Summary Rubric (simplified grading rubric) = 25 total rubri

Summary Rubric (simplified grading rubric) = 25 total rubric
points
Total Weighted Rating Points Divided by 2 = grade points (out
of possible 25 points). Graded summaries are
generally worth 25 points, 50 points (multiply total rubric
points X 2), 75 points (multiply total rubric points X
3), or 100 points (multiply total rubric points X 4).
RATING
Successful (up to 10 points) Proficient/Passing (7 points)
Marginal/Unacceptable (0-6
points)
Contextualization
(Weighted points =
Rating X 1)
The writer has fully
contextualized the text being
summarized, providing the
full and correct title (and, if
appropriate, the larger
publication’s title),
introducing the text’s author
by full name and credentials,
and identifying the original
intended audience and

purpose. Contextual
information is smoothly
integrated into the summary.
The contextualizing
information is included, but
is not smoothly integrated
into the summary. The
writer has identified the
text, but has left out,
misidentified, or included
irrelevant some minor
contextualizing information.
The writer has not
sufficiently contextualized
the text.
Text analysis
(Weighted points =
Rating X 2)
The writer has correctly
quoted or paraphrased the
author’s thesis/argument and
the evidence he or she uses
to prove it. The writer has
also explained any key words
or concepts identified by the
author that are necessary to
the understanding of the
thesis and/or evidence.
The writer has correctly

author’s thesis/argument,
but has not sufficiently
explained how the text
works to prove it, or the
writer has in some small way
not entirely understood the
thesis/argument or
evidence. The insufficiency
or small misunderstanding
does NOT, however, negate
or significantly undermine
the meaning of the text.
The writer has not correctly
thesis/argument, or the
writer has significantly
misunderstood the
thesis/argument or
evidence.
Writing,
grammar,
punctuation, &
flow
(Weighted points =
Rating X 2)
The summary is
grammatically correct and
written in standard academic
English. The summary is well
written and flows well.
The summary is mostly
grammatically correct and

written in standard
academic English. There are
no more than three types of
minor grammar and/or
punctuation errors.
The summary contains
multiple grammar and
punctuation errors and/or
uses non-standard (slang)
English. The summary may
include one or more major
grammar and/or
punctuation errors,
including fragments and/or
run-on sentences
(including comma splices).
These errors will cost you points on your papers. College-level
writing does NOT include unintentional fragments, run-ons
(including
comma splices), incorrect apostrophe use, wrong word errors, or
subject-verb agreement errors. (Consult Little Seagull
Handbook and the
grammar videos on Blackboard for additional explanation and
help.)
Symbol/ Notation Error or problem Explanation of common
writing error

Frag
Fragment
(incomplete
sentence)
A sentence is a grammatically complete idea. A fragment is an
incomplete sentence, missing its
subject (noun or pronoun that the sentence is about) or its
predicate (verb clause that explains
what the subject is or what the subject is doing), or its meaning
is somehow incomplete.
R-O
(simple) run-
on
A run on is two or more complete sentences that are fused
together to form one grammatically
incorrect sentence. A comma splice is a type of run on.
C/S
Comma splice
run-on
A comma splice is two complete sentences that are fused (by a

comma) into one grammatically
incorrect run-on sentence. Complete sentences cannot be
connected together with just a comma.
Insert
comma
You need a
comma
Use a comma after an introductory phrase, between items in a
series, before a coordinating
conjunction (FANBOYS) connecting independent clauses, and
to separate a dependent, non-
restrictive clause from the rest of the sentence. Use commas
also separate cities from their
regions and, in dates, to separate day from month and, in a
sentence, before and after the year.
comma NO comma Do NOT use a comma when you don’t need
it (see above).
semicolon
Do NOT use a
semicolon

Semicolons are used to connect complete sentences. You
CANNOT use a semicolon to connect
a sentence to a fragment (or vice versa).
S/V
Subject-verb
error
Subjects and verbs must AGREE with one another in number
(singular or plural). If
a subject is singular, its verb must also be in singular verb
form; if a subject is plural,
its verb must also be in plural verb form. Unlike subjects
(nouns), the singular verb form most
often ends in S, while the plural verb form does NOT end in S.
Thus, “she (singular) sits
(singular)” and “they (plural) sit (plural).”
P/A
Pronoun-
antecedent
error
Pronouns and their antecedents (the words to which the
pronouns refer) must AGREE with one

another in number (singular or plural). If a pronoun is singular,
its antecedent must also be in
singular; if a pronoun is plural, its antecedent must also be
plural. The pronouns “they,” “their,”
and “them” are PLURAL and must refer to plural antecedents.
Thus, “the student (singular
antecedent) got in trouble for his or her grades (singular
pronoun),” not “the student (singular
antecedent) got into trouble for their grades (plural pronoun).”
apostrophe
No apostrophe
necessary
Apostrophes are used to indicate possession or contraction. Do
not use an apostrophe to make
simple plural nouns. Thus “the students went out,” not “the
student’s went out.”
apostrophe
Apostrophe IS
necessary
Apostrophes are used to indicate possession or contraction.

Plural possession is indicated with
the apostrophe AFTER the plural S. Thus, “parents’ kids” =
kids belonging to multiple parents.
= Capitalize Capitalize proper nouns, the first word in a
sentence, and the words in a title.
= Don’t capitalize Do NOT capitalize common nouns or
occupations (unless a formal title PRECEDING a name).
Combine
Combine
sentences
together
Sentences must do real work. If this annotation appears on your
paper, you must work on
crafting sentences that are substantial. This annotation is used
for short choppy sentences that
should be combined to form a single meaty sentence.
Concision
Work on
concision
Sentences must do real work, but they should only be as long as

necessary to accomplish their
task. Don’t write overly long or needlessly convoluted
sentences.
Overwriting
Do NOT
overwrite
Do NOT overwrite. Your goal is to communicate clearly. Do not
bulk up your sentences with
impressive sounding language that does not directly contribute
to clarity or meaning.
This
Do NOT use
“This”
Do not use “this.” Name, categorize, or specify what “this” is,
or rephrase the sentence to
eliminate “this.” If you begin a sentence with “this,” consider
eliminating “this” and collapsing
the sentence into the sentence that precedes it (where you name,
categorize or specify “this”).
It Do NOT use “It” Avoid using “it.” Name, categorize, or
specify what “it” is, or rephrase the sentence to eliminate “it.”

Thing NO “thing” Be clear and specific. Do not use “thing” or
any word that contains “thing.”
You
Do NOT use
“you”
Avoid using “you” as general address. Your ENC paper has a
specific “you”: me, your English
professor. “You” is great for persuasive papers, but not for our
text-based arguments.
Wrong
word
Wrong word
You have used the wrong word. Perhaps you have confused
words that sound alike: there, their,
and they’re, for example, or your and your, or affect and effect.
Or you’ve written the wrong
word for the circumstance, such as “less” instead of “few,” or
“amount” instead of “number,” or
“although” (or “though”) when you mean “however.”
Spelling Spelling error You have misspelled a word.

