The task

Provide your reader a summary of and response to one of the first three chapters of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel. After reading each of the first three chapters, you are to provide a major detail summary of each as single document in the class blog on the date indicated in the course schedule.  (This is your shortest reading assignment of the term, so keep that in mind as you budget your time moving forward.) This is to help you get a handle on the material and to begin fleshing out your thoughts on what Diamond has to say before applying it in a broader sense. This will be part of the formal "pre-writing" or "invention" stage of the assignment and writing process. We are doing this to develop an understanding of the concepts that you will apply in the second part of the assignment. People have ideas about this work and its ideas, but very few have read it in order to make informed assessments. We'll be making informed assessments.

Once drafting begins, the body of the essay will be in two parts: part one is the summary and part two is your analysis of or response to some part of what Diamond writes about. The summary must, to the best of your ability and understanding, present the significant ideas put forth in the chosen chapter. The summary's presentation must be fair and impartial, void of your opinion and any commentary, and clarified with phrases that acknowledge that the ideas are not yours, such as "Diamond writes that . . .."  See the provided summary guidelines for more on this. We'll discuss these guidelines in class and online.

The second part of the essay will consist of three response paragraphs, one addressing each element of the rhetorical triangle in the chapter that you have chosen to summarize: ethos, logos and pathos, which will be explained below. This is where your opinions and perspectives come more into play as you develop and refine your thoughts about how theses ideas do (or don't) work, at least as you see it. When developing each response point, be sure to make it clear to your reader why it matters.

The essay also requires an introduction and conclusion (each roughly 150 words). The introduction MUST include the author's name full name on the first mention (last name only after that) and the title of the work. It's best to include this early in the introduction. The introduction must also create a context for the response, part of which will be a thesis that makes a particular claim about the material, a claim that will guide the response.

The conclusion, while it may sum up the main ideas and restate the thesis, should drive home whatever point is being addressed and raised by the thesis and response. It's generally a good idea to come back to the author and maybe even a quote from the text, one that ties the various elements of the summary and response together. More on this later.

Assignment Process

1. Read all course material for the assignment
2. Read chapters 1-3 of Guns, Germs and Steel. Annotate as described,
3. Draft major detail summary and submit a single document that covers all three chapters by assigned date and time--before discussion deadline!
4. Be ready to discuss the possible elements of the chapters that you will respond to.
5. Determine how you will respond to one chapter from the reading.
6. Draft a formal summary of the chosen chapter. This must be however long it takes to capture the essence of your chosen chapter.
7. *Draft an introduction that will lay the groundwork for and set up your response. This must include a thesis that sets up the focus/point of the response. I suggest about 150 words for an effective introduction that does all that is needed.
8. *Draft a response/analysis to some element of the reading. This must be two or three well developed paragraphs.
9. Draft a conclusion that goes beyond restatement of what was covered in the response. Plug the response into a broader context of some sort, emphasizing why today's reader, you, me, your classmates, other readers of the essay, should care about the point you make, the issue you address, why it might or should matter to them. I suggest about 150 words at a minimum so the essay finishes strong.
10. Read, revise, read, revise, read, revise, ad nauseum.

*The order of these three cannot be definitively stated as being in the best order. I think this is the best order, but you may come up with a response point at some time in your reading and dash off a quick response without even finishing the whole of your reading. I think once you summarize, you'll have a better understanding of the reading and be able to better respond, but that's just me. You'll have to work this order out on your own.

Essay Format

• Introduction containing background and a thesis that sets up the analysis in the second part of the essay body
• Summary of Diamond's first, second or third chapter in Guns, Germs and Steel. This will take three or four paragraphs.
  
• Response to something you encountered in your reading of Diamond's text. This will take three to four paragraphs.
• Conclusion that drives home the interest or importance of the response/application portion of the essay body.

Audience

Your essay will be read by several of your classmates during the writing and revision process, along with me, your instructor. Should the essay be included in your portfolio, at least one other member of SFCC's English faculty will be reading your essay. You might consider anyone with an interest in this topic, or your response to the material, as a potential audience/reader as well. The summary and response, and how you set up and conclude them, must make sense to someone who has not read this text. That requires careful summary to set the stage for the response and enough specific information in the response/analysis to guide the reader to your conclusion.