Isaac Jones Ms. Lehmann English 1-3 19 September 2018 Summary of “Once Upon A Time” “Once Upon A Time”, by Nadine Gordimer, is a short story about how being too secure can hurt what you’re protecting. Gordimer writes this because she was scared by creaks in her home, leading her to ruminate fear and security. In her story, there is a family, made up of a mom, dad, a little boy, and a cat, which all live in a high class suburb surrounded by riots against segregation. Over time, crime and riots escalate in the suburbs, break-ins become more common, and the family installs and then upgrades their security, eventually putting razor wire atop their brick wall. After being read the story “Sleeping Beauty” the boy climbs into the razor wire, being mutilated, and ultimately dying.
Isaac Jones Ms. Lehmann English 1-3 September 20, 2018 "Night Calls" Summarized The short story, Night Calls, by Lisa Fugard is about a father/daughter relationship. The narrator's father is depressed because his wife died. His daughter is sent to boarding school, and he almost leaves his home. Before he does, he is sent a rare heron to take care of and is happy again. He is no longer as distant from his daughter, who is visiting. after a while a hyena breaks in and the bird escapes. The father becomes depressed again, and eventually the narrator finds the dead bird. She buries the bird and makes its calls so her father wont lose hope.
Isaac Jones Ms. Lehmann English 1-3 September 20, 2018 Summary of "Rituals of Memory" "Rituals of Memory," an essay by Kimberly Blaeser, makes the claim that we always come back to our roots. Blaeser begins her essay with a metaphor that shows readers her opinion about how relationships to family and community work. She uses her memories of the legionnaires as evidence for her claim. She goes on to talk about her Native American heritage and Catholic schooling and how it defines her and her life. Blaeser's essay ends with the idea that our stories and memories matter, even if they haven't been documented, because they define who we are.
Summary Reflection Questions
Q: List one thing you've learned from writing these papers that you can apply to other writing assignments. What will that look like?
A: I learned how to summarize papers easier and better than I could before, and my papers will look better in the future
Q: Identify a specific revision you were asked to make and explain why. How did you revise? What did you learn?
A:I was asked to combine 2 paragraphs on Summary of "Once Upon a Time". I deleted the spacers and learned that summaries should always be as short as possible.
Q:What are the conventions of a summary and how did you meet those in these assignments?
A: The conventions are to read the paper and then shorten it as far as possible while keeping the main details of the paper and still be able to tell what it is about. I summarized all three papers with the most detail in as short a space as I could.
Q: Given more time to work on these assignments, how would you improve them?
A:I would fix all the errors shown by my English teacher for a better grade.
Q: What is one thing you are proud of in these papers?
A:I am proud of how well they represent the original papers that I summarized in the assignment, especially within the length that they are.