Back to "Cherries"

"Cherries" Summary and Citation Example

A summary is a short overview of a works contents, put in your words. My summary of the poem is as follows – note how I do not use any specific example or quotation from the poem. My purpose here is to communicate Stryk’s message and themes to the reader, not the details:

Lucien Stryk exposes the power of greed, gluttony, and addiction on the individual and how it makes that person insensitive to the suffering of others in the poem "Cherries."Though the speaker is aware of how hunger and want can drive people and countries to desperate acts, he is unwilling and unable to share with them, even though he has more than enough (Stryk 565).

The MLA citation would look like this:

Work Cited

Stryk, Lucien. "Cherries." The Power of Language; The Language of Power. Ed. Jessica Isaacs, et al. 2nd ed. Boston: Pearson Custom,      2006. 565. Print.

1. Lucien Stryk - This is the signal in – announcing to the read that you are referring to someone else’s ideas or work. This is a transition device that builds both coherence and flow in your writing.

2. "in the poem 'Cherries.'" - Another signal in – identifying the work. This is not always necessary, but if you are specifically analyzing a work in your paper, as this assignment asks you to do, you must identify it by name the first time you reference it. This is common in literary analysis. However, when you are using references to support a point you are making, it is less important to identify them by title. More important is to identify them by author.

3. (Stryk 565). - This is the signal out – letting my reader know that I have finished summarizing from Stryk’s poem. We also use this for quotations as well. All in-text references require identification of some kind, and the signal out is the most common.

4.  "Cherries"- The titles of short works, like poems, short stories, and essays, are put in quotation marks.

5. The Power of Language - The titles of long works, like plays, books, anthologies, and magazines, are italicized.