SUMMARY ANALYSIS

Summary analysis are often called reviews: a book review ( sometimes

called a critique ) asks students to read the materials, summarize the
written material, and analyse a part or all of the material.
• Introduction
Name of author, title of material
Major points to be analyzed (perhaps a direct quotation)
Thesis statement of opinion
• Body Paragraphs
Each contains
• Reference to author/material
Reference to Point #1, #2, #3, etc. (perhaps a direct quotation)
Transition to writer's ideas, opinions
Topic sentence of opinion
• Support for opinion (facts, examples, personal experience, and/or physical
description)
• ,

• Conclusion
• Reference to author/material
Summary of student writer's analysis
Perhaps a recommendation, a solution, arid/or a prediction
 • Analysis of "Addictions in America"
• Dudley Erskine Devlin's essay "Addictions in America" makes three main
points.(Introduces author, title) First, Devlin demonstrates that many in the
U.S. have problems with substance abuse; they are addicted to tobacco,
alcohol, and drugs. He believes that there are only two possible solutions to
the problem of addiction: complete deregulation or "zero
tolerance.“(Summarizes main ideas of article ). While I agree that some
Americans have addiction problems, I disagree with Devlin's proposed
solutions. ( Thesis statement)
• Devlin's first proposal) is to deregulate; that is, he suggests removing
the warning labels from cigarettes, abolishing the drinking age, and
legalizing such drugs as cocaine and heroin. ( reference to author’s idea)
However, ( transition, topic sentence) I believe that Devlin's
understanding of deregulation is flawed and that his solution would be a
disaster. First, cigarettes and alcohol are already "legal" for adults in the
U.S. Making cigarettes and alcohol available to young children goes
against common sense; with so much research proving that cigarettes
cause. disease and death, we have the responsibility to protect the
innocents in our country. Furthermore, if crack were legalized, more
people would be tempted to try it. Unfortunately, recent research has
demonstrated that a single experience with cocaine gives a person a
seventy to eighty percent chance of becoming addicted. We should be at
least as careful with cocaine and heroin as we are with antibiotics, yet we
would never allow the sale of an antibiotic that had a 70 to 80% chance
of maiming or killing an unsuspecting person. ( support: facts,
description)
• The other solution brought up by Devlin is "zero tolerance." That is,
Devlin suggests that we make newer, harsher laws that make even a
single use of cigarettes, alcohol, or addictive drugs punishable by stiff
fines and long prison terms. ( reference to author’s idea) In my
opinion, this is a naive solution. ( transition, topic sentence) The
amount of time and money it would take to monitor everyone in the
U.S. for use of these substances would be enormous; such a plan
would turn the country into a police state, with George Orwell's "Big
Brother" peering over every shoulder. And it wouldn't work: when
alcohol was illegal in the U.S., more liquor was consumed than in the
decade following its deregulation. ( support: facts, example)
• Instead of(Devlin's ideas)of deregulation or "zero tolerance," I think
that the answer is education. ( reference to author ) We have already
seen the attitude towards cigarette smoking grow less and less
tolerant as more people learn about the dangers of smoking. If, for
instance, the U.S. spent the money we now spend to control the
influx of illegal drugs into this, country on the education that begins
with very young children, we could curb the desire for young
Americans to experiment with drugs. (solution)
• Directions: Read the following passage. Using the General Form for the response
to the written material plan a 600-700 word essay. Then, follow the process for
planning summary-analysis essay given. In an organized and detailed essay,
summarize its main ideas and then explain why [i.e., analyze why]
you agree or disagree with what the article says. Support your
agreement/disagreement with specific examples from your experience or
outside reading and/or with an analysis of the essay's argument.
Family Values in America
Dudley Erskine Devlin
• In recent months, the political debate about family values in America has
taken center-stage. "Lesser" problems like crime, the economy, oil spills,
foreign wars, and global warming have faded into the background, and
the babble of voices haranguing us about "family values" has increased in
frequency and volume. The social critics offer two very different solutions. One
group of family reformers says that we should return to the days of
the traditional family. Another group believes that it's too late to restore
the old nuclear family structure; instead we need to fix our culture so
everyone in the community helps raise the children, including aunts and
uncles, grandparents, shop owners, and television producers. In this
essay, I explain both positions and then offer my own argument, which is that
moral values really have nothing to do with family structures. We
just need to back off and give kids some space.
Here are some examples and statistics that the social critics cite to
illustrate the seriousness of the family values problem:
