and opportunities."

You may find it useful to make a third column for a paraphrase of the quotation. Paraphrasing forces you to think about the meaning of the quotation, and ideas for writing may come to mind as a result.

For more on paraphrasing, see Chapter 22 or the section on paraphrasing earlier in this chapter.

ESSAY IN PROGRESS 6

WRITING A RESPONSE JOURNAL ENTRY

For “Why Do So Many People Fall for Fake Profiles Online?” or another essay chosen by your instructor, write a response in your journal using the map or cluster format or the response-to-quotations format.

Use a Reading-Response Worksheet

A reading-response worksheet guides and records your response while directing your thinking. Figure 2.4 shows the format of a response worksheet.

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FIGURE 2.4 Reading-Response Worksheet

"The information in the worksheet is as follows. Reading-Response worksheet. Title: “American Jerk.” Author: Todd Schwartz. First Impressions: The article is funny, but a little extreme. I agree that some people are very concerned about political correctness, while others feel free to flaunt their racism, but are these the same people? Summary: In “American Jerk,” Todd Schwartz argues that people believe they are acting politely, while rudeness and incivility are on the rise. Schwartz claims that since we don’t have to fight for our survival, we can act selfishly while pretending to be civil and that people are often rude because of their self-absorption. We can choose not to be rude. Connections to your own experiences: We’ve all experienced road rage, cell phones ringing/ texting at the movies or with friends. On the other hand, political correctness has led to trigger warnings in school, teachers not using red pen for fear of hurting students’ feelings, and parents even being afraid to discipline their kids and owners — their dogs. Analysis (issue, aspect, feature, problem): Schwartz seems to think we’re ruder now than ever. But are we? Were slave holders polite to the people they “owned”? And is it the same people who are being overly politically correct and rude? I’m not sure his argument holds up. Useful Quotations: “We are talking to someone all the time, but it’s ever more rarely to the people we are actually with” (paragraph 8) Relate this to the lack of civility and manners."

Write a Response Essay

A response essay presents an organized and focused discussion of the content of the reading assignment.

Determine the Content and Focus of Your Response Essay

Your response essay may include a brief summary of the reading assignment and use quotations and paraphrases as evidence. However, most of your response should focus on interpreting and evaluating what you have read. Your essay should be focused; it should not present unrelated reactions to the reading or jump from idea to idea. Focus your response on

✵ one key idea

✵ one primary question the essay raises

✵ one major issue it explores

For example, suppose your instructor asks you to read an article entitled “Advertising: A Form of Institutional Lying,” which argues that advertisements deceive consumers by presenting half-truths, distortions, and misinformation. Your instructor then asks you to write a two-page paper responding to the essay but gives you no other directions. In writing this paper, you might take one of the following approaches:

✵ Evaluate the evidence and examples the author provides, and determine whether the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claim.

✵ Discuss the causes or effects of deception in advertising that the author overlooks. (You may need to consult other sources to take this approach.)

✵ Evaluate the assumptions the author makes about advertising or consumers.

Follow the Steps for Writing a Response Essay

Use the following steps as a guide when writing response essays:

1. Reread the writing you did in response to the selection. Look for related ideas. Try to find ideas that fit together to produce a viewpoint or position toward the reading. (Do not attempt to cover all your ideas. Your essay should not analyze every aspect of the essay. Instead, you should focus on one feature or aspect.)

2. Write a sentence that states your central point. This sentence will become your thesis statement. It should state what your essay will assert or explain.

For more about writing and supporting a thesis, see Chapter 5.

3. Collect ideas and evidence from the reading to support your thesis. Use quotations, paraphrases, and summaries to call attention to the writer’s key points and examples.

For more about drafting an essay, see Chapter 7.

4. Organize your ideas into essay form. Your essay should have a title, introduction, body, and conclusion.

5. Revise your essay. Be sure that all your ideas support your thesis, you have explained your ideas clearly, and you have provided support from the reading for each one.

For more about revising an essay, see Chapter 8.

6. Edit your sentences and words, and proofread for accuracy and correctness.

Make sure your sentences are clear, concise, and varied, and your words are accurate, specific, and appropriate. Then use the suggestions in “Proofread Carefully” in Chapter 9 to catch any remaining typos or formatting errors.

