{"id":11336,"date":"2026-03-29T14:58:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T14:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/immigrant-literature\/?page_id=11336"},"modified":"2026-03-30T13:02:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:02:26","slug":"plots","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/immigrant-literature\/plots\/","title":{"rendered":"Plots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This activity invites you to think about the plot of one of the stories you’ve read this semester by thinking about how that plot has been summarized. Almost every Wikipedia article about a work of literature has a section with the heading of \u201cPlot Summary.\u201d As we\u2019ve discussed, reading a plot summary can never replace the experience of actually reading a text because it is meant only to convey a summary of the plot, not the full complexity of the text. That said, summarizing a plot is very challenging, as is clear from the guidance Wikipedia editors have created for the task (opens in new tab)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 1: Summarize the Plot Yourself<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Your first task is to create a rough summary of the text you\u2019ve read. This doesn’t have to be perfect, and you can do this on paper or on your own device–no requirement to share at this point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 2: Find a Plot Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After you\u2019ve done this, you can check if a Wikipedia article exists about the text you\u2019ve read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you haven’t finished reading and you don\u2019t like spoilers, ask a classmate (or me) to do this for you!<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you haven\u2019t finished reading, please focus on summarizing the part of the plot that you have experienced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 3: Improve the Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If there is a plot summary in Wikipedia, paste it into Our Doc and include the link to the article you’ve copied from. Then, copy it again directly below so we can see what’s there now and what you might change (you’ll see a space and guidance for this under your name in Our Doc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about how you might improve the published summary with elements of the summary you’ve written or new ideas that occur to you (bold all of the changes you make). Describe why you think your changes improve the summary. If you create a plot summary from scratch, indicate that this is what you\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 4: Change the Plot<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After you\u2019ve created your new or revised plot summary, copy it and paste it below, un-bolding all of the things you changed in the previous section (again, there will be guidance for this in Our Doc). Use this revised summary to imagine how you might change or adapt the plot in some way<\/strong>. I want you to use this activity to engage in a thought experiment. What would happen if a character knew something sooner? How would things be different if an event didn\u2019t happen? Use this activity to think about the decisions an author has made about the plot. After you’ve made your changes to the plot, we will discuss your reasons for making those changes and how the plot that you’ve created might impact readers. Would the changes alter or eliminate the experiences you had with the text?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This activity invites you to think about the plot of one of the stories you’ve read this semester by thinking about how that plot has been summarized. Almost every Wikipedia article about a work of literature has a section with the heading of \u201cPlot Summary.\u201d As we\u2019ve discussed, reading a plot summary can never replace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11336","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","missing-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/immigrant-literature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/immigrant-literature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/immigrant-literature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/immigrant-literature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/immigrant-literature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11336"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/immigrant-literature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11368,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/immigrant-literature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11336\/revisions\/11368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/immigrant-literature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}