Assignment 4: Summary

Assignment
For this fourth formal assignment (due W 10/29), you are choosing one of the following two articles and then creating a summary of that article.

“Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” (Stephen Marche)
“Big Data on Campus” (Marc Parry)

*Please print the articles using the links above, so the page numbers are the same for all of us (each is 10 pages long).

  • I suggest that you read through both articles a few times in order to decide which one you feel more comfortable summarizing.
  • When you decide which article you are going to use, make sure to go back and actively read it, looking up vocabulary you don’t know, underlining/highlighting, searching for claims/evidence (reverse outline & annotate it).
  • Summarize the article according to the strategies that we discussed in class on W 10/1, W 10/8, 10/15 and as posted on our OpenLab site as Strategies for Summarizing.
  • Use an appropriate heading for your assignment (your name, the class, the assignment, the date, and my name) and uses 12-font Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins all around, and is single-spaced.
  • While you are only turning in one draft of this assignment (rather than submitting a first and then final draft to me), you should, on your own, create multiple drafts/revisions of your summary before handing the final product in on W 10/29. As always, you should make both global revisions (re-thinking/adding to content, organization, paragraph development) as well as local revisions (editing, proofreading, formatting).
  • Reflective Cover Letter: Since you are doing active reading, brainstorming, revision on your own (or in consultation with me), you should submit a one-page single-spaced Reflective Cover Letter (as with the other Assignments), as the first page of your document. You should also discuss what you learned over the past few weeks in terms of active reading, reverse outlining, and summarizing.
  • If you need help (on this assignment, or at any other point), you should consult our Writing Resources page for general writing help.

Grading
Assignment 4 (Article Summary) is worth 5% of your overall course grade.

Submission
You must submit your summary two ways:

1) Upload to Dropbox (in the folder “Assignment 4: Summary (due W 10-29-14) … make sure to follow the appropriate labeling and file format guidelines (you can review them on our course site here);

2) Bring one printed copy to class (to be collected when class begins) as a “Porfolio” folder (Reflective Cover Letter, Final Draft of Summary, article with your annotations, other drafts)

*If your summary is not submitted both electronically and as a printed copy by the start of Wednesday’s class (10/29), you will receive no credit for the assignment. As with all assignments for our course, late submissions will not be accepted.