This assignment is designed to give you practice reading and summarizing secondary source material. When academics and literary scholars conduct their research and write up their findings, they rely on their ability to read and understand what others have written about their topic, and to synthesize and condense the main points of those arguments into their own words. Writing a summary of a scholarly article about of the readings from our course will help you develop this vital skill, as well as hone the Content Knowledge associated with the Course Objectives.
SKILLS TO ACQUIRE
The Summary Writing Assignment will help you master several important skills necessary to performing writing tasks in college and engaging with ideas and values that are foundational to a well-rounded university education.
¢ Identify literary genres, major writers, and important schools of thought in American literature from the pre-colonial era to the end of the 18th century.
¢ Summarize, interpret, and analyze literary texts in relation to a specific argumentative thesis.
¢ Utilize and extend the reading, writing, and critical thinking skills developed in ENGL 1101 and ENGL 1102.
¢ Identify the cultural factors that shaped American literature and define the common concerns and values of humanity as expressed through literature.
TASKS TO COMPLETE
¢ Choose one article from any of the ENGL 2131 recommended reading list 2019 from Units 2-5 and compose a 500-word summary.
¢ Include a bibliographical citation (MLA) at the beginning of the summary for your article of choice.
¢ Compose a short statement (usually more than one sentence) explaining the author’s thesis in the article.
¢ Identify all the sub-points that support the authors thesis; also, identify the key ideas and terms from all major sections of the article, with a sense of conclusion at the end.
¢ This assignment is worth 99 points and will count 10 % of your total grade for the course.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR FINDING YOUR ARTICLE IN GALILEO
From your course navigation bar, click on the Library tab and select the GALILEO linkclick on Browse by Subjectclick on Literature, Language, and Literary Criticismclick on Academic Search Completeand then enter in the search button at the top of the screen the authors last name and the title (ie., Schweitzer John Winthrops Model of American Affiliation). The article will usually appear at the top of the list. Click on the article entry and the full details of the article will appear on your screen. The articles are available in pdf. full text or HTML. which will appear on the left-hand side of the page. Click on pdf. and the original text of the article will appear for you; the HTML text will be the same text but not as it appeared originally in print. You can read and summarize from your screen or download it to your computer and read it later or print it out and summarize it from a printed copy.
SUBMITTING YOUR SUMMARY
Open the Assignment folder for the Summary Writing Assignment and attach your final document by the assignment due date. Be sure to save the assignment in .doc, .docx, or RTF format. Your instructor must be able to open your submission in order for you to receive credit. Save your file with your last name, first initial and Summary Writing Assignment (i.e., JonesP-Summary Writing Assignment.doc)