• In America, more than half of all marriages end in divorce, and
more than one-third of all children are born to single mothers.
• In a recent poll, 81% of Americans thought that TV's effect on
children caused a decline in family values. As if to illustrate, a
five-year old in New York recently watched an episode of a television
program, and then, imitating what he saw on TV, set his own
house afire, resulting in the death of his two year-old sister.
• In California recently, a six year-old boy and twin eight year-olds
broke into a house to steal a tricycle.' In the process, the burglary
turned violent, and these children assaulted and maimed an
infant child.
• These examples, the social critics argue, prove that there is a clear
connection between the breakup of the traditional family structure
and the rampant increase in materialistic, self-centered, violent child
and adolescent behavior. Many of these critics think that the decline
of the nuclear family- those families with a father who works and a
mother who stays at home with her 2.5 children-has created a
generation of children and teenagers that thinks nothing of cheating,
stealing, or hurting other people to get what they want. Family
values, they believe, have disappeared. These critics believe that
we can trace the problem of the decline to a fragmented family
structure: single parents raising children, "blended" families with
children from multiple marriages, families where one parent is dating,
and families with workaholic or absentee parents who provide
material possessions but little guidance.
• The solution to these problems, according to these social reformers,
is a return to the nuclear family. They exhort men to assume
responsibility for their relationships and to take their rightful place as
the patriarch of the family. Conservative religious speakers such as
Jerry Falwell argue that feminists have destroyed family structures
and traditional moral values by leaving their role as mother to work
outside the home and by having children out of wedlock.
• The second group of reformers favours a communal or "whole village"
approach. These people argue that family structures have already
changed, in part for some very good reasons. First, women and children
need to be able to leave abusive and hostile relationships. Columnist
Barbara Ehrenreich speaks for this group when she says that "domestic
violence sends as many women to emergency rooms as any other form
of illness, injury or assault." Second, women-and men-need to have
more freedom to balance child care with career demands. Since family
structures have already changed, we need to think about a larger,
cultural solution. This group argues that children should be raised by
many people in a community: grandparents, babysitters, shopkeepers,
teachers, little league coaches, and friends, as well as television
programs such as "Sesame Street" and "Touched by an Angel." These
reformers believe that we need cultural reform that focuses on forces
outside the traditional family that can teach children "family" values.
• This second group of reformers, however, faces a daunting task. They, too, want U.S. culture to
move back to the horse and buggy days, when children treated teachers and other community
members with respect. Today, however, if a teacher scolds a student, the student may pull
a knife--or at least, initiate legal action. If an older driver chides a teenager who just cut him off,
the teen could shoot him. Today, children watch 2,000 hours of TV every year and see over 6,000
acts of violence a year. Think of the work-not to mention the censorship problems- required just
to reform the media, possibly by using warning labels, perhaps by installing a V-chip, or even by
turning off the worst of the violent television programs.
• My own belief is that social critics have wildly exaggerated the problem. First, there is, in fact, no
demonstrable relationship between a person's family structure and their moral values. Some bad
kids come from good homes; some good kids come from bad-homes. The family structure
itself does not insure good values. Second, we have to realize that this new generation is
different; we must have faith that kids will grow up fine. They just need a little time and space to
adapt to the world without the meddling of a bunch of social reformers. Sure, there are. a few
kids who are out of control, but does that mean we have to go out and start preaching ateveryone
to fix their families? And does that mean we should start censoring television programs? Focusing
on rebuilding an older culture will not work. Time changes, and we must "go with the flow."
• Basically, both of these reform groups need to take a deep breath and calm down. After all,
children simply go through stages as they grow up. We know that by the time they become
adults, most of them turn out fine. I think we just need to relax a bit. Just give kids some space!
• Introduction #2
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agreement, disagreement or agreement and disagreement).
• Background Paragraph (Optional)
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quotations)
• Body Paragraph ‘# 1
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• Body Paragraph #2
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• Conclusion #1
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