Title error Title error
Titles for shorter texts (articles, chapters, poems, songs) should
be contained in quotes. Titles
for longer texts (magazines/journals, books, albums) should be
italicized or underlined.
Cite/quote
error
Citation or
quotation error
You have made a mistake citing or quoting. Please consult the
MLA-format section of your
Little Seagull Handbook.
ENG 122 Summative Assessment Part One Guidelines and
Rubric
Feedback and Revision Reflection
Overview: In this module, you learned about some different
strategies for revising your writing. In this assignment, you will
review your instructor’s feedback on
your writing plan and consider how you will incorporate that
feedback to further develop your thoughts as you prepare to

write your first draft of the critical
analysis essay.
Prompt: For this reflection assignment, you will make some
choices about your approach to your critical analysis essay
based on your understanding of revision
and the feedback on your writing plan provided by your
instructor. You’ll also discuss who your intended audience is
and what you hope to accomplish with your
essay.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed
in at least two paragraphs (each paragraph should contain at
least five sentences in order to
adequately address each element):
I. Feedback and Revision Reflection: Use this reflection to
gather your thoughts and determine a strategy for writing your
critical analysis essay based on
your instructor’s feedback on your writing plan.
A. Think about your experiences with revision in the past. What
approaches to revision have worked well for you? [ENG-122-
03]
B. What revision strategy from the Module Five content would
you like to try when revising your critical analysis essay?
[ENG-122-03]
C. Review your writing plan and the feedback provided by your
instructor. How does this feedback influence your ideas about
your selected
reading? [ENG-122-03]
D. What changes will you make to your analysis now that you
have received this outside feedback? [ENG-122-03]

II. Audience: Use this part of your reflection to consider your
audience and purpose.
A. Imagine that your essay will be read by an audience beyond
your instructor. Identify an audience that might benefit from
reading your essay and
describe some of this audience’s characteristics. [ENG-122-01]
B. What potential challenges could you have connecting with
this audience with your writing? [ENG-122-01]
C. Identify some choices you can make within your writing to
connect with this audience. [ENG-122-01]
Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Save your work in a Microsoft Word
document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman
font, and one-inch margins. Then,
check your writing for errors. Once you have proofread your
document, submit it via the Summative Assessment Part One:
Feedback and Revision Reflection
link in Brightspace
Critical Elements Exemplary Proficient Needs Improvement
Not Evident Value
Feedback and
Revision

Reflection:
Approaches to
Revision
[ENG-122-03]
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
cites specific, relevant examples
of successful approaches
(100%)
Describes previous approaches
to revisions (85%)
Describes previous approaches
to revisions, but response is
unclear or cursory (55%)
Does not describe previous
approaches to revisions (0%)
11.25
Feedback and
Revision
Reflection:
Revision Strategy
[ENG-122-03]
Identifies a new revision
strategy to implement based on
the Module Five content (100%)
Identifies a new revision

the Module Five content, but
response is unclear or cursory
(55%)
Does not identify a new revision
the Module Five content (0%)
11.25
Feedback and
Revision
Reflection:
Influence
[ENG-122-03]
explanation demonstrates
considerable thought and
contemplation of the feedback
(100%)
Explains how the feedback from
the instructor influenced ideas
about the selected reading
(85%)
Explains how the feedback from
the instructor influenced ideas
about the selected reading, but
response is unclear or cursory
(55%)

Does not explain how the
feedback from the instructor
influenced ideas about the
selected reading (0%)
11.25
Feedback and
Revision
Reflection:
Changes
[ENG-122-03]
cites specific, relevant examples
in support of the explanation
(100%)
Explains how the instructor’s
feedback changes the analysis
(85%)
Explains how the instructor’s
feedback changes the analysis,
but response is unclear or
cursory (55%)
Does not explain how the
instructor’s feedback changes
the analysis (0%)
11.25
Audience:

Audience
Characteristics
[ENG-122-01]
demonstrates a sophisticated
awareness of the audience’s
characteristics (100%)
Identifies the essay’s audience
and describes characteristics of
this audience (85%)
Identifies the essay’s audience,
but response is unclear,
cursory, or characteristics of
the audience is inaccurate
(55%)
Does not identify the essay’s
audience (0%)
15
Audience:
Challenges
[ENG-122-01]
demonstrates a sophisticated
awareness of the challenges
connecting with the audience
(100%)

Identifies potential challenges
in connecting with the intended
audience (85%)
Identifies possible challenges in
connecting with the intended
audience but response is
Does not identify potential
challenges in connecting with
the intended audience (0%)
15
Critical Elements Exemplary Proficient Needs Improvement
Not Evident Value
Audience: Choices
[ENG-122-01]
provides an insightful
connection between the
challenges posed and strategies
necessary to connect with the
audience (100%)
Identifies choices that could be
made within the essay to
connect with the intended
audience (85%)

Identifies choices that could be
made within the essay to
connect with the intended
audience, but response is
Does not identify choices that
could be made within the essay
(0%)
15
Articulation of
Response
Submission is free of errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, and
organization and is presented in
a professional and easy-to-read
format (100%)
Submission has no major errors
spelling, syntax, or organization
(85%)
Submission has major errors
that negatively impact
readability and articulation of
main ideas (55%)
Submission has critical errors

that prevent understanding of
ideas (0%)
10
Total 100%
10/3/21, 11:43 AM EBSCOhost
https://web-b-ebscohost-
com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/ehost/delivery?sid=7ad49b68-db5e-4b26-
ba63-b00cf492cd4b%40sessionmgr103&vid=1&ReturnUrl=h…
1/3
Title:
Authors:
Source:
Document Type:
Subjects:
Geographic Terms:
Abstract:
Full Text Word Count:
ISSN:
Accession Number:
Database:

Section:
Record: 1
Some Lessons From The Assembly Line.
Braaksma, Andrew
Newsweek. 9/12/2005, Vol. 146 Issue 11, p17-17. 1p. 1 Color
Photograph.
Article
COLLEGE students
INDUSTRIAL workers
APPRENTICES
OCCUPATIONS
COLLEGE environment
UNITED States
Describes the author's experiences with summer jobs and the
differences with college life. Comparison of the difficulties of
working 12-
hour days in a factory with leisurely college life; Lessons
learned about
the value of education; How the author applies his factory work
lessons
to his college studies; Why the author chooses to work in a
factory and
live at home during the summer; Discussion of the value of his
work
experiences.
890

0028-9604
18139488
Military & Government Collection
My Turn
Some Lessons From The Assembly Line
Sweating away my summers as a factory worker makes me more
than happy to hit the books.
Last June, as I stood behind the bright orange guard door of the
machine, listening to the crackling hiss of the
automatic welders, I thought about how different my life had
been just a few weeks earlier. Then, I was writing
an essay about French literature to complete my last exam of the
spring semester at college. Now I stood in an
automotive plant in southwest Michigan, making subassemblies
for a car manufacturer.
I have worked as a temp in the factories surrounding my
hometown every summer since I graduated from high
school, but making the transition between school and full -time
blue-collar work during the break never gets any
easier. For a student like me who considers any class before
noon to be uncivilized, getting to a factory by 6
o'clock each morning, where rows of hulking, spark-showering
machines have replaced the lush campus and
cavernous lecture halls of college life, is torture. There my time
is spent stamping, cutting, welding, moving or
assembling parts, the rigid work schedules and quotas of the
plant making days spent studying and watching
"SportsCenter" seem like a million years ago.

