Summary and Paraphrase Activity 2

Summary

In the article “Corporate Ethics in the Era of Millenials,” Paul Argenti suggests

that Corporate Social Responsibility is a necessity for any company that wishes to stay

in-tune with the times. The fact that corporations may very well face losses as a result of

not following proper CSR is all the more reason for them to implement it in their business

model. It would be interesting to see the impact CSR has had on companies and its

workers over the past couple of years, especially during this pandemic.

Paraphrase

In “Corporate Ethics in the Era of Millenials,” Paul Argenti says that Corporate

Social Responsibility has been added to the list of requirements that companies need to

satisfy to keep their employees, investors and consumers happy. He notes that the

percentage of companies including CSR in their business-model has increased a lot over

the past few years. He points out the corporations are “publicizing their ethical standards

and responsibility measures” and that those that do not are facing consequences. He
emphasizes the fact that a large proportion of the population are millennials and that the

“businesses not thinking about how to interact with this generation are in serious

trouble.” He notes that the “Nielsen survey” shows that millennials care a lot about CSR,

be it for employment or consumption choices. He reiterates that millennials are electing

to engage with businesses that “represent a set of values.”

Works Cited

Argenti, Paul. “Corporate Ethics in the Era of Millenials”.

Peers Works

1) Irene Martirosyan

Summary

Paul A. Argenti argues in "Corporate Ethics In The Era Of Millennials" for the push

millennials are making towards higher ethic marketing. With their current generation

making up more than a quarter of todays workforce, with room to grow, businesses who

do not follow the new set ideals are selling themselves short (Csr&millennials). Where to

start? Argentini suggests "CSR actions should align with a company's values, brand
proposition and business model but, at the same time, the company must listen and

respond to its constituents", and heavily emphasizes the need for communication,

building into todays heavy social media use. Argenti dispels Milton Freedman's heavy

criticism against CSR, saying it only relies on the assumption that CSR implies a loss for

the company. However because of the demanding nature of the millennial need for ethical

sources, a good CSR campaign could result in increased sales and other benefits for the

company. The author ends the essay by giving millennials credit where it is due: "They

are forcing business to do good while doing well. Companies need to rise to this

challenge quickly or risk becoming an anachronism".

Paraphrase

To show the effectiveness of CSR, Paul Argenti gives Perdue Farms as an example.

Millenials greater demand for cruelty-free meat lead Perdue Farms to team up with

Humane Society and redesign its chicken breeding operations, "reducing the use of

antibiotics, providing more natural light and changing the way animals are slaughtered"

(Charles). Chairman of Perdue, Jim Perdue, was confident the increased sales from their

response to the consumer problem, would cover the increased costs.

Work Cited

Argenti, Paul A. “Corporate Ethics In The Era Of Millennials.” NPR, NPR, 24 Aug.

2016,
www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/08/24/490811156/corporate-ethics-in-the-era-of-millenn

ials.

Charles, Dan. “In Quest For Happier Chickens, Perdue Shifts How Birds Live And Die.”

NPR, NPR, 27 June 2016,

www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/27/483724603/in-quest-for-happier-chickens-perdu

e-shifts-how-birds-live-and-die.

Csr&millennials. CSR&MILLENNIALS, conemillennialcsr.com/.

2) Marco Morriello

1. "Corporate Ethics in the Era of Millennials" by Paul Argenti discusses how companies

are increasing their CSR efforts as a way to attract millennials. Argenti talks about how

millennials are more likely to support companies with higher CSR and how they are more

demanding of companies. He then talks about companies such as Perdue Farms and TCC

who both implemented CSR strategies that proved to be very successful and companies

such as American Apparel who suffered losses after the 2008 recession due to the

relatively high costs of their ethically sourcing strategies. Argenti concludes his essay by

stating that companies must increase CSR or risk becoming outdated.

2. Paraphrase for Paragraph 2 of the essay:

percentage of Fortune 500 companies who published sustainability reports increased from

20 percent in 2011 to 81 percent in 2015 (Argenti 1). Companies are making efforts to

announce their CSR efforts, and those companies appearing to not be doing enough are

being punished by consumers (Argenti 1). Companies are spending time and money to

improving their ethical practices, despite headlines declaring things like "greed is back"

(Argenti 1).

3. Works Cited

Argenti, Paul. "Corporate Ethics in the Era of Millennials" How To Write Anything: A

Guide and Reference with Readings,Bedford St. Martin's Press, 2019.

Analysis

Write a 2-3 page analysis comparing your summary and paraphrase with these other
versions. What do you think yours does better, and why is it better? What do the other writers do
that you think works well? What have you learned about writing summaries and paraphrases from
analyzing your work next to these others?

I think my paraphrase of a part of the essay is a bit more detailed and complete

compared to theirs, for instance, Marco’s one seems to be quite short. However, it could

be the case that they have chosen a smaller paragraph to work with compared to mine. I

think my summary could have been a bit more detailed, similar to my paraphrase. I notice

that Irene’s summary is well-detailed and provides a lot more information than mine.
Likewise, I think Marco’s summary is also a bit more well-detailed and explains things

more comprehensively in comparison to mine.

I think my summary is comparatively easier and simpler to read than Irene’s. I feel

like it’s just a little bit complicated at some parts (Irene’s). Although it could be because

I’m used to reading what I write. Not to mention, Marco’s summary seems to be quite

simple to read as well. I’ve also realised that I seemed to have made an error with my

summary by adding an “opinion”. If I recall correctly, I believe you are not allowed to

include your own opinions or ideas in a summary. Marco’s and Irene’s summaries follow

this rule as they didn’t include any of their own thoughts or opinions. Furthermore, I

believe all three summaries have correctly included the title, and author’s name in the

beginning sentence. Additionally, I believe that the summary should include the main

idea of the essay. In that regard, I feel that the main idea of the article was nothing but its

first line itself: “Corporate social responsibility has been added to the growing list of

demands that investors, customers and employees present to companies.” I think my

summary does a good job of trying to explain that this is the main idea. However, I feel

that Marco’s essay strays a bit away from this with his first sentence "In ’Corporate

Ethics in the Era of Millennials"’ by Paul Argenti discusses how companies are

increasing their CSR efforts as a way to attract millennials.” It does it make it seem like

companies trying to attract the millennial population is the main idea of the article, which

it's not, in my opinion. However, he does include this idea in the last line, “Argenti

concludes his essay by stating that companies must increase CSR or risk becoming

outdated”. Nonetheless, I feel that Irene’s summary does include this idea correctly:
“With their current generation making up more than a quarter of todays workforce, with

room to grow, businesses who do not follow the new set ideals are selling themselves

short (Csr&millennials).”. Lastly, I think my last sentence (from summary) should have

reinforced this idea instead of the sentence that I have actually written which is a kind of

an opinion sentence.

I have learned a few things. I now understand the structure of a summary more

clearly. I believe that it should start out with the title, authors' name and main idea. And

it’s important that I get right the main idea that the author is trying to get through to his

audience. I have learned that the summary should not contain any ideas or opinions that

are not from the text. I think I would be able to write better, proper summaries in the

future. As for my paraphrase, I think it was alright in most parts. Lastly, I should have

added the link to the website in the “Works Cited” section.