Springboard Essays

In TSIS, Graff and Birkenstein suggest, "a good summary requires balancing what the original author is saying with the writer's own focus" (29). Keeping this balance is the key to incorporating other peoples' ideas in your own work. You must be careful not to misrepresent or too easily dismiss others' positions, but you have to make their ideas fit into your work in an effective way.

One way of doing this is the simple springboard essay. The springboard essay begins with a summary of someone else's ideas and then transitions into your own essay in response.

A good example of the beginning of a springboard appears on page 32 of TSIS. There you see the indented paragraph at the bottom of the page. That paragraph summarizes David Zinczenko's "Don't Blame the Eater." Notice that the summary is only a paragraph long, but it is a well developed paragraph that accurately summarizes Zinczenko's ideas.

Notice the paragraph that follows the summary. I call this paragraph the "transition to your own essay" paragraph. Notice the following characteristics: it signals that the writer is shifting to his/her own ideas with the words, "In my view, however, . . ." Notice too, that in this case the writer signals the relationship of his/her ideas to Zinczenko's with the word "however." The essay will disagree, and the writer states explicitly what his/her position is--that it is the parents not the food chains who are responsible. Also the writer concedes that Zinczenko is partially right with the words "While it is true that . . ." but then previews the essay that will follow (we don't have the full essay here).

So, then, a transition paragraph in a springboard essay (1) signals a change in voice, (2) states the writer's thesis (position), and (3) previews the rest of the writer's essay.

Lloyd Fuller uses an informal springboard technique in one of his letters that goes out with the Fuller seed catalogue. The letter I have in mind begins on page 104 of AOC. Notice the second full paragraph on page 105, which begins, "Some say that it is entirely . . ." Although he does not summarize a specific person (some say is rather vague), he does summarize the position of those who justify genetic engineering of crops. Notice that in the following passage he transitions abruptly into his rebuttal: "We believe this is a mere rationalization." The transition clearly indicates a change in voice and the relationship of Lloyd's ideas to those of the people he just summarized. The essay that follows is a bit too short and informal for our class essay assignment, but notice that he makes three arguments in three successive paragraphs. He rejects the motives behind genetic engineering, he accuses developers of lacking enough knowledge to know the full ramifications, and he accuses them of not being content with the garden they have been given.

Turn to pages 36 and 37 of TSIS. One of the valuable things about TSIS is that Graff and Birkenstein provide us with several useful words (a good vocabulary) and phrases (suitable metadiscourse markers) to help us incorporate the ideas of others. On page 37, notice the list of words that may be used to introduce summaries and quotations. These "signal words," as they call them, are words that alert the reader to the writer's strategy and movement. We call these signals "metadiscourse" because they sort of hover over the text and give guideposts directing the reader's understanding of the paper's terrain.

Two Ways of Interacting with a Text in a Springboard Essay

So, then, a springboard essay begins with a summary of another text, then introduces a shorter transition paragraph that indicates how you are going to react to the text, and then goes on to a fully developed essay that responds to the summary at the beginning.

How you respond to a text depends upon how you are viewing the text. If you are using the text as an authoritative informational text, then you will most likely respond to some content within the text rather than to the writer's purpose and argument. In other words, you are more likely to pick an argument with the text if you think the writer has an agenda.

The way you intend to respond to a text will affect the way you introduce the summary. Look at that list of vocabulary words on page 37 of TSIS, the words that you can use to refer to other peoples' texts. If you are planning to use the text as a resource, then you will want to introduce the summary with a neutral word, something like, "Charles reports that John Losey . . ." The word "reports" suggests that Charles' text is an objective document and that you are using it only as a source for information. If you are planning to respond directly to the writer of the text, then you will want to use a word that marks the text as argumentative, something like, "Michael Pollan engages in a scathing criticism of the federal agencies that oversee the labeling of GM foods," or, "Pollan suggests that . . ." or "Pollan claims that . . ." or "Pollan argues . . ." In short, how you categorize the text in your summary is dependent on the way you introduce your summary, and how you respond to the summary is dependent on the way you characterize the text.

If you plan to react to a person or action described in your objective source (perhaps you plan to respond to something in Charles' text), you will probably want to characterize an event, or state of affairs, as a problem and then offer a solution in your response essay. If you are reacting to a person's actions or words, then you will want to either accuse or defend the person and her actions.

If you plan to engage the writer of the text directly, you need to have a clear idea what you intend to do. For instance, you can disagree with one portion of the argument and offer a rebuttal to it, as Lloyd Fuller rebutted supporters of GM crops (AOC 105). Perhaps you agree with the writer, but you want to extend the argument. You can do that by developing one of the arguments in more detail or by offering an argument that the original writer did not use. Look at chapter 4 of part 2 in TSIS (page 51 ff). This chapter describes different ways you may want to position your response to the text of others ("Yes, No, Okay, But").