Summary Writing Exercise

This assignment has been created for College Composition II to practise critical reading and summary writing skills.

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ASSIGNMENT

1. Read The New York Times article titled “Don’t Shoot. We’re Not Ready” by David E. Sanger: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20060626monday.html

2. Write an accurate, objective one-paragraph, about 150-200 word, summary of the article’s main points and key supporting ideas, using your own words, i.e., paraphrasing.

Reading Strategies
Clarify your purpose: Before reading anything, consider why you’re reading it – i.e., what you’re trying to find in the text. The main points, right?
Preview the text: Get a general layout before you begin reading. Skim over the details to see where the text will take you. Use the headings, images, and captions as clues.
Read for general understanding: Read the entire article once for general understanding. Don’t underline or mark the text yet (you might change your mind).
Read again & write within the text: Read the article again. This time keep an ongoing record of your interaction within the text itself. Comment in the margins. Annotate new terms by checking their meanings and defining them on the page in your own words. Underline important passages. Highlight anything that is unclear to you.
Consult others: Discuss the article with your group members. Compare notes and clarify things that are still unclear.
Recall the article out loud: Recall the article’s main points out loud without looking at the text. This is a good way to practice keying on the main points.

Summary Writing Instructions
Condense the article’s main points and key supporting ideas into one paragraph. Do not add your own commentary about the text – this is not your analysis of the article, only a factual summary. Stick to the basic information provided by the author: the main points and key supporting ideas.

A summary is written without quotation marks, using your own words (paraphrasing) whereas a direct quotation, which uses the original text’s exact words, word for word, must always be placed within quotation.

Begin the summary by introducing the article by its complete title, author’s name, and publication information (see the example summary).

Writing Steps
Include all the main points and key supporting ideas. Include a supporting detail (such as a definition of a term) only if a main idea cannot be understood without it.
Do not add anything beyond the author’s ideas, such as information from other sources or your own opinion.
Keep the original sequence. Present the ideas in the same order the author has used.
Reword. Use your own words (paraphrase) to summarize the main ideas. Remember to leave out any personal commentary. Don’t quote anything word-for-word.
Use the present tense. Think of published texts as “living” works that tell, report, point out – not told, reported, pointed out.
Check for accuracy. Compare your summary with the original article. In a small group, peer review each other’s summarizes, giving suggestions for revision.
Revise, adding or deleting points as needed.
Give your summary a title. Use the same title that the article has. Do not entitle your summary “Summary.”
Write a Works Cited page, with proper publication information for the article.

Hand in for grading:

A copy of the article with your notes written within the text (Step 4)

A final copy of your summary, written in the required format (see the example summary)