Summary
Assignment-76-101 AA, Fall, 2005
Length: Double-spaced; one inch margins; 3-4 pages
typed (750-1000 words).
First
Draft Due: See Syllabus for Due Date: Bring Two Copies: one for Instructor
and one for peer-reviewer
Final
Draft Due: See Syllabus for Due Date, at class time.
Summarize
the following essay: Richard Lewontin's "A Reasonable Skepticism."
You may have had assignments in the past that asked you to "summarize"
material. Those assignments may have wanted you to parrot back, almost verbatim,
the material you had read merely to prove that you had read it. This assignment
is more challenging and more intellectually stimulating than that. In this
assignment, your act of explaining an essay is an act of argument-it is
something
that you have to do. What "summarize" means in this context is to
find the major thrust of the essay, what's most important, and to recount it in
your own words.
A Summary Explains what an author does in
his/her Essay. Summary involves two
separate tasks: first, you must decide what you think are the most significant
arguments of the essay. This requirement means picking out the important points
from the relatively unimportant, and distinguishing between an example and a
crucial part of the argument (IPS can help here: ask yourself, what do you think
are the central problems? the main topics?).
Secondly, you must explain these crucial points in such a way as to
demonstrate how each point fits into the framework of the larger argument. It is not enough to merely repeat, just
changing the words slightly, what the essay says--you need to explain what the
author is doing in order to make the points that he or she makes. Ask yourself: What are the author's goals?
How does a particular point help the author progress toward those goals? What
key problems does the author discuss?
To what
ends are they using their examples? Who or what does the author see as responsible
for the problem(s) s/he writes about (that is, who are the 'agents')? How
does one particular bit of argument fit with another significant bit a few
pages back? And so on...
Use Textual Evidence: It is important to
support your arguments with
evidence
from the text. Use direct quotes and paraphrases to support what you think the
essay's major arguments are. Be careful, though, not to let the quotes and
paraphrases subsume your own voice--in that case, you might as well hand in a
copy of the essay itself. Remember, explain the essay and support your
interpretation; don't copy it.
Write for your Audience: Assume your
hypothetical audience is composed of people who have either not read the
original essay, or who read it really quickly and didn't understand it. Your paper is a response to their question,
"So tell me, what is Lewontin's point in this essay, and how does s/he go
about making that point?"
I would like your summary to roughly follow
this format:
Paragraph
1: Introduce the
author's essay. Then explain why they are writing their essay. What is the
author trying to do in the essay? (In the context of summary, this amounts to a
thesis statement).
Paragraph
2: "Map"
out the author's argument (forecasting statements). Give a brief outline of how they make their main point. This helps your reader to understand the
rest of your summary--you do not want to surprise your reader! Rather, it is
courteous to warn them of what's coming.
The
Body of your Summary: basically, you will develop your map in the rest of your
summary. Paragraph 2 will serve as an outline for the remainder of your summary.
Walk through the steps, in some detail, of the author's argument that you
described in paragraph 2 (perhaps one step per paragraph). This helps your
reader to see the process of your author's reasoning-and will help you, in
later papers, to critique it if need be.
Grading
Criteria for Summary Assignment
I
Introduction (20 points)
A.
Clear statement of thesis statement (author's mission, claim, aim) 10/__.
B. Mapping
section (good introductory survey or forecasting of the points of argument
you'll address in your summary; some explanation of how your interpretation is
going to work)
10/___.
II Body
(55 points)
A.
Paragraph Coherence
i. Clear Topic Sentences (statement of
what argument/point the paragraph will
address)
10/___.
ii. Paragraph Unity (stick to the topic in
your paragraph) 10/___.
iii.
Sentence Continuity (good flow from one sentence to the next). 10/___.
B.
Essay Coherence
i. Clear relation of paragraphs to thesis
(i.e., I need to understand how the paragraph's
topic fits in with the author's thesis) 10/___.
ii. Paragraph Transitions (good flow from
one paragraph's topic to the next paragraph's
topic; don't jump around) 10/___.
C.
Textual Evidence (appropriate use of quotes and paraphrases) 5/___.
III. Comprehension. Evidence that you understand the author's argument. 10/
___.
IV.
General (15 points)
A.
Format: grammar, punctuation, spelling, writing style, formatting 8/___.
B.
Revising: evidence that you thought about improving your first draft 7/___.