Summary Assignment

Length: 175 to 250 words and a works cited entry First draft due: Thursday, October 19th
Total Points: 100 points Final draft due: Monday, October 23rd

Assignment
Write a coherent, unified, accurate, and objective summary of a debate on a single topic from the
Room for Debate section of The New York Times. Select a debate on a topic, summarize the
topic, and summarize also the different positions written on the topic for the debate. Your
audience, of course, includes your classmates and me. However, because summaries are usually
written to let people know about information with which they may not be familiar, think of your
audience as also including people who have not read the debate. Your summary should include
key points made by each author but exclude minor details. Although you will be summarizing
most of debate, you may need to paraphrase specific brief passages or quote significant words
and phrases. Avoid quoting longer passages from the source. Nonetheless, if quoting a sentence
would greatly enhance your paper, you may do sobut only once.

Organization
In the first sentence or two, introduce the author of the source, the title of the source, and the
authors thesis. Remember that the thesis should help the reader predict the content of the rest of
the summary. The body and conclusion of the summary are thus determined to a great extent by
its thesis.

In-Text Citation and Works-Cited Entry

Include a works-cited entry for the source you summarized. In the essay, make sure to refer to
the authors and the title of the debate. Use a page number for anything you quote if its from a
book. Also place a page number at the end of material summarized from a particular page. If, for
example, you have summarized material from page 3 in three sentences, put the page number
after the third sentence.

Submission Requirements
o Complete a rough draft IN CLASS on Thursday.

o Email the final draft to me AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS on Monday. If I do not

have the essay within the first ten minutes of class, it will be counted late.
Grading Criteria: Your paper will be graded according to the following criteria. Plagiarism will result in a failing
grade for the paper and perhaps for the course as well.
Criteria Points
INTRODUCTORY SENTENCES
___ The author and title of the source are introduced in a clear manner. /10
___ The authors thesis or governing idea is stated accurately.
___ The topic or central issue of the debate is briefly summarized.

SUMMARY: READING COMPREHENSION

___ The summary is faithful to the source. /20
___ The author's ideas are understood and expressed clearly.
___ The intended function of each paragraph or section is understood.

SUMMARY: COMPOSITION
___ The summary is objective. /20
___ Paraphrases and quoted material are used purposefully.
___ The summary includes key ideas and significant details but excludes minor points.

COMPLETENESS AND FORMATTING

___ Source material is cited according to MLA guidelines.
___ A works-cited entry is provided. /20
___ The paper is formatted according to MLA guidelines.
___ Submission requirements are met.
___ A peer-review has been completed.

PRE-WRITING AND RESEARCH

___ Notes taken prior to writing summary. /20
___ Notes show organization and planning.
___ Evidence can be shown of the use of the writing process

EDITING AND PROOFREADING

___ The writing employs words and sentence structures appropriate to the demands of the /10
rhetorical situation.
___ The essay is coherent and unified.
___ The essay is free of proofreading errors.

Review the following chapters in The Writers World:

apostrophe fragment pronoun-antecedent agr. semicolon
(17) (2) (5c) (16)
capitalization fused sentence pronoun reference subject-verb agreement
(21) (3) (5d) (4f)
colon modifier quotation marks verb form or tense
(16) (6) (18) (4a-c)
comma parallelism relating sent. parts spelling
(15) (9) (7d) (20)

TOTAL: The grade is based on the essay itself as well as your use of the writing process /100