Project 1: ACADEMIC SUMMARY

Project 1: ACADEMIC SUMMARY

This Assignment Measures the Following Course Objectives:

2. Organize essay content into introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs.

3. Construct unified, coherent, and well-developed paragraphs with precise topic sentences.

4. Apply grammar and usage rules correctly.

PURPOSE: Introduces students to college-level argumentative (secondary) sources, active reading strategies, and skills for summarizing a source using a database resource. Introduces basic rhetorical ideas of audience, context, purpose. Introduces essay-writing strategies, including basic structure, transitional phrases, and chronological organization.

GOALS: Students will identify the main claims, supporting evidence, and rhetorical situation (audience, purpose, context) of an argument, put that information in their own words, and produce a descriptive summary for a specified audience. Students will compose unified paragraphs with clear and specific topic sentences.

Subject/Topic Students will choose one article from a provided assortment to use for this assignment (see Canvas).

Intended Audience

Academic audience (professors and peers)

Minimum Requirements:

Source Requirements

One (1) argumentative article (see Canvas).

Length Requirements

2-3 pages

Specifications  Includes the major claims and all supporting evidence  Accurately describes the audience, context, and purpose of

the article  Includes unified paragraphs with clear topic sentences  All information is written in the student’s own words (no

quotations)  Information is arranged in accurate chronological order

Format/Style MLA

One of the most important skills any college writer needs is the ability to summarize what they have read effectively. When you can put an author’s ideas into your own words, you truly understand the material. You need to develop the skill of being able to analyze and position that claim for your own audience.

The Analytical Summary goes a step beyond a general summary. Instead of simply describing the article’s points neutrally, you will evaluate the writer’s understanding of the rhetorical situation and how effectively the writer addressed that situation. For a complete summary of the article, be sure to include:

 All major claims  All reasons  All evidence

As you discuss the claims the article you choose to use makes and evidence used to support those claims, analyze its effectiveness for:

 Intended audience  Context  Purpose

The strongest summaries will

 Present the article’s argument accurately  Use consistent signal phrases to introduce the article’s ideas  Use clear transitions to lead your reader through the summary  Present a descriptive account of the article, so that a reader would not need the original

article to understand.

The strongest analyses will  Make an argument about the article’s effectiveness  Demonstrate your analysis of the article’s rhetorical situation  Show the relationship between the rhetorical situation and the writer’s claims, reasons,

and evidence