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November 04, 2005
Second summary assignment
Task: Summarize one of the four sources listed below.
Purpose: You'll be assigned very few, if any summaries in your college courses. Yet being able to summarize texts is integral to much of the writing you'll be assigned during the next three and a half years. Maybe you are reading a difficult text that you are especially interested in; maybe you have to write about it; or maybe it is something that you know you will be tested on. How much do you want to understand what you read? How much do you want to be able to remember it? Writing a reader's summary of what you have read will help you reach these goals. The purpose of a reader's summary is to help the reader to a greater comprehension of a text. By putting the ideas of the text into your own words, you understand the text in a more comprehensive way. Summary-writing is also a first step toward being able to make critical judgments about a text (critique) and to connect it to other texts (synthesis).
Content specifications: Avoid quotations, patchwriting, and plagiarism. Note page numbers when pertinent; see Harbrace Handbook p. 185. Be sure that your summary names the source you are summarizing. You can do this in the body of the summary; in the title; or by placing a full bibliographic citation for the source at the beginning of the summary.
Design specifications: Follow recommendations in Howard Chapter 7, sections 7a-7b, "Designing College Papers" (pp. 192-204).
Paraphrasing vs. summarizing: The success of a summary hinges on remembering that summarizing isn't the selection and repetition of a few key passages—a "greatest hits" approach—but is instead the condensing of major ideas into fewer words.
Length: 500 words.
Due November 8.
Submission: Digital dropbox on Blackboard course site.
Support: If you'd like to go over a draft with me, email me for an appointment.
Source selections: Choose one of the following sources for your summary:
- Cantor, Nancy. "Civic Engagement: The University as a Public Good." Liberal Education 90.2 (Spring 2004): 18-25. [Available on class Blackboard site.]
- Cardenas, Diana. "Creating an Identity: Personal, Academic, and Civic Literacies." Latino/a Discourses: On Language, Identity, and Literacy Education. Ed. Michelle Hall Kells, Valerie Balester, and Victor Villanueva. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2004. 114-125. [Will be available on class Blackboard site by November 1.]
- Delpit, Lisa. "Education in a Multicultural Society: Our Future's Greatest Challenge." Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York: New P, 1995. 167-183. [Will be available on class Blackboard site by November 1.]
- Gladwell, Malcolm. "Getting In." New Yorker 10 Oct. 2005: 80-86.
Posted by senioritis at November 4, 2005 09:29 AM