Refer to the Reading Clearly and Correctly

Writing a response essay requires that you make direct references to the reading itself. There are three ways you can do this:

1. You can summarize the author’s ideas and then comment on them.

2. You can paraphrase the author’s ideas and then respond to them.

3. You can include a direct quotation and then discuss it.

Choose the techniques most appropriate to your audience and purpose. (In a given paper you might use all three.) Be sure to use them to support your own ideas. You might, for example, look back at your response-to-quotations journal and find a quotation to support one of your major points. Or you might find a sentence you highlighted and paraphrase it. Or you may find that it would be helpful to summarize examples or details the author gives to support a main point.

Regardless of which techniques you use, it is essential that you make it clear you are using the author’s ideas, not your own. If you fail to do so, you might be accused of plagiarism, unfairly using an author’s ideas without acknowledging them.

To learn more about plagiarism, see Chapter 23.

Notice in the student essay that follows how Vaccaro uses introductory comments to signal she is using the author’s ideas:

✵ She introduces a summary by saying “In his article ’American Jerk,’ Todd Schwartz claims …” (para. 1).

✵ She introduces a paraphrase by stating, “Schwartz is right when he says …” (para. 2).

✵ She introduces a quotation by writing, “Schwartz writes …” (para. 3).

Also notice that for each reference to the reading, Vaccaro includes an in-text citation in parentheses following the borrowed material. Her in-text citations contain information on how to locate the material she used.

You can learn more about how to select, integrate, and cite sources in Chapters 7, 22, and 23.

ESSAY IN PROGRESS 7

WRITING A RESPONSE ESSAY

Write a two- to three-page paper in response to “Why Do So Many People Fall for Fake Profiles Online?” (or whichever essay you’ve been writing about in previous Essay in Progress activities in this chapter). Choose one question or issue that the essay addresses and detail your response to it. Use the steps listed above and the ideas you generated in Essays in Progress 3—6 to develop your essay.

STUDENTS WRITE

“American Jerk”? How Rude! (but True)

Karen Vaccaro

Karen Vaccaro wrote the following essay in response to “American Jerk.” As you read, notice how Vaccaro analyzes Schwartz’s points about civility and the lack of it in our society.

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In his article “American Jerk,” Todd Schwartz claims that Americans today are both the most and the least civil we have ever been. Although the painful truth in these observations is a bit hard to take, Schwartz eases the reality by providing a great deal of humorous relief. Schwartz’s claim is an apt one, and most of his observations about our current culture are accurate, but some of his observations and accusations are broad generalizations that don’t always hold true.

In this essay, the paragraphs are numbered from 1 to 6. Paragraph 1 is the introduction that identifies the article Vaccaro is responding to and summarizes Schwartz’s main point. In the same paragraph, the statement “Schwartz’s claim is an apt one, and most of his observations about our current culture are accurate, but some of his observations and accusations are broad generalizations that don’t always hold true” is Vaccaro’s thesis statement that indicates how her ideas differ from Schwartz’s.

“We have never been more concerned about the feelings of minority groups, the disabled, and the disadvantaged,” Schwartz writes in paragraph 3, and he is right. We have become a culture obsessed with being P C (politically correct). I often carefully choose and often second-guess the words I use to describe anyone of a different race or physical or mental ability, for fear of offending anyone. And yet many people I encounter seem hardly concerned about offending me. Schwartz is right when he says that our society lacks a concern about the feelings of others with whom we share places and experiences, giving highways, the Internet, and theaters as examples. Cyclists seem to have taken over city streets and even shout insults at me when I am walking in a crosswalk (and they are breaking the law by ignoring a red light). Despite many methods used to discourage theater goers from using their phones, audience members text and leave their ringers on during films, concerts, and plays. In fact, last week I was at a live theater performance, and in the middle of an important scene, a cell phone rang in the audience — twice.

The first part of paragraph 2 shows that Vaccaro includes a quotation and agrees with Schwartz. In the second part of this paragraph, Vaccaro paraphrases Schwartz and offers examples from her own experience of lack of concern.