I chose to do this work, rather than bus tables or fold
sweatshirts at the Gap, for the overtime pay and because
living at home is infinitely cheaper than living on campus for
the summer. My friends who take easier, part-time
jobs never seem to understand why I'm so relieved to be back at
school in the fall or that my summer vacation
has been anything but a vacation.
2/3
There are few things as cocksure as a college student who has
never been out in the real world, and people
my age always seem to overestimate the value of their time and
knowledge. After a particularly exhausting
string of 12-hour days at a plastics factory, I remember being
shocked at how small my check seemed. I
couldn't believe how little I was taking home after all the hours
I spent on the sweltering production floor. And
all the classes in the world could not have prepared me for my
battles with the machine I ran in the plant, which
would jam whenever I absent-mindedly put in a part backward
or upside down.
As frustrating as the work can be, the most stressful thing about
blue-collar life is knowing your job could
disappear overnight. Issues like downsizing and overseas
relocation had always seemed distant to me until my
co-workers at one factory told me that the unit I was working in
would be shut down within six months and

moved to Mexico, where people would work for 60 cents an
hour.
Factory life has shown me what my future might have been like
had I never gone to college in the first place.
For me, and probably many of my fellow students, higher
education always seemed like a foregone conclusion:
I never questioned if I was going to college, just where. No
other options ever occurred to me.
After working 12-hour shifts in a factory, the other options have
become brutally clear. When I'm back at the
university, skipping classes and turning in lazy re-writes seems
like a cop-out after seeing what I would be
doing without school. All the advice and public-service
announcements about the value of an education that
used to sound trite now ring true.
These lessons I am learning, however valuable, are always
tinged with a sense of guilt. Many people pass
their lives in the places I briefly work, spending 30 years where
I spend only two months at a time. When fall
comes around, I get to go back to a sunny and beautiful campus,
while work in the factories continues. At
times I feel almost voyeuristic, like a tourist dropping in where
other people make their livelihoods. My lessons
about education are learned at the expense of those who weren't
fortunate enough to receive one. "This job
pays well, but it's hell on the body," said one co-worker. "Study
hard and keep reading," she added, nodding at
the copy of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" I had wedged into the
space next to my machine so I could read
discreetly when the line went down.
My experiences will stay with me long after I head back to
school and spend my wages on books and beer.

