Summary/Response Papers

Some S/R Tips (to avoid frequently-made goofs):

Always state right up front the author's full name and the full title of the work you're addressing.
Put article and essay titles in quotation marks. Only underline (or italilcize--means the same thing) titles of whole books (or films or collections). So the title of your textbook would be underlined, as would the novel Neuromancer and the film The Matrix; the titles of any articles in your textbook, however, would be in quote marks.
Always cite page number(s) in parentheses when you quote directly from the text. Just the page number(s), though; no p. or pp. or # or whatever. Simply the page number(s) inside parentheses: (96) or (96-97).
Periods and commas go inside quote marks unless the quote marks are followed by parentheses.

In "Identity in the Age of the Internet: Living in the MUD," Sherry Turkle questions some basic assumptions about identity.
If quote marks are followed by parentheses, the punctuation goes after the parentheses: Legba wants Bungle to pay--"mostly," she says, "I want his ass" (95).

In the response section, don't spread yourself too thin. Select one, maybe two issues from the text to think through rigorously. Avoid agreeing or disagreeing with the author. Focus on the implications of what the author says without working yourself into the equation. Example: if the author says that cyberspace is an extention of the central nervous system, don't disagree or agree but examine what that statement means and what the implications of such a suggestion might be.

In both sections, try to avoid bouncing around. Particularly when you're summarizing and responding to a long work, focus on some aspect of it. For instance, if you're writing on Neuromancer, summarize the novel across its representations of identity—read the novel for us through that lens, so that each detail you include helps to elucidate the identity-theme. In the response, same deal; avoid bouncing around by sticking to an issue, in this case: identity.