In another example of how (overly) civil we’ve become, Schwartz writes, “Schools won’t let teachers use red pens to correct papers because (ellipsis) self-esteem might be bruised” (para. 4). This reminded me of the teaching internship I did while studying abroad in China one semester. I taught an English writing course to Chinese high school students. One day I was marking up the students’ papers with a red pen (as I thought teachers were supposed to do). Another American teacher said, “I thought teachers weren’t supposed to mark students’ papers with red pens anymore.” I asked if red was offensive to Chinese students. “No,” she answered. “Some of my teachers back home in America said it’s because red is a harsh color that really stands out from the black and white.” “Well, yes, I thought that was the point,” I said.

(Paragraph 3 continues on the next page.)

In paragraph 3, Vaccaro connects Schwartz’s ideas to her own experience and affirms his ideas.

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Paragraph 3 continues from the previous page.

“But it can make some students feel bad,” she responded. “That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard,” I said as I went back to marking my students’ papers with the red pen. Have we become so “civil” that we’re afraid to teach students? Don’t young men and women come to class expecting to learn something, knowing that at some point they will need to be corrected to see their mistakes so that they can truly learn?

Then there are the less civil aspects of our culture, as Schwartz so accurately points out. We Americans have become obsessed with reality television shows that often take advantage of the misfortune and embarrassment of others. In addition, “giant assault vehicles” (para. 7) dwarf other cars on the road, guzzle gas, often take up more than one parking space, and seem unnecessary on city streets in a time of environmental awareness and concern. Furthermore, we are so interested in our technological gadgets that we ignore real human-to-human interactions. “We’re all talking to someone all the time,” Schwartz writes, “but it’s ever more rarely to the people we are actually with” (para. 8). I have noticed that my boyfriend often whips out his new iPhone. Even when we’re walking and talking, catching up after days of not seeing one another, he’s playing a new game, downloading a new app, or chatting with friends. I myself can be guilty of this rude behavior. Sometimes I am spending time with one friend but will be texting another friend. I know it’s rude, but I do it anyway (usually because the friend I’m with is doing the same thing and therefore it seems okay). We no longer realize how rude it is to divide our attention between two sources instead of giving our friend or loved one our full, undivided attention.

In paragraph 4, Vaccaro identifies another of Schwartz’s points that she agrees with and admits that she is guilty of it as well.

Where I must disagree with Schwartz, though, is his sweeping, unfounded statement that we are now living in “what must certainly be the rudest era in history” (para. 5). Really? Are we ruder than people who enslaved others and denied them any and all rights, including the right to be treated like human beings and not animals? Are people who refuse to “shut their inane traps” (para. 7) ruder than people in the time of segregation? It might be easy to convince ourselves that the present must be the rudest time in our history, since it is freshest in our minds, and we know it very well. But if Schwartz took time to flesh out his observations and accusations with concrete examples, he might rethink such a generalization.

In paragraph 5, Vaccaro moves to points with which she disagrees.

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Even if it doesn’t fix the problems it calls attention to, Schwartz’s entertaining and witty article forces us to stop and think about how contemporary American culture straddles the line between civility and rudeness. Many of his examples illustrate the hypocrisy of our behaviors and ways of thinking. Ultimately, Schwartz is correct in his claim that “we have arrived at simultaneously the most and least civil moment in U.S. history” (para. 2). I doubt, though, that Neanderthals — with their barbaric weapons and primitive hunting instincts —”were probably nicer to each other than we are” (para. 6).

Paragraph 6 is the conclusion where Vaccaro points out the value of Schwartz”s article.

The last page of this essay shows “Work Cited.”

Schwartz, Todd. “American Jerk: Be Civil, or I’ll Beat You to a Pulp.” Successful College Writing, Eighth ed., by Kathleen T. McWhorter, Bedford/Saint Martin’s, 2021, pp. 27—28.

Analyzing the Writer’s Technique

1. Express Vaccaro’s thesis (central point) in your own words.

2. What kinds of information does Vaccaro include to support her thesis?

3. Where would additional examples help Vaccaro support her thesis?

Responding to the Reading

1. Vaccaro admits to texting one friend while spending time with another. Are you also guilty of acts of incivility? If so, describe one.

2. What steps or actions could be taken to build Americans’ awareness of their lack of civility?

3. Do you agree or disagree that our culture is obsessed with political correctness? Give examples to support your answer.

4. Write a journal entry describing an act of incivility that you have observed or experienced that particularly disturbed or annoyed you.

Answers, Ex 2.1

1. T

2. F

3. F

4. T

5. F