As well as writing summaries of texts to show you understand them, at university you also need to show that you can think about how texts relate to questions, other texts, or your own life. You can do this by adding a response paragraph to a summary.
Let's look at a short article, and how we might write a summary-response to it. We will then analyze the summary-response in the following section.
The Chemical Keys to Happiness
Happiness is something we all chase after. But have you ever wondered what makes us feel happy in our brains? Recent studies have shown that two chemicals, dopamine and serotonin, play important roles. Let's take a closer look at how they work to bring joy into our lives.
Dopamine is like our brain's "feel-good" messenger. When we do things we love, like enjoying our favorite meal or receiving praise for our accomplishments, our brain releases dopamine. It gives us a sense of pleasure and encourages us to keep doing those things. For instance, think about the satisfaction you feel after completing a tough task or achieving a long-term goal. That's dopamine rewarding us and motivating us to keep moving forward.
Similarly, serotonin is another key player in our happiness. It helps regulate our mood, appetite, and sleep. When our serotonin levels are in balance, we feel calm and content. Spending quality time with loved ones or engaging in relaxing activities like meditation or yoga can boost serotonin levels, making us feel happier and more fulfilled.
Understanding how dopamine and serotonin work in our brains gives us valuable insights into how we can cultivate more happiness in our daily lives.
Here is an example summary-response for the article above. The first paragraph is the summary; the second is the response.
Dopamine and Serotonin in My Life
The article talks about the chemical basis for happiness, specifically the importance of dopamine and serotonin. It explains how they can cause different kinds of happiness in people. First, dopamine is released for reward and motivation. If people do something they enjoy or are proud of, the dopamine hit makes them feel good and want to repeat that action. Second, serotonin is a mood regulator. It helps people feel a more calm and and satisfied kind of happiness that comes from fulfilling activities such as family time.
In my life, I think I have too much dopamine-driven happiness, and not enough serotonin-driven contentment. My phone causes me big problems with dopamine. I have read a lot about how smartphone apps play on dopamine release, for example when one of my Instagram photos gets a lot of likes, or when I get a new achievement in a game. These are like the "accomplishments" mentioned in the article. However, this leads to my feeling very up-and-down all the time. When the opposite happens and there are not many likes or I am struggling with a game, I can feel very depressed. With this in mind, I think I need to work on my serotonin-driven happiness more. The article talks about it helping to "regulate our mood" which I can see is exactly what I need. So, this week, I am going to try to leave my phone at home and go out for a walk in nature for an hour a day. I hope that reducing my dopamine release and increasing my serotonin release will help me to feel a more stable kind of happiness.
Here are some notes to help you deal with the article above.
You have already learned how to make a summary (click link for reminder), and the summary paragraph of a summary-response is just the same. Find the main and supporting ideas, put them into your own words carefully, and try to organize it like a paragraph with the main idea first.
The response paragraph, unlike the summary paragraph, contains information that is not in the article. In the example above, the writer has been asked to apply the content of the article to their own experiences of happiness. Here are some things to notice about their response:
The writer creates their own opinion to explain. The writer isn't just writing down their experiences, because that would be boring. Instead, they create an opinion about needing more serotonin-driven happiness, and then explaining why they think so. Having an opinion makes your response much more interesting.
It is structured like a paragraph, with a topic sentence giving the main idea (sentence 1), followed by the first supporting idea (2) and then detail (3-6). After that, there is a second supporting idea (7) and detail (8-9). It ends with a concluding sentence (10).
It references the article and then gives examples from the writer's life to illustrate it. You can see the references in sentences 4 and 8. As the example does, you can directly quote the article using quotation marks ("") or paraphrase it using your own words.