One of the most pervasive problems with student writing in the FRQ #2 rhetorical analysis task is the tendency to summarize an entire text rather than truly analyzing it. Some find it difficult to differentiate between the two tasks and explain in what ways analysis and commentary are distinct from summary. This page is intended as a resource to clarify the difference between those skills.
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Summary
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Analysis and Commentary
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Summary
In his article "Here Is a Breakdown" for The Hill, Brad Dress details the case of a Texas teacher who was sued for requiring his students to write out the Pledge of Allegiance, an assignment for which the teacher awarded points. As a protest against the historic mistreatment of Black Americans, one student refused to write the Pledge and turned in only a squiggly line, thereby receiving a failing grade.
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How Can You Tell This Is a Summary?
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Analysis and Commentary
Even though he is a high school sociology teacher, it's ironic that this educator is apparently not familiar--or not familiar enough, anyway--with the historic case of West Virginia v. Barnette, in which the Supreme Court ruled that a student cannot be compelled to salute the flag or say the Pledge. Punishing this student for their protest opens up the possibility that this teacher disregards the student's motives for that protest, specifically the historic enslavement and mistreatment of Black Americans. Whatever his internal biases, the teacher's actions clearly demonstrate his disregard for students' legal right to protest in a nonviolent and nondisruptive manner. Those are serious problems for a teacher at any level, particularly one tasked with teaching any branch of history to young adults, because bottom line, the very idea of forced patriotism or compulsory democracy is a fundamental contradiction in terms. The fact that this teacher is communicating quite the opposite idea is no way to prepare young adults to be the well-informed and liberated Americans they all deserve to be. Obedience is not a synonym for independence.
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How Can You Tell This Is Analysis and Commentary?
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Pointing Out Inferences & Implications
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Expressing Judgment and Opinion
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