Chapter
Summaries
For each of the chapters, you will write a chapter summary. The summaries will be
between 300 - 500 words. An excellent summary will have the following characteristics:
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Is within the word count limit
Uses headings, bullet points, and other spacing to lend clarity to the summary
Summarizes the entire chapter
Could serve as effective notes for a quiz or exam on this chapter
The goal of summaries is for you to learn how to condense long, technical material into
a brief summary that could be given to a team member, boss, or the general public. It
also ensures that you understand the course material and keep up with the readings.
But what makes an excellent summary versus an average one?
I'm glad you asked!
An excellent summary is easy to skim, uses effective formatting (headings, font choice
like bold and underline, white space), and focuses on the main points of the chapter. If
you were to take an exam on the chapter, it would give you all the answers (within
reason!).
You may be saying that task is impossible in 500 words or less. What I am trying to
teach you through this assignment is how to read a document and take out the most
important information and present it in a way that is easy for a boss, your team, the
public, or other audiences to read and comprehend.
If your summaries are not scoring as highly as you would like, consider these things:
● How is the formatting? Is it easy to distinguish headings and subheadings?
● Do you use bold, italics, or underlined font to help with reading
comprehension? (While color is a useful tool, keep in mind that 1 in 12 males
is colorblind!)
● Are the main themes in the chapter clear?
● Did you summarize the entire chapter or just part of it?
● Do you have long paragraphs of text? If so, how can you better convey the
information using paragraph lists or sentence lists?
I am always glad to chat with you to discuss your chapter summaries or any work in this
class.