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Jesus Garza

ENGL 1302-215

Ana Mendoza

27 January 2024

Lunsford Chapter 7 & 30

The author(s)’ argument and main points.

The author's main argument is the importance of annotating, summarizing, and responding while
having a clear and concise structure surrounding the MLA format.

● The author argues that it is essential to annotate what the reader has in front of them and
re-read to get a clear and concise understanding of the overall message and who they are
trying to reach.
● They further elaborate that creating a structured, brief summary can help readers break
down information and include our opinions with other people’s text. This leads readers to
chapter 30, where the importance of MLA citations are emphasized.
● One of the author’s strongest points is responding to the text. They say we are already
doing this by actively engaging with our readings; but we can dive deeper by grasping the
context, claim, and language the author uses, and vocalizing our opinions about the text,
setting in counterarguments.

How the author(s) arrived at the argument s/he presents

The authors arrive at their argument by introducing developmental reading strategies and
structures that should be used when reading and responding to an excerpt properly. One of these
many strategies they present is overlooking what we read and spotlighting important or new
words to grasp a better understanding. Clunking information into smaller chunks or using signal
phrases is also a central argument that the authors say is highly necessary when incoming readers
are introduced to new topics or papers that have high importance. Another highly emphasized
argument is that all readers should respond by drawing out claims, reasons, and the initial
author’s evidence and forming their own opinions to get a deeper feeling of the subject while
incorporating the correct MLA structure. The authors have come to these arguments by noting
readers can be lackluster in these departments and providing intellectual information that we can
base ourselves on.
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The evidence the author(s) uses to support the argument.
The evidence the authors use aren’t particularly facts, but pure examples and their
professional opinions on top of them in the first chapter, but the second chapter is riddled
with hard evidence on MLA format and proper structure. Showing readers how they prove to
be beneficial, including:
● Providing readers with the beneficial outcomes that annotating has, including learning
the author's stance and authoritative purpose in their writing. They then provide factual
information that annotating leads the reader down a rabbit hole that makes them think
between the lines and ask themselves why the text was made in the first place. This was
coupled with a straightforward example of what these critical thinking annotations looked
like on paper.
● The use of brief summarization, only mentioning the main point of what the reader is
reading while leaving minor details. It can help the reader greatly consume large amounts
of knowledge by being assertive that it doesn’t change the overall message of the reading.
● Two strong pieces of evidence were the connection the authors show with how important
it is to respond to what you’re reading so you can format your own opinion and the basis
of what is presented in front of the reader. This gets readers invested in what their reader,
leading to stronger memorization of the material.
● The authors’ use of hard examples when it comes to MLA format showcases the
multitude of ways a reader has to do proper citations under different circumstances and
text structure.
The type of evidence the author(s) uses and how the evidence is used
1. The author uses several examples from real-world scenarios and how to correct and go
about them.
2. The use of proper structure with MLA format and citations.
3. The authors use proven methods to give insight to fellow readers when challenged with
retaining information and citing properly.
The evidence is embedded all throughout the two chapters, and both use visuals to portray some
of their ideas.
A breakdown of each section of the text
1. Annotate by scanning headings and finding thesis statements and conclusions
while leaving remarks and thoughts about the readings.
2. Find the intended audience and try to see the correlation to grasp the meaning of
the paper.
3. Trying to find the author's style, tone, and stance with what they are writing
about.
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4. How is the text designed, and what thoughts does the paper leave the reader
with, and how did the author intend for those thoughts to come out.
5. Summarizes large chunks of information while keeping the core meaning of the
paper visible while reading the text carefully.
6. Readers respond with their own ideas to the main claims that the author makes
while analyzing the way the paper was written.
7. Mixing both the response with the summary using signal phrases and unbiased
opinions on the matter to better grip the true meaning.
8. Perform a logical organization of all these steps and provide examples of how
this is done.
9. Showing correct MLA structure throughout a paper, including font size,
margins, and citations.
10. Providing clear and concrete examples of MLA format and citations.
The main points the author(s) makes.
1. To annotate properly to format a clear understanding
2. Responding to the situation, format your own opinion about the author's statement.
3. Summarize large material to be easily consumable.
4. Have correct MLA structure and citations.
How the text connects to the course
The text is important because it strongly correlates with the foundation of all
English literature, covering the basics of annotation and its vital benefits for retaining
information. Furthermore, it covers responding to text, which is almost always overlooked,
but is a vital part of investing ourselves in our material. Moreover, it goes deeply into MLA
format, a vital part of our English 1302 coursework.
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Works Cited

Lunsford, Andrea. et al. Everyone’s an Author. Fourth ed. W. W. Norton & Company 2023.