Short Summary Assignment

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 points of an article with an overview of evidence for a reader who hasn’t read the article.

Objectives
To distinguish between main points and evidence; 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 evidence that supports it
• 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

Checklist

Content

• Do you correctly surmise the thesis of the article (explicit or implicit)?
• Do you include all the main points for this thesis?
• Do you not emphasize interesting side points or interesting evidence?
• Do you differentiate (if necessary) between more important and less important points, between main points and evidence?
• 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 evidence to the main 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?

Grading
Grading Criteria