English 90 Summary
Exercise
Purpose and Audience
 Purpose/Audience: Does the summary convince the
reader that the writer has read the article/scene closely
and understands its content?
 Accuracy: Does the summary accurately represent
the author’s thesis and reasons/key points? Does the
summary contain misreadings? Does the summary omit
key elements of the article/scene?
Purpose and Audience
 Objectivity: Does the summary remain focused on fairly
retelling the author’s main ideas? Has the summary
writer included anything subjective (such as reactions,
judgments, etc.)? Has the summary writer included
minute details in addition to, or in place of, larger
points?
Conventions
 Has the writer observed the academic conventions, or
practices, of summary?
 Attribution: Does the summary cite the author, title, date
and publication of the article? Does the summary writer
use author tags to that it remains clear that he/she is
retelling the author’s ideas?
Conventions
Quotes and Paraphrases: Does the summary
contain both paraphrases and quotes? Are the
paraphrased and quoted passages
appropriately chosen? Are they well integrated
into the summary?
Conventions
Style: Has the writer maintained an objective
tone throughout the summary? Is the summary
carefully edited for clear communication?
Summary Self-Workshop
This workshop will help you determine how well
you have accomplished the goals of
representing the writer’s argument both
accurately and objectively.
Example of a Short Summary (“Blah,
Blah, Blah”126-128)
 The essay “Blah, Blah, Blah,” by Kim Kessler, published in the Brown Daily
Herald (1996), explores the idea of the increasingly “empty” conversations.
She argues that instead of thoughtful, detailed, and well-organized
communication, we have devolved into “a symbol of generic rhetoric”
(127). She cites several reasons for this change. One, many of our
conversations are non-essential and lack substance, so spending precious
time on them is actually a waste of time. Two, we use this form of
communication often with people who know us well. It suggests a “certain
intimacy between the speaker and listener” (127). Finally, we use this
senseless verbiage to “lie,” to avoid telling the truth about a topic or
situation in the event that the truth makes us look bad. She concludes that
she has no real solution for avoiding these “gratuitous conversations,” that
our only recourse is to not overthink the problem and to ignore them
completely, using some other mindless distraction like a Walkman.
Assignment (using the Compact
Reader)
Summarize the Essay “The C
Word in the Hallways,” (344346)
Directions
 Underline the sentence(s) in which you have
restated the author’s thesis.
 Circle the author’s name, date of publication, and
the title of the magazine or newspaper in which the
article was published. Put a star by each reason or key
point.
 Draw a box around each author tag.
 Draw brackets [ ] around anything superfluous: any
of your own opinions or reactions and/or minutiae
from the article (evidence, anecdotes, etc.).