The things that factory work has taught me--how lucky I am to
get an education, how to work hard, how easy it
is to lose that work once you have it--are by no means earth-
shattering. Everyone has to come to grips with
them at some point. How and when I learned these lessons,
however, has inspired me to make the most of my
college years before I enter the real world for good. Until then,
the summer months I spend in the factories will
be long, tiring and every bit as educational as a French-lit class.
PHOTO (COLOR): Is that all? After an exhausting string of 12-
hour days, I remember being shocked at how
small my check seemed
~~~~~~~~
By Andrew Braaksma
Braaksma, a junior at the University of Michigan, wrote the
winning essay in our "Back To School" contest.
Copyright of Newsweek is the property of Newsweek LLC and
its content may not be copied or emailed to
multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright
holder's express written permission. However, users
may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
3/3

Rubric for Academic Summary Professor Carlisle,
FSCJ
You are expected to be able to write clear, effective,
grammatically correct summaries. You are expected to be able
to write not just what a text is “about,” but to understand how a
text works to produce a particular meaning. You are expected
to be able to identify and differentiate the major and minor
points that support the central idea of the text. You are
expected to know that a summary should be written in third-
person and should exclude your own opinions.
Academic Summary Rubric
Unacceptable
or Poor
Summary
Marginal
Summary
Successful Summary Good Summary
Great
Summary
An
unacceptable or
poor

summary…
may show
evidence that
the reader
failed to
understand the
text, or
may fail to
identify the
context of the
text, or
may incorrectly
quote or
paraphrase the
text,
may include

opinions
outside of the
text or
misrepresent
opinions from
the text, or
may be poorly
written and
incorrectly
formatted.
A marginal
summary…
may fail to
concisely restate
the central idea, or
may fail to fully

identify the context
of the text, or
may fail to
differentiate
between major and
minor ideas or
evidence, or
may not convey the
logic of the original
argument, or
may rely too much
on quotation or
may fail to
accurately
paraphrase,
may include

opinions from
outside of the text,
or
may have writing
or format errors.
A successful summary ...
summarized,
credentials or
other relevant source of credibility,
tifies the type of publication (article, book, conference
presentation) and the year of publication,
statement of the of the central idea or
argument (thesis),
to
explain the central argument, differentiating between major and
minor points, and accurately and without bias representing the

logic
of the argument or central idea (connecting the evidence to the
thesis),
summarizer’s own
words (NO plagiarizing, and minimal paraphrasing and
quoting),
r conclusions from outside of the
text –
even those opinions and/or conclusions that are in agreement or
in
alignment with those expressed in the text (No “I” or “you”),
language,
and
. is in MLA format (including correct margins, header,
title,
spacing, work cited, etc.)
A good summary
…
exhibits the same
traits as those
found in a

successful
summary,
demonstrates
a more
complicated
or nuanced
understand-
ing of the
text’s central
argument.
A great summary
…
same traits as
outlined in
the successful
and good

summaries,
plus it
achieves a
level of
artistic
mastery
evident
through the
expression of
profound
engagement,
or
innovative
thinking
about the
meaning of
the text being
summarized.

S
u
m
m
a
ry
o
f
C
o
n
te
x
t
S
u
m
m
a
ry
o
f
T
e

x
t
W
ri
ti
n
g
These errors will cost you points on your papers. College-level
writing does NOT include unintentional fragments, run-ons
(including comma splices), incorrect apostrophe use, wrong
word errors, or subject-verb agreement errors. (Consult Little
Seagull Handbook and the grammar videos on Blackboard for
additional explanation and help.)
Symbol/ Notation Error or problem Explanation of common
writing error
Frag
Fragment
(incomplete
sentence)
A sentence is a grammatically complete idea. A fragment is an
incomplete sentence, missing its

subject (noun or pronoun that the sentence is about) or its
predicate (verb clause that explains
what the subject is or what the subject is doing), or its meaning
is somehow incomplete.
R-O
(simple) run-
on
A run on is two or more complete sentences that are fused
together to form one grammatically
incorrect sentence. A comma splice is a type of run on.
C/S
Comma splice
run-on
A comma splice is two complete sentences that are fused (by a
comma) into one grammatically
incorrect run-on sentence. Complete sentences cannot be
connected together with just a comma.
Insert
comma

You need a
comma
Use a comma after an introductory phrase, between items in a
series, before a coordinating
conjunction (FANBOYS) connecting independent clauses, and
to separate a dependent, non-
restrictive clause from the rest of the sentence. Use commas
also separate cities from their
regions and, in dates, to separate day from month and, in a
sentence, before and after the year.
comma NO comma Do NOT use a comma when you don’t need
it (see above).
semicolon
Do NOT use a
semicolon
Semicolons are used to connect complete sentences. You
CANNOT use a semicolon to connect
a sentence to a fragment (or vice versa).
S/V
Subject-verb
error

Subjects and verbs must AGREE with one another in number
(singular or plural). If
a subject is singular, its verb must also be in singular verb
form; if a subject is plural,
its verb must also be in plural verb form. Unlike subjects
(nouns), the singular verb form most
often ends in S, while the plural verb form does NOT end in S.
Thus, “she (singular) sits
(singular)” and “they (plural) sit (plural).”
P/A
Pronoun-
antecedent
error
Pronouns and their antecedents (the words to which the
pronouns refer) must AGREE with one
another in number (singular or plural). If a pronoun is singular,
its antecedent must also be in
singular; if a pronoun is plural, its antecedent must also be
plural. The pronouns “they,” “their,”
and “them” are PLURAL and must refer to plural antecedents.
Thus, “the student (singular

antecedent) got in trouble for his or her grades (singular
pronoun),” not “the student (singular
antecedent) got into trouble for their grades (plural pronoun).”
apostrophe
No apostrophe
necessary
Apostrophes are used to indicate possession or contraction. Do
not use an apostrophe to make
simple plural nouns. Thus “the students went out,” not “the
student’s went out.”
apostrophe
Apostrophe IS
necessary
Apostrophes are used to indicate possession or contraction.
Plural possession is indicated with
the apostrophe AFTER the plural S. Thus, “parents’ kids” =
kids belonging to multiple parents.
= Capitalize Capitalize proper nouns, the first word in a
sentence, and the words in a title.
= Don’t capitalize Do NOT capitalize common nouns or
occupations (unless a formal title PRECEDING a name).

Combine
Combine
sentences
together
Sentences must do real work. If this annotation appears on your
paper, you must work on
crafting sentences that are substantial. This annotation is used
for short choppy sentences that
should be combined to form a single meaty sentence.
Concision
Work on
concision
Sentences must do real work, but they should only be as long as
necessary to accomplish their
task. Don’t write overly long or needlessly convoluted
sentences.
Overwriting
Do NOT

overwrite
Do NOT overwrite. Your goal is to communicate clearly. Do not
bulk up your sentences with
impressive sounding language that does not directly contribute
to clarity or meaning.
This
Do NOT use
“This”
Do not use “this.” Name, categorize, or specify what “this” is,
or rephrase the sentence to
eliminate “this.” If you begin a sentence with “this,” consider
eliminating “this” and collapsing
the sentence into the sentence that precedes it (where you name,
categorize or specify “this”).
It Do NOT use “It” Avoid using “it.” Name, categorize, or
specify what “it” is, or rephrase the sentence to eliminate “it.”
Thing NO “thing” Be clear and specific. Do not use “thing” or
any word that contains “thing.”
You
Do NOT use
“you”

Avoid using “you” as general address. Your ENC paper has a
specific “you”: me, your English
professor. “You” is great for persuasive papers, but not for our
text-based arguments.
Wrong
word
Wrong word
You have used the wrong word. Perhaps you have confused
words that sound alike: there, their,
and they’re, for example, or your and your, or affect and effect.
Or you’ve written the wrong
word for the circumstance, such as “less” instead of “few,” or
“amount” instead of “number,” or
“although” (or “though”) when you mean “however.”
Spelling Spelling error You have misspelled a word.
Title error Title error
Titles for shorter texts (articles, chapters, poems, songs) should
be contained in quotes. Titles
for longer texts (magazines/journals, books, albums) should be
italicized or underlined.
Cite/quote

error
Citation or
quotation error
You have made a mistake citing or quoting. Please consult the
MLA-format section of your
Little Seagull Handbook.
What is an RE (Rhetorical Elements) Outline? Rhetoric refers to
the study of the technique of using language
effectively, of using language to persuade or influence. An
element is a component or constituent of a whole. A rhetorical
elements outline, then, is an analysis of how the parts of a text
work together to create an argument. In other words, a
rhetorical elements outline lists the essential features of the text
and how those features, elements, work together.
For each of the major texts assigned in class, you will complete
an RE outline. The RE outline will serve as the
basis of your single-paragraph summary of that text. You will
