For this short summary essay assignment, students will be asked to select one piece of writing from the list below and summarize its content in 1- 1 pages in MLA format. Please think carefully about the selection because you will want to pick a piece of writing that covers a topic that interests you. This way, you may already have ideas for what to write the longer research essay about (coming later in the semester) by the time we get there.
Summary Tips
You have read about how to summarize, but I would like to give you some tips here for your convenience.
– Include the title and author of the selected piece of writing in the first or second sentence of the essay.
– Determine the main ideas of the piece. Plan a way to state them in your own words.
– Condense information. The summary is going to be shorter or less words than the original, so you will have to synthesize and condense the information down to only its most essential content.
– Leave out minor details or examples.
– Leave out any personal opinion or critique. Think of the summary as just a report of what the piece of writing said.
Critical Discussion Questions
Students must include two critical discussion questions about the reading they selected for the summary at the bottom of their essay. Please see the course syllabus for more information about critical discussion questions.
