For two assigned readings this term you will be responsible for a summary analysis of one of the week's readings.

Each will be 600-800 words, demonstrating excellent writing, edited for clarity and sense, with clear, accurate analysis.

On a week that a student writes the summary analysis, they will be expected to present a 5-7 minute summation of the topic and main points of the reading, then co-lead the week's discussion on the week's reading. If two or more students are covering the same material, they should coordinate their presentations as to not overlap in their material.

The summary analysis paper has three parts.

First, a summary of the material (see the video below for a nice introduction to summaries). Our summaries should

a) give the main argument, claim, or finding of the article,

b) describe some of the theoretical background (or literature) the author uses to position their argument,

c) offer a brief description of the methods they used to investigate their claim (ask yourself, what counts as "data" in this study and how did they gather it?) and

d) how the authors see (or seem to see) the article contributing to the field of communication or media studies.

Second, your discussion or analysis of the reading should give your considered assessment of the validity of its central claims and note any limitations you or the authors identified in the study, its approach, or findings.

Third, write three discussion questions that this article raised for you and you can use to start discussion in the class.