be submitting each of your summaries for a grade (via
“Turn It In” on Blackboard).

_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_______________
RE (Rhetorical Elements) Outline
NOTE: Keep this RE outline description
I. MLA-format bibliographic entry (consult The Little Seagull
Handbook for the correct format). The
MLA-format bibliographic entry will be the same as the work
cited info on your single-paragraph
summary.
.
II. Context
1. Title: What is the name of the text?
2. Author/creator: By whom was the text written or created?
What are his or her credentials?
3. Publication/occasion: When and where was the text
published or performed?
4. Audience: For whom was the text written or created? How
do you know?
5. Purpose: What is the purpose of the text (entertain, inform,
incite change, etc.)?
III. Text

1. Key terms Are there special terms that must be defined or
explained in order to
understand the argument? If so, what?
2. Argument/thesis: What is the central idea/argument of the
text?
3. Evidence: What major evidence does the author use to prove
his or her argument?
i. Supporting evidence (if any): What supportive or secondary
evidence does the author use to bolster or strengthen his or her
central argument or thesis?
The “when” (the year is usually sufficient) and
“where” a text is published or performed can be
confusing. “When” is simple. It most often refers
to a year. The “where” isn’t usually a
geographical place. If your RE is for an article, the
“where” is the name of a publication –newspaper,
journal or website.

Zimbardo, Philip. “The Stanford Prison Experiment: A
Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment Conducted
August 1971 at Stanford University.” Stanford. Web. 24
September 2012 http://www-sul.stanford.edu
This document is a print copy of a transcript that originally
accompanied a traveling non-profit educational lecture
conceived, designed and executed by Philip Zimbardo. Original
page breaks are indicated with a black line accompanied
by the original page designation. When writing about this text,
use the original page numbers (1-17) to indicate
location for in-text citations.
_____________________________________________Narration
page 1_______________________________________
A Quiet Sunday Morning | On a quiet Sunday morning in
August, a Palo Alto, California, police car swept through the
town picking up college students as part of a mass arrest for
violation of Penal Codes 211, Armed Robbery, and Burglary,
a 459 PC. The suspect was picked up at his home, charged,
warned of his legal rights, spread-eagled against the police
car, searched, and handcuffed -- often as surprised and curious
neighbors looked on.
The suspect was then put in the rear of the police car and

carried off to the police station, the sirens wailing.
The car arrived at the station, the suspect was brought inside,
formally booked, again warned of his Miranda rights, finger
printed, and a complete identification was made. The suspect
was then taken to a holding cell where he was left
blindfolded to ponder his fate and wonder what he had done to
get himself into this mess.
Volunteers | What suspects had done was to answer a local
newspaper ad calling for volunteers in a study of the
psychological effects of prison life. We wanted to see what the
psychological effects were of becoming a prisoner or
prison guard. To do this, we decided to set up a simulated a
prison and then carefully note the effects of this institution on
the behavior of all those within its walls. More than 70
applicants answered our ad and were given diagnostic
interviews
and personality tests to eliminate candidates with psychological
problems, medical disabilities, or a history of crime or
drug abuse. Ultimately, we were left with a sample of 24
college students from the U.S. and Canada who happened to be
in the Stanford area during the summer
__________________________end of page
1________________________

and wanted to earn $15/day by participating in a study. On all
dimensions that we were able to test or observe, they
reacted normally. Our study of prison life began, then, with an
average group of healthy, intelligent, middle-class males.
These boys were arbitrarily divided into two groups by a flip of
the coin. Half were randomly assigned to be guards, the
other to be prisoners. It is important to remember that at the
beginning of our experiment there were no differences
between boys assigned to be a prisoner and boys assigned to be
a guard.
Constructing the Experiment | To help us closely simulate a
prison environment, we called upon the services of
experienced consultants. Foremost among them was a former
prisoner who had served nearly seventeen years behind bars.
This consultant made us aware of what it was like to be a
prisoner. He also introduced us to a number of other ex-convicts
and correctional personnel during an earlier Stanford summer
school class we co-taught on "The Psychology of
Imprisonment." Our prison was constructed by boarding up each
end of a corridor in the basement of Stanford's
Psychology Department building. That corridor was "The Yard"
and was the only outside place where prisoners were
allowed to walk, eat, or exercise, except to go to the toilet down
the hallway (which prisoners did blindfolded so as not to

know the way out of the prison). To create prison cells, we took
the doors off some laboratory rooms and replaced them
with specially made doors with steel bars and cell numbers.
At one end of the hall was a small opening through which we
could videotape and record the events that occurred. On the
side of the corridor opposite the cells was a small closet which
became "The Hole," or solitary confinement. It was dark
and very confining, about two feet wide and two feet deep, but
tall enough that a "bad prisoner" could stand up.
An intercom system allowed us to secretly bug the cells to
monitor what the prisoners discussed, and also to make public
announcements to the prisoners. There were no windows or
clocks to judge the passage of time, which later resulted in
some time-distorting experiences.
With these features in place, our jail was ready to receive its
first prisoners, who were waiting in the detention cells of the
Palo Alto Police Department.
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/
A State of Mild Shock | Blindfolded and in a state of mild
shock over their surprise arrest by the city police, our
prisoners were put into a car and driven to the "Stanford County
Jail" for further processing. _______end of page 2______

The prisoners were then brought into our jail one at a time and
greeted by the warden, who conveyed the seriousness of
their offense and their new status as prisoners.
Humiliation | Each prisoner was systematically searched and
stripped naked. He was then deloused with a spray, to
convey our belief that he may have germs or lice -- as can be
seen in this series of photos.
A degradation procedure was designed in part to humiliate
prisoners and in part to be sure they wasn't bringing in any
germs to contaminate our jail. This procedure was similar to the
scenes captured by Danny Lyons in these Texas prison
photos.
The prisoner was then issued a uniform. The main part of this
uniform was a dress, or smock, which each prisoner wore at
all times with no underclothes. On the smock, in front and in
back, was his prison ID number. On each prisoner's right
ankle was a heavy chain, bolted on and worn at all times.
Rubber sandals were the footwear, and each prisoner covered
his hair with a stocking cap made from a woman's nylon
stocking.
It should be clear that we were trying to create a functional
simulation of a prison -- not a literal prison. Real male
prisoners don't wear dresses, but real male prisoners do feel

humiliated and do feel emasculated. Our goal was to produce
similar effects quickly by putting men in a dress without any
underclothes. Indeed, as soon as some of our prisoners were
put in these uniforms they began to walk and to sit differently,
and to hold themselves differently -- more like a woman
than like a man.
The chain on their foot, which also is uncommon in most
prisons, was used in order to remind prisoners of the
oppressiveness of their environment. Even when prisoners were
asleep, they could not escape the atmosphere of
oppression. When a prisoner turned over, the chain would hit
his other foot, waking him up and reminding him that he
was still in prison, unable to escape even in his dreams.
The use of ID numbers was a way to make prisoner feel
anonymous. Each prisoner had to be called only by his ID
number and could only refer to himself and the other prisoners
by number.
The stocking cap on his head was a substitute for having the
prisoner's hair shaved off. This ______end page 3 _________
process of having one's head shaved, which takes place in most
prisons as well as in the military, is designed in part to
minimize each person's individuality, since some people express
their individuality through hair style or length. It is also a

way of getting people to begin complying with the arbitrary,
coercive rules of the institution. The dramatic change in
appearance of having one's head shaved can be seen on this
page.
Enforcing Law | The guards were given no specific training
on how to be guards. Instead they were free, within limits,
to do whatever they thought was necessary to maintain law and
order in the prison and to command the respect of the
prisoners. The guards made up their own set of rules, which
they then carried into effect under the supervision of Warden
David Jaffe, an undergraduate from Stanford University. They
were warned, however, of the potential seriousness of their
mission and of the possible dangers in the situation they were
about to enter, as, of course, are real guards who voluntarily
take such a dangerous job. As with real prisoners, our pr isoners
