Writing Topic Summary- CH 46

Rules for Writers Ch 46 by Diana Hacker is inteded for students in English class. She is really getting across step by step how to write about a piece of writing. The first thing you should do is annotate the text; underlining, writing on the side, giving yourself notes, reading the text over and over. Then, you should quickly write an outline of the text to get all the main ideas in place, and to understand the thesis in your own words.  Then, use the outline to write your summary of the text. The summary should consist of all the main ideas briefly and make sure you name the text your writing about and the author.  In a summary you should be concise and objective. The next thing Hacker mentions is how to anlayze a text, which is to look at how the text makes it's points, how it makes it's argument. The last thing she says is to understand the different texts you will be analyzing in different disciplines.

I will be using this information in all my writing at different times. It's one thing to read a text but it's another thing to annotate it, summarize it and analyze it. My favorite thing to do is to analyze it. To use my critical thinking and question the text to better understand exactly what the author's intentions are. Analyzing might also be the hardest way to write about a text. You have to really think, and you can be way off.  I need practice with all of these types of writing but I feel like it will make me a better reader and writer.