Writing this summary is a preparatory exercise for the research you'll be conducting in this course. That research won't require your writing formal summaries. Yet writing a summary requires close, critical reading of a source; it requires your full understanding of a source so that you can reproduce its argument concisely, in fresh language. Those practices are essential to good research.

For this assignment, you are to write a 500-word summary of this source:
Lethem, Jonathan. "The Ecstasy of Influence." Harper's Feb. 2007: 59-71. [See Blackboard "Documents" folder.]
Your summary should reproduce and condense Lethem's argument. Following directions at "The Summary Essay" should produce a successful essay. Suggestions at "The Reader's Summary" may help you avoid quoting, patchwriting, or copying. Before you hand in the esswy, apply the manuscript formatting specifications for the course.

Feel free to email or IM me while you're working on this or any assignment. I try to answer IM messages immediately and email eithin 24 hours.

Length: 500 words.

Manuscript preparation: Follow the specifications here.

Due date: The final draft is due in hard copy in class on February 1.

Grading: As I grade this assignment, my primary concerns will be how completely and accurately you represented Lethem's essay. The best essays will not quote, patchwrite, or paraphrase from the source; rather, they will condense the source's argument in fresh language. Editing matters; so does the manuscript presentation. If you do the assignment as requested and hand it in on time, you'll get a "C." If you do it well, you'll get a "B." If you do it exceptionally well, you'll get an "A." This paper counts as 10% of your final course grade.