expected some harassment, to have their privacy and
some of their other civil rights violated while they were in
prison, and to get a minimally adequate diet -- all part of their
informed consent agreement when they volunteered.
This is what one of our guards looked like. All guards were
dressed in identical uniforms of khaki, and they carried a
whistle around their neck and a billy club borrowed from the
police. Guards also wore special sun-glasses, an idea I

borrowed from the movie "Cool Hand Luke." Mirror sunglasses
prevented anyone from seeing their eyes or reading their
emotions, and thus helped to further promote their anonymity.
We were, of course, studying not only the prisoners but
also the guards, who found themselves in a new power-laden
role.
We began with nine guards and nine prisoners in our jail. Three
guards worked each of three eight-hour shifts, while three
prisoners occupied each of the three barren cells around the
clock. The remaining guards and prisoners from our sample of
24 were on call in case they were needed. The cells were so
small that there was room for only three cots on which the
prisoners slept or sat, with room for little else.
__________________end page 4
_________________________________
Asserting Authority | At 2:30 A.M. the prisoners were rudely
awakened from sleep by blasting whistles for the first of
many "counts." The counts served the purpose of familiarizing
the prisoners with their numbers (counts took place several
times each shift and often at night). But more importantly, these
events provided a regular occasion for the guards to
exercise control over the prisoners. At first, the prisoners were
not completely into their roles and did not take the counts

too seriously. They were still trying to assert their
independence. The guards, too, were feeling out their new roles
and
were not yet sure how to assert authority over their prisoners.
This was the beginning of a series of direct confrontations
between the guards and prisoners.
Push-ups were a common form of physical punishment imposed
by the guards to punish infractions of the rules or
displays of improper attitudes toward the guards or institution.
When we saw the guards demand push-ups from the
prisoners, we initially thought this was an inappropriate kind of
punishment for a prison -- a rather juvenile and minimal
form of punishment. However, we later learned that push-ups
were often used as a form of punishment in Nazi
concentration camps, as can be seen in this drawing by a former
concentration camp inmate, Alfred Kantor. It's
noteworthy that one of our guards also stepped on the prisoners'
backs while they did push-ups, or made other prisoners sit
or step on the backs of fellow prisoners doing their push-ups.
Asserting Independence | Because the first day passed
without incident, we were surprised and totally unprepared for
the rebellion which broke out on the morning of the second day.
The prisoners removed their stocking caps, ripped off
their numbers, and barricaded themselves inside the cells by

putting their beds against the door. And now the problem was
what were we going to do about this rebellion? The guards were
very much angered and frustrated because the prisoners
also began to taunt and curse them. When the morning shift of
guards came on, they became upset at the night shift who,
they felt, was too lenient. The guards had to handle the
rebellion themselves and what they did was fascinating for the
staff to behold.
At first they insisted that reinforcements be called in. The three
guards who were waiting on stand-by call at home came
in and the night shift of guards voluntarily remained on duty to
bolster the morning shift. The guards met and decided to
treat force with force.
____________________________________end page 5
___________________________________
They got a fire extinguisher which shot a stream of skin-chilling
carbon dioxide, and they forced the prisoners away from
the doors. (The fire extinguishers were present in compliance
with the requirement by the Stanford Human Subjects
Research Panel, which was concerned about potential fire
threats.)
The guards broke into each cell, stripped the prisoners naked,
took the beds out, forced the ringleaders of the prisoner
rebellion into solitary confinement, and generally began to

harass and intimidate the prisoners.
Special Privileges | The rebellion had been temporarily
crushed, but now a new problem faced the guards. Sure, nine
guards with clubs could put down a rebellion by nine prisoners,
but you couldn't have nine guards on duty at all times. It's
obvious that our prison budget could not support such a ratio of
staff to inmates. So what were they going to do? One of
the guards came up a solution. "Let's use psychological tactics
instead of physical ones." Psychological tactics amounted
to setting up a privilege cell. One of the three cells was
designated as a "privilege cell." The three prisoners least
involved
in the rebellion were given special privileges. They got their
uniforms back, got their beds back, and were allowed to wash
and brush their teeth. The others were not. Privileged prisoners
also got to eat special food in the presence of the other
prisoners who had temporarily lost the privilege of eating. The
effect was to break the solidarity among prisoners.
After half a day of this treatment, the guards then took some of
these "good" prisoners and put them into the "bad" cells,
and took some of the "bad" prisoners and put them into the
"good" cell, thoroughly confusing all the prisoners. Some of
the prisoners who were the ringleaders now thought that the
prisoners from the privileged cell must be informers, and

suddenly, the prisoners became distrustful of each other. Our
ex-convict consultants later informed us that a similar tactic
is used by real guards in real prisons to break prisoner alliances.
For example, racism is used to pit Blacks, Chicanos, and
Anglos against each other. In fact, in a real prison the greatest
threat to any prisoner's life comes from fellow prisoners. By
dividing and conquering in this way, guards promote aggression
among inmates, thereby deflecting it from themselves.
__________________________________________ end page 6
______________________________________________
The prisoners' rebellion also played an important role in
producing greater solidarity among the guards. Now, suddenly,
it
was no longer just an experiment, no longer a simple
simulation. Instead, the guards saw the prisoners as
troublemakers
who were out to get them, who might really cause them some
harm. In response to this threat, the guards began stepping
up their control, surveillance, and aggression.
Every aspect of the prisoners' behavior fell under the total and
arbitrary control of the guards. Even going to the toilet
became a privilege which a guard could grant or deny at his
whim. Indeed, after the nightly 10:00 P.M. lights out "lock-

up," prisoners were often forced to urinate or defecate in a
bucket that was left in their cell. On occasion the guards would
not allow prisoners to empty these buckets, and soon the prison
began to smell of urine and feces -- further adding to the
degrading quality of the environment.
The guards were especially tough on the ringleader of the
rebellion, Prisoner #5401. He was a heavy smoker, and they
controlled him by regulating his opportunity to smoke. We later
learned, while censoring the prisoners' mail, that he was a
self-styled radical activist. He had volunteered in order to
"expose" our study, which he mistakenly thought was an
establishment tool to find ways to control student radicals. In
fact, he had planned to sell the story to an underground
newspaper when the experiment was over! However, even he
fell so completely into the role of prisoner that he was proud
to be elected leader of the Stanford County Jail Grievance
Committee, as revealed in a letter to his girlfriend.
______________________________________________end
page 7___________________________________________
The First Prisoner Released | Less than 36 hours into the
experiment, Prisoner #8612 began suffering from acute
emotional disturbance, disorganized thinking, uncontrollable
crying, and rage. In spite of all of this, we had already come

to think so much like prison authorities that we thought he was
trying to "con" us -- to fool us into releasing him.  
When our primary prison consultant interviewed Prisoner
#8612, the consultant chided him for being so weak, and told
him what kind of abuse he could expect from the guards and the
prisoners if he were in San Quentin Prison. #8612 was
then given the offer of becoming an informant in exchange for
no further guard harassment. He was told to think it over.
During the next count, Prisoner #8612 told other prisoners,
"You can't leave. You can't quit." That sent a chilling message
and heightened their sense of really being imprisoned. #8612
then began to act "crazy," to scream, to curse, to go into a
rage that seemed out of control. It took quite a while before we
became convinced that he was really suffering and that we
had to release him.
Parents and Friends | The next day, we held a visiting hour
for parents and friends. We were worried that when the
parents saw the state of our jail, they might insist on taking
their sons home. To counter this, we manipulated both the
situation and the visitors by making the prison environment
seem pleasant and benign. We washed, shaved, and groomed
the prisoners, had them clean and polish their cells, fed them a
big dinner, played music on the intercom, and even had an
attractive former Stanford cheerleader, Susie Phillips, greet the
visitors at our registration desk. When the dozen or so

visitors came, full of good humor at what seemed to be a novel,
fun experience, we systematically brought their behavior
