Paper 1: Summary
Our first few weeks of class have been devoted to summaries, and the practice of writing effective, informative synopses of longer texts. In each class session, we have discussed how to read an article or essay to extract its major points, how to phrase those points in your own words, how to organize those points logically, and how to ensure that your summary accurately reflects the contents of the original text. We have also focused on the importance of summaries for academic work, as they allow readers to understand the key elements of a significant issue or phenomenon, and allow writers to test their knowledge of a text by explaining its main points in brief.
For this assignment, you will write a summary of either Lee Ross and Richard E. Nisbett's "The Power of Situations" (WRAC, 579-582) or Solomon E. Asch's "Opinions and Social Pressure" (WRAC, 597-602). Your summary should clearly restate the central claim or thesis of the essay you select, go through the essay's subordinate claims that support that thesis, and provide a few brief examples that illustrate those claims. Remember that you are not to offer your opinion on the essay - rather, you are summarizing the contents of the essay, without making your own arguments about those contents.
Things to Keep in Mind
When writing your summary, ask yourself the following questions:
• Does this summary begin by stating the thesis of the essay you've chosen?
• Does that statement of the thesis clearly communicate the central argument of the entire essay? That is, does it give the reader a firm sense of what the whole essay is about?
• Are the subordinate points you've provided the most significant points within the essay that support the essay's thesis?
• Are the examples you've chosen important to understanding the essay's argument?
• Is the summary organized logically, with each idea clearly building upon its predecessor?
• Is the summary clearly written, and free of grammatical errors?
These will be the questions I ask as I evaluate your summary, so keep them in mind as you're writing. You should also look over them again once you've finished the summary, and make any revisions you might need before submitting the final summary for a grade.
Formal Requirements
Papers should be 2-3 full pages long (no less, and not significantly more), typed in 12-point, Times New Roman font, and double-spaced. All papers must include a list of works cited, and all in-text citations should be provided in MLA format.