This module explores three related reporting strategies: summarizing, analyzing, and arguing. Your writing task for this module builds on the Create Ideas activity you've just completed. You should make an argument using the essays your peers created in Module 1 and your summaries of these essays. You will summarize, analyze, and make arguments about what you have read.

Here's the details for your third writing task!

What should I do?

Write one report that analyzes the two Module #1 essays you've read in the Create Ideas activity. The goal here is to express your own thinking about how the two essays talk about learning while also faithfully representing the original authors’ ideas. Remember that the goal of analysis as a reporting strategy is synthesizing ideas in order to clarify, expand, or assess them. Successful analysis here draw from and build on the summaries of the essays you've written. It will also include arguments about the ideas in the essays. Are there key ideas in each piece that deepen your knowledge of a topic? Do the essays challenge or complement each other in some way? Use your notes from the Create Ideas activity to help you write your report. Choose an "angle" that lets you discuss a "big idea" addressed in both essays, and analyze how each essay deals with that topic.

Please note: The purpose of this report is to make an argument about learning or learners using the essays you've read as evidence. You should not use this report to make an argument about why an essay was correct/incorrect or well-written/poorly-written. Instead, make an argument about a theory of learning, based on the connections or implications you've seen across the essays you've read.

What are the requirements for this report?

There is no page length or word requirement for this assignment - do what seems most natural to you and your schedule. Your audience is your fellow Thinking Like a Writer classmates, so keep them in mind as you write. Pay special attention to issues of arrangement: that is, how might you most effectively order paragraphs to blend summary of the two essays, argument about an idea in those essays, and analysis of those essays into one piece of writing?

Use what you've learned about the many shapes and variations that reporting can take, as well as the differences between summary, analyzing, and arguing, to help you complete this assignment.

Sticky Note reminding writer to create ideas, write a plan, and then begin writing the first draft.

If you have questions about the difference between summary and analysis, or if you need help getting started writing your analysis, check out these websites:

Summary vs. Analysis: Figuring out the difference between summary and analysis can be tricky. Check out www.mvla.net's handout on the difference between Summary and Analysis.
Analysis: Analysis can take a variety of forms, but in our MOOC we're focusing on analyzing texts. Check out Owen M. Williamson's advice on how to analyze a text.

Writing Tip: After you've read through the Writing Task, but before you write your short story, complete a Writing Plan for this assignment (the button below will take you there). The questions in the Writing Plan are intended to help you think about and make decisions for writing your rough draft. Completion of these will allow you to create a more focused, well-organized piece of writing that meets the goals of the assignment and responds to the needs of your audience.

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