Summary and Response Assignment

Objectives:

Locate and evaluate sources using databases
Incorporate source ideas using a summary and a personal response
Document using MLA formatted Works Cited page
Instructions:

In this assignment, you will research and summarize two articles on recycling: one that you think your opponent would find most convincing; and another that you personally find most convincing. You’ll also get to explore whether you have an easier time being neutral when you agree or disagree with what you are summarizing.

You will get a chance to respond to both articles, but it is important that you separate your summary from your response: In other words, you need to represent both articles fairly and neutrally before you respond to them.

Finally, for this assignment you will practice in-text citations, signal phrases, and create Works Cited page entries.

Suggested length: three paragraphs of approximately 600 words total.

To do this assignment, complete the following steps:

1. Review the MLA Lesson offered earlier this week.

2. Identify a likely opponent.

To do that go back to the list of “imaginary friends” in the PowerPoint presentation also attached here Imaginary_Friends.docx Imaginary_Friends.docx – Alternative Formats

– Alternative Formats
Choose an imaginary friend who will likely have the position on recycling that is opposite of yours. You may rely on the earlier Discussion assignment, or you may choose a different opponent.

3. Use a database to locate an article on recycling that represents a position of your opponent.

Follow the Library Resources link on your course navigation panel. Use one of the databases or search engines recommended on the Research Help page, for example Opposing Viewpoints in Context, to locate the article.

4. Summarize the article.

Remember that a summary needs to be objective, so, even though the article you are summarizing disagrees with your own opinion, you still need to explain what it says in a neutral, unbiased way. Don’t forget to include signal phrases (“Miley writes that…” or “Macklin defends the view that…”) to make it clear to readers that you are giving an author’s opinion, not your own. You can download this worksheet worksheet – Alternative Formats

to get you started and then develop your summary to 7-10 sentences. For additional help with summary writing, see pages 313-315 and 322-323 in your textbook.
5. Find an article that represents your own point of view on recycling and summarize it in a second well-developed paragraph. Again, stay objective.

6. In the third paragraph, explain which of the two articles in your opinion has more effective argumentation and why.

Be wary of your bias – we tend to find the argument we agree with more convincing than an argument defending a position we disagree with. Is your opinion of the article effectiveness influenced by your bias, or do you find the argumentation (structure, evidence, appeals, etc) objectively stronger? You can also comment on the weaknesses of another article that explain why you did not find it effective. In the same paragraph, briefly explain which of the two articles you had a harder time writing objectively about.

7. Review your summaries for unintentional plagiarism.

Review videos on MLA in-text citations and Works Cited (MLA Lesson) and MLA pages in the textbook – Chapter 10. Look for missing signal phrases or citations, missing quotes, or a paraphrase that is too close to the original text. Also, compare your own in-text citations to the examples (in the videos, tutorials, and the textbook) to be sure the in-text formatting is correct.

ANSWER

Article 1: The reign of recycling

The article in the New York Times on the reign of recycling has interestingly stated how recycling has remained significant to the community and how it protects the community. Over the years, recycling has reached a large number of people than before when it comes both environmentally and economically. Most people living in the United States have been involved in some form of recycling. This is because most people separate papers from glass, metal, and plastics. They rinse the cans and bottles and put food scraps into the container.

However, the article has also disapproved some of the pieces of evidence that people have used to develop the idea that recycling in the United States. For instance, (John) states that the future of recycling looks even worse. This is because many cities have moved beyond recycling metals, papers, and into food scraps, metals, and assorted plastics which have raised the costs sharply and lowered the environmental benefits.

Ideally, the educated and well-informed have failed to understand the relative benefits and cost of recycling (John). For instance, they probably do not understand that lowering carbon emissions, requires sorting aluminum cans and sorting paper as compared to worrying about the containers of yogurt. Most people have been convinced by the environmental protection agencies that recycling of plastics is doing much to the public due to reduced carbon emissions. The zero-waste objective makes inapplicable but to recycle some plastics, cardboard, as well as papers.

The cost-benefit analysis of the recycling process shows that most of the recycling operations have their extra environmental costs such as more trucks as well as pollution from recycling operations. Recycling has been on the incorrect side of the two long tenure economic trends since the actual cost of raw materials and labor has been rising. Therefore, as a labor-exhaustive action, recycling has been gradually costly to manufacture less valuable materials.

Article 2: Importance of recycling and why we should recycle

This article has interestingly focused on the importance of recycling and the need for recycling. Recycling is significant for the atmosphere since it enables individuals to use new items from the old items that are not in use. When thinking about recycling its important to think about the whole notion which is to reuse, reduce as well as recycle (Conserve Energy Future). There are various reasons that the author has stated why recycling is essential. For instance, recycling facilitates maintaining the atmosphere clean. It lowers the quantity of waste manufactured and allows conserving various non-renewable sources. Recycling has also played a big role in saving energy and lowering landfills that have been extremely been overloaded.

The article has clearly stated how recycling is important to the environment since we are protecting resources and having minimal waste in the landfills which have helped reduce water and air pollution (Conserve Energy Future). Considerably, the world population is growing which means the amount of waste is accumulating. Therefore, more space will be demanded to dump these wastes. Ideally, the growing population requires more space to live. However, if space is taken up by landfills and waste, the existence of humankind will be challenging (Conserve Energy Future).

The second article is more effective since it has indicated that recycling has solved this problem since it lowers the amount of waste being dumped. The article has indicated that recycling serves major purposes which are to avoid landfills, air, and water pollution as well as ensuring that valuable materials such as plastics, aluminum cans, and glasses are reused rather than dumped as waste.

References

Conserve Energy Future. Importance of recycling and why we should recycle. 2012. Available at: https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/importance_of_recycling.php

John, T. The Reign of Recycling. Oct 3, 2015. The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/opinion/sunday/the-reign-of-recycling.html