under situational control. They had to register, were made to
wait half an hour, were told that only two visitors could see
any one prisoner, were limited to only ten minutes of visiting
time, and had to be under the surveillance of a guard during
the visit. Before any parents could enter the visiting area, they
also had to discuss their son's case with the Warden. Of
course, parents complained about these arbitrary rules, but
remarkably, they complied with them. And so they, too,
became bit players in our prison drama, being good middle-class
adults. _______________end page 8 _______________
Some of the parents got upset when they saw how fatigued and
distressed their son was. But their reaction was to work
within the system to appeal privately to the Superintendent to
make conditions better for their boy. When one mother told
me she had never seen her son looking so bad, I responded by
shifting the blame from the situation to her son. "What's the
matter with your boy? Doesn't he sleep well?" Then I asked the
father, "Don't you think your boy can handle this?"
He bristled, "Of course he can -- he's a real tough kid, a leader."
Turning to the mother, he said, "Come on Honey, we've
wasted enough time already." And to me, "See you again at the
next visiting time."

A Mass Escape Plot | The next major event we had to contend
with was a rumored mass escape plot. One of the guards
overheard the prisoners talking about an escape that would take
place immediately after visiting hours. The rumor went as
follows: Prisoner #8612, whom we had released the night
before, was going to round up a bunch of his friends and break
in to free the prisoners. How do you think we reacted to this
rumor? Do you think we recorded the pattern of rumor
transmission and prepared to observe the impending escape?
That was what we should have done, of course, if we were
acting like experimental social psychologists. Instead, we
reacted with concern over the security of our prison. What we
did was to hold a strategy session with the Warden, the
Superintendent, and one of the chief lieutenants, Craig Haney,
to
plan how to foil the escape.
After our meeting, we decided to put an informant (an
experimental confederate) in the cell that #8612 had occupied.
The
job of our informant would be to give us information about the
escape plot. Then I went back to the Palo Alto Police
Department and asked the sergeant if we could have our
prisoners transferred to their old jail. My request was turned

down because the Police Department would not be covered by
insurance if we moved our prisoners into their jail. I left
angry and disgusted at this lack of cooperation between our
correctional facilities (I was now totally into my role).
Then we formulated a second plan. The plan was to dismantle
our jail after the visitors left, call in more guards, chain the
prisoners together, put bags over their heads, and transport them
to a fifth floor storage room until after the anticipated
break in. _________________________________________end
page 9_____________________________________
When the conspirators came, I would be sitting there alone. I
would tell them that the experiment was over and we had
sent all of their friends home, that there was nothing left to
liberate. After they left, we'd bring our prisoners back and
redouble the security of our prison. We even thought of luring
#8612 back on some pretext and then imprisoning him
again because he was released on false pretenses.
A Visit | I was sitting there all alone, waiting anxiously for
the intruders to break in, when who should happen along but
a colleague and former Yale graduate student roommate, Gordon
Bower. Gordon had heard we were doing an experiment,
and he came to see what was going on. I briefly described what
we were up to, and Gordon asked me a very simple

question: "Say, what's the independent variable in this study?"
To my surprise, I got really angry at him. Here I had a
prison break on my hands. The security of my men and the
stability of my prison was at stake, and now, I had to deal with
this bleeding-heart, liberal, academic, effete dingdong who was
concerned about the independent variable! It wasn't until
much later that I realized how far into my prison role I was at
that point -- that I was thinking like a prison superintendent
rather than a research psychologist.
Paying Them Back | The rumor of the prison break turned out
to be just a rumor. It never materialized. Imagine our
reaction! We had spent an entire day planning to foil the escape,
we begged the police department for help, moved our
prisoners, dismantled most of the prison -- we didn't even
collect any data that day. How did we react to this mess? With
considerable frustration and feelings of dissonance over the
effort we had put in to no avail. Someone was going to pay.
____________________________________________end of
page 10________________________________________
The guards again escalated very noticeably their level of
harassment, increasing the humiliation they made the prisoners
suffer, forcing them to do menial, repetitive work such as
cleaning out toilet bowls with their bare hands. The guards had
prisoners do push-ups, jumping jacks, whatever the guards

could think up, and they increased the length of the counts to
several hours each.
A Kafkaesque Element | At this point in the study, I invited a
Catholic priest who had been a prison chaplain to
evaluate how realistic our prison situation was, and the result
was truly Kafkaesque. The chaplain interviewed each
prisoner individually, and I watched in amazement as half the
prisoners introduced themselves by number rather than
name. After some small talk, he popped the key question: "Son,
what are you doing to get out of here?" When the
prisoners responded with puzzlement, he explained that the only
way to get out of prison was with the help of a lawyer.
He then volunteered to contact their parents to get legal aid if
they wanted him to, and some of the prisoners accepted his
offer. The priest's visit further blurred the line between role -
playing and reality. In daily life this man was a real priest, but
he had learned to play a stereotyped, programmed role so well -
- talking in a certain way, folding his hands in a prescribed
manner -- that he seemed more like a movie version of a priest
than a real priest, thereby adding to the uncertainty we
were all feeling about where our roles ended and our personal
identities began. _____________end page 11___________
#819 | The only prisoner who did not want to speak to the

priest was Prisoner #819, who was feeling sick, had refused
to eat, and wanted to see a doctor rather than a priest.
Eventually he was persuaded to come out of his cell and talk to
the
priest and superintendent so we could see what kind of a doctor
he needed. While talking to us, he broke down and began
to cry hysterically, just as had the other two boys we released
earlier. I took the chain off his foot, the cap off his head, and
told him to go and rest in a room that was adjacent to the prison
yard. I said that I would get him some food and then take
him to see a doctor. While I was doing this, one of the guards
lined up the other prisoners and had them chant aloud:
"Prisoner #819 is a bad prisoner. Because of what Prisoner #819
did, my cell is a mess, Mr. Correctional Officer." They
shouted this statement in unison a dozen times.
As soon as I realized that #819 could hear the chanting, I raced
back to the room where I had left him, and what I found
was a boy sobbing uncontrollably while in the background his
fellow prisoners were yelling that he was a bad prisoner.
No longer was the chanting disorganized and full of fun, as it
had been on the first day. Now it was marked by utter
conformity and compliance, as if a single voice was saying,

"#819 is bad."
I suggested we leave, but he refused. Through his tears, he said
he could not leave because the others had labeled him a
bad prisoner. Even though he was feeling sick, he wanted to go
back and prove he was not a bad prisoner.
At that point I said, "Listen, you are not #819. You are [his
name], and my name is Dr. Zimbardo. I am a psychologist, not
a prison superintendent, and this is not a real prison. This is just
an experiment, and those are students, not prisoners, just
like you. Let's go." He stopped crying suddenly, looked up at
me like a small child awakened from a nightmare, and
replied, "Okay, let's go."
__________________________________end of page
12________________________________
Parole Board | The next day, all prisoners who thought they
had grounds for being paroled were chained together and
individually brought before the Parole Board. The Board was
composed mainly of people who were strangers to the
prisoners (departmental secretaries and graduate students) and
was headed by our top prison consultant. Several
remarkable things occurred during these parole hearings. First,
when we asked prisoners whether they would forfeit the
money they had earned up to that time if we were to parole
them, most said yes. Then, when we ended the hearings by

telling prisoners to go back to their cells while we considered
their requests, every prisoner obeyed, even though they
could have obtained the same result by simply quitting the
experiment. Why did they obey? Because they felt powerless
to resist. Their sense of reality had shifted, and they no longer
perceived their imprisonment as an experiment. In the
psychological prison we had created, only the correctional staff
had the power to grant paroles. During the parole hearings
we also witnessed an unexpected metamorphosis of our prison
consultant as he adopted the role of head of the Parole
Board. He literally became the most hated authoritarian official
imaginable, so much so that when it was over he felt sick
at who he had become -- his own tormentor who had previously
