Summary Assignment
Assignment Objectives:
• To research an issue affecting your intended professional field
• To develop informational competency
• To develop ability to summarize academic articles clearly, completely and concisely
• To use these summaries (as research) in your final proposal and report
• To master citation style used in your field of study
Assignment Description:
Over the course of the semester, you will be required to locate eight articles about an issue of your choice in your field (major) of study. The articles should be from credible sources. The articles should be timely, generally no earlier than 2016. Articles should examine the issue from a variety of perspectives.
• The first FIVE summaries must be from academic, peer-reviewed journals accessed via the university library’s databases.
• The remaining summaries may consist of the following:
o Governmental reports (including agencies of the government)
o Organizations such as UNICEF, the United Nations, the NAACP
o Newspapers: New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal—the articles must be full feature articles, they must have an author, and they must be from a nationally recognized new source
o Magazines: Time, Atlantic, Newsweek- the articles must be full feature articles, they must have an author
o Trade Journals
Each summary must include a Works Cited/Reference (depending upon your field of study). Be sure to provide an electronic copy of your article (preferably a PDF) to be uploaded with your summary.
Although a summary is generally between 10 to 15 % of the length of the original source, your summaries should be one to two paragraphs.
Helpful Tips
Remember, the reader has not read the underlying article. After reading your summary, the reader needs to have a clear understanding of the main points of the article.
Why did the author(s) write the article?
What did the author(s) hypothesize?
Why is this important?
What did the author(s) find?
What did the author(s) conclude?
What do the author(s) recommend?