Cuyamaca College The Danger of a Single Story Summary

Prompt

Write and submit a 4-paragraph response that includes:

1. a 1st paragraph that is an academic summary of “The Danger of a Single Story”, following the WHAT/HOW/WHY format outlined in the unit lesson. (Please see the “What is an Academic Summary?” page that can be found in Week 2.)
2. a 2nd paragraph where you provide an example of a time when the media/news caused you to see a group of people as having a single story.
3. a 3rd paragraph response that reflects on how “the danger of a single story” has impacted your life. Narrate an experience you have had when you were misjudged and/or when you misjudged someone else. In other words, explain a time when someone else’s perception of you was wrong or your perception of someone else was wrong. How did the judgment make you feel in the moment? How does it make you feel to reflect back on this experience? What did you learn from this experience?
4. Finally, a 4th paragraph explaining what we can do to start breaking down single stories.

Note that this is not a traditional essay (with an introduction, thesis, concluding paragraph, etc.). This is a writing assignment that should conform to the format in the prompt above.

Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is to:

1. Read and respond to a college-level text
2. Compose college-level writing
3. Produce an academic summary of an article
4. Practice integrating quotes
5. Connect a personal example to a specific idea/concept in the text