Bowie State Commencement Short Reading Assignmen

Assignment 5

SRA (short readings assignment) 1 – Read in book, “Bowie State Commencement Speech,” pages 285-294, by Michelle Obama. Write a one page paper (one page not including the space for your name and class and such information), double spaced, that summarizes the main ideas of this essay. You will be graded for this. Do a good job — as usual.

You can be simple in this assignment and you may start in this way: “Bowie State Commencement Speech” is the speech Michelle Obama delivered to the Bowie State graduating class of (you fill in the year). It is about…(and you will tell me what it is about). Obama talks about people who graduated in the past and they are important because… (Of course, don’t use…marks. I just did that to say where you will fill in detail).

You can start this way, too: “Bowie Commencement Speech,” by Michelle Obama, is about… (Make sure the comma after Speech goes inside the quote).

In your summary, please do NOT summarize the beginning of the speech where Obama gives thanks to so many people. Please do not write about that part, although you can say, After giving thanks to many people, Obama talks about…

For this assignment, when you write it, I’m looking to see from your writing that you read the speech (of course you may have to read it more than once) and that you can tell me what it is about. And when I say what it is about, I mean at some point in your summary you must say what Obama’s message is or messages are (in summaries, we use the person’s last name and not the first name, Michelle). To do this assignment you do not have to know every single thing about the speech. Just tell me what Obama is talking about, what her meaning or message is. Use examples from the text but please do not quote her words extensively, since your paper is only one page. In other words, in your one-page summary don’t use a quote that takes up half a paragraph (or a third of the page) but certainly you can quote her. I want to see your writing most of all in this assignment. When you are ready, submit it.

Assignment 15

1) SRA (short reading assignment 2) – Read in book, “Escape from the Western Diet,” by Michael Pollan, pages 420-427. You may start your summary simply in this way: “Escape from the Western Diet,” by Michael Pollan, is about…

2) Write a one page paper, double-spaced, that summarizes the main ideas of this essay (like you did in Assignment 5). I want to see, most of all, if you can summarize this essay and say what the writer of the essay has to say. What does Pollan say is wrong with the Western diet (just for reference, the USA is a Western country, as opposed to Eastern countries such as those in Asia)? What does he suggest we should eat? You don’t have to express your opinion at all in your summary, in fact, but you may give your opinion at the end of the essay in a couple of sentences at most. First, and above all, your job is to summarize the facts of the essay. Again, you do not have to understand every single thing Pollan talks about for you to do this assignment.

Finally, your one page does not include the space for your name and class and such things. Do a good, complete job here — you are almost finished! You can do it. Take time.

SUBMIT your summary.