Reference no: EM133753600
Case: Find ten sources you plan to use in your project, including books, scholarly articles, scientific reports, professional websites, newspapers, magazines, blogs, historical records, archives, etc.
At least five sources of these sources must be peer-reviewed, meaning they have undergone a more rigorous publication process. These can be books, journal articles, or reference sources.
Summarize each source with 1-3 paragraphs (no more than 1 page) containing a clear and accurate description of the author's purpose and the main argument being made in the source.
A good summary should replace my need to read the primary article or source; that is, your summary should be written well enough and substantively enough for me to understand your source without me having read it myself.
Having trouble writing a summary? These questions below should help you to write a summary that spells out the details and importance of a source.
Rhetorical Situation: Provide in a sentence or two the context of the occasion/issue at hand. To form a clear sense of occasion, you should answer for yourself these questions: What caused the author to write this article when they did? Did someone do something, or not do something, to inspire them to respond? Did someone say something? Did an event take place?
Thesis: What does the author assert in response to the issue at hand? What, in other words, are they setting out to argue regarding the issue at hand? What are the main claims?
Support: How does the author support their thesis and achieve their rhetorical purpose? What kinds of claims, warrants, and evidence do they provide? How was the evidence they used collected? How reliable is the evidence for the claims being forwarded? What kind of rhetorical strategies do they use? Etc.
Evaluate: How has this source been useful to your research? What was important about the information/argument? How would you describe the perspective it offers and why? Is it extremely biased? Seemingly objective? Well-informed? Very scholarly? Etc.
Reflect: Has this source changed how you think about and/or research your topic? Also, see the list above. How might you put this source to work for you in your article, even if it is biased? How can it help you build or shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Are there particular quotes you might extract and/or paraphrase? If so, why? What will that help you accomplish? (NOTE: Students most frequently forget to adequately reflect on what a source provides them, and how it relates to other sources you have collected).
Conclusion: Most scholarly writings end by spelling out the implications of one's research and argument. This may be a call to action (a should, needs to, must, ought to statement). What does the author want certain stakeholders or audience members to do (think, act, feel) in response to their argument?