rejected his annual parole requests for 16 years when he
was a prisoner. ___________________________________end
of page 13______________________________________
Types of Guards | By the fifth day, a new relationship had
emerged between prisoners and guards. The guards now fell
into their job more easily -- a job which at times was boring and
at times was interesting. There were three types of
guards. First, there were tough but fair guards who followed
prison rules. Second, there were "good guys" who did little
favors for the prisoners and never punished them. And finally,
about a third of the guards were hostile, arbitrary, and

inventive in their forms of prisoner humiliation. These guards
appeared to thoroughly enjoy the power they wielded, yet
none of our preliminary personality tests were able to predict
this behavior. The only link between personality and prison
behavior was a finding that prisoners with a high degree of
authoritarianism endured our authoritarian prison environment
longer than did other prisoners.
John Wayne | The prisoners even nicknamed the most macho
and brutal guard in our study "John Wayne." Later, we
learned that the most notorious guard in a Nazi prison near
Buchenwald was named "Tom Mix" -- the John Wayne of an
earlier generation -- because of his "Wild West" cowboy macho
image in abusing camp inmates. Where had our "John
Wayne" learned to become such a guard? How could he and
others move so readily into that role? How could intelligent,
mentally healthy, "ordinary" men become perpetrators of evil so
quickly? These were questions we were forced to ask.
Prisoners' Coping Styles | Prisoners coped with their feelings
of frustration and powerlessness in a variety of ways. At
first, some prisoners rebelled or fought with the guards. Four
prisoners reacted by breaking down emotionally as a way to
escape the situation. One prisoner developed a psychosomatic
rash over his entire body when he learned that his parole
request had been turned down. Others tried to cope by being

good prisoners, doing everything the guards wanted them to
do. One of them was even nicknamed "Sarge," because he was
so military-like in executing all commands. By the end of
the study, the prisoners were disintegrated, both as a group and
as individuals. There was no longer any group unity; just a
bunch of isolated individuals hanging on, much like prisoners of
war or hospitalized mental patients. ____end page 14___
The guards had won total control of the prison, and they
commanded the blind obedience of each prisoner.
One Final Act of Rebellion | We did see one final act of
rebellion. Prisoner #416 was newly admitted as one of our
stand-by prisoners. Unlike the other prisoners, who had
experienced a gradual escalation of harassment, this prisoner's
horror was full-blown when he arrived. The "old timer"
prisoners told him that quitting was impossible, that it was a
real
prison. Prisoner #416 coped by going on a hunger strike to force
his release. After several unsuccessful attempts to get
#416 to eat, the guards threw him into solitary confinement for
three hours, even though their own rules stated that one
hour was the limit. Still, #416 refused. At this point #416
should have been a hero to the other prisoners. But instead, the
others saw him as a troublemaker. The head guard then

exploited this feeling by giving prisoners a choice. They could
have #416 come out of solitary if they were willing to give up
their blanket, or they could leave #416 in solitary all night.
What do you think they chose? Most elected to keep their
blanket and let their fellow prisoner suffer in solitary all night.
(We intervened later and returned #416 to his cell.)
__________________________end page
15_____________________
An End to the Experiment | On the fifth night, some visiting
parents asked me to contact a lawyer in order to get their
son out of prison. They said a Catholic priest had called to tell
them they should get a lawyer or public defender if they
wanted to bail their son out! I called the lawyer as requested,
and he came the next day to interview the prisoners with a
standard set of legal questions, even though he, too, knew it was
just an experiment. At this point it became clear that we
had to end the study. We had created an overwhelmingly
powerful situation -- a situation in which prisoners were
withdrawing and behaving in pathological ways, and in which
some of the guards were behaving sadistically. Even the
"good" guards felt helpless to intervene, and none of the guards
quit while the study was in progress. Indeed, it should be
noted that no guard ever came late for his shift, called in sick,
left early, or demanded extra pay for overtime work.

I ended the study prematurely for two reasons. First, we had
learned through videotapes that the guards were escalating
their abuse of prisoners in the middle of the night when they
thought no researchers were watching and the experiment
was "off." Their boredom had driven them to ever more
pornographic and degrading abuse of the prisoners.
Second, Christina Maslach, a recent Stanford Ph.D. brought in
to conduct interviews with the guards and prisoners,
strongly objected when she saw our prisoners being marched on
a toilet run, bags over their heads, legs chained together,
hands on each other's shoulders. Filled with outrage, she said,
"It's terrible what you are doing to these boys!" Out of 50 or
more outsiders who had seen our prison, she was the only one
who ever questioned its morality. Once she countered the
power of the situation, however, it became clear that the study
should be ended.
And so, after only six days, our planned two-week prison
simulation was called off.
On the last day, we held a series of encounter sessions, first
with all the guards, then with all the prisoners (including those
who had been released earlier), and finally with the guards,
prisoners, and staff together. We did this in order to get
everyone's feelings out in the open, to recount what we had
observed in each other and ourselves, and to share our

experiences, which to each of us had been quite profound.
We also tried to make this a time for moral reeducation by
discussing the conflicts posed by this simulation and our
behavior. For example, we reviewed the moral alternatives that
had been available to us, so that
__________________________________________end of page
16____________________________________________
we would be better equipped to behave morally in future real -
life situations, avoiding or opposing situations that might
transform ordinary individuals into willing perpetrators or
victims of evil.
Two months after the study, here is the reaction of prisoner
#416, our would-be hero who was placed in solitary
confinement for several hours:
"I began to feel that I was losing my identity, that the person
that I called "Clay," the person who put me in this place, the
person who volunteered to go into this prison -- because it was
a prison to me; it still is a prison to me. I don't regard it as
an experiment or a simulation because it was a prison run by
psychologists instead of run by the state. I began to feel that
that identity, the person that I was that had decided to go to
prison was distant from me -- was remote until finally I wasn't
that, I was 416. I was really my number."

Compare his reaction to that of the following prisoner who
wrote to me from an Ohio penitentiary after being in solitary
confinement for an inhumane length of time:
"I was recently released from solitary confinement after being
held therein for thirty-seven months. The silence system
was imposed upon me and if I even whispered to the man in the
next cell resulted in being beaten by guards, sprayed with
chemical mace, black jacked, stomped, and thrown into a strip
cell naked to sleep on a concrete floor without bedding,
covering, wash basin, or even a toilet....I know that thieves
must be punished, and I don't justify stealing even though I am
a thief myself. But now I don't think I will be a thief when I am
released. No, I am not rehabilitated either. It is just that I
no longer think of becoming wealthy or stealing. I now only
think of killing -- killing those who have beaten me and
treated me as if I were a dog. I hope and pray for the sake of my
own soul and future life of freedom that I am able to
overcome the bitterness and hatred which eats daily at my soul.
But I know to overcome it will not be easy."
Terminated on August 20, 1971 | Our study was terminated
on August 20, 1971. The next day, there was an alleged
escape attempt at San Quentin in which Soledad brother George
Jackson, and several other prisoners and guards were

killed. Less than one month later, Attica.
_____________________________end of page
17_______________________
_____________________________________________________
____________________________________________
Zimbardo's "The Stanford Prison Experiment" text is housed
online by the Stanford University library and is available
to anyone with internet access. It is actually the narrative of a
taped presentation prepared by Zimbardo, his fellow
researchers, and his graduate students. The text isn’t meant to
be read. It’s part of a presentation/lecture intended
primarily for college students. The experiment on which this
text is based was conducted in August of 1971. The text was
produced shortly thereafter by Zimbardo, who was a professor
of psychology at Stanford University.
This document is a print copy of a transcript that originally
accompanied a traveling non-profit educational lecture
conceived, designed and executed by Philip Zimbardo. Original
page breaks are indicated with a black line accompanied
by the original page designation. When writing about this text,
use the original page numbers (1-17) to indicate
location for in-text citations.

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