Short Summary Assignment
En 101
Dr. Fox
Short Summary (5% of final grade)
Assignment
Write a 250+ word critical summary of the article. A short summary consists of one or two paragraphs that summarize the main and supporting points of an article for a reader who hasn’t read the article.
Objectives
To distinguish between main & supporting points and between fact & opinion
To learn to attribute ideas to an author consistently throughout a piece of writing
To paraphrase accurately and ethically
To complete this assignment successfully
- Read and annotate the article, noting in the margins the main purpose of each paragraph
- Underline the main points of the article and number the supporting points
- Try making an outline of the article
- Determine the article’s thesis (implicit or explicit)
- Make a list of what to include in your summary
- Draft, paying careful attention to attribution of ideas and/or citations
- Review paraphrases
- Revise
Grading
Content
- Do you correctly surmise the thesis of the article (explicit or implicit)?
- Do you include all the main supporting points for this thesis?
- Do you not emphasize interesting side points?
- How clearly do you present the thesis of the article and the supporting points?
- Have you represented the author's arguments fairly, without including your own opinion?
- Have you used attributive tags to discuss the author's ideas?
- Have you used your own words when you paraphrase? (avoid quoting, instead paraphrase)
Organization
- Is your summary organized logically so as to clearly present the argument of the article (without necessary mirroring the original order of the article)?
- Have you used transitions to smoothly link the supporting points to the main points?
- Do you differentiate (if necessary) between more important and less important points?
Style
- Is the summary typed in Times Roman 12 inch font?
- Is the essay clean stylistically, using concise and clear sentences, strong verbs and sentence variety?
- Is the essay grammatically correct?