summarize and analyze writings on the semester’s material

Description

The essays you write will be fairly short. Specifically, they are laid out are laid out in the following fashion. The first paragraph should identify the author and title of the article that you are writing about. It should also identify the context of the article and specify the purpose of the article. A question to consider is why the author(s) wrote this essay. Using the context or purpose is actually a good way to introduce the actual article. The second paragraph or so should provide a brief summary of the article. You want to convey enough information so the reader understands what the article says without going through all of the minute details. It is important to focus upon what the article says and not what it talks about. I would suggest using an active voice approach and referencing the author. An example would be “Jones begins by observing…… Jones then points out….. Jones concludes by ….” One paragraph is typically not quite enough, but going beyond three paragraphs in this section often indicates too much detail. This discussion should be based upon your understanding of the original article and expressed in your own words. Do not copy or paraphrase the abstract of the article: it will not work well in this assignment. There should not be many, if any,1 quotations. In writing this summary, some questions you may want to answer include the following. What is the methodology of the paper? What are the main issues? What are the findings? The third or next paragraph should wrap up your essay with a critique or analysis of the article. It is an opportunity to dive deeply into a particular aspect of the article and to discuss it critically. As such, this section of the assignment will require some thought and contemplation, so take some time to think about the paper being discussed. While analyzing or critiquing the article requires some thought, it doesn’t necessarily have to be particularly profound. However, it is probably the most difficult component of your essay, and you should spend some time on it. In the past, this section has been the weakest element of the submitted assignments because students have either been very superficial or pleaded ignorance. I don’t expect you to break new ground in thought and analysis (though you may), but I do expect some degree of critical analysis. To get you started, you might want to consider the following questions as you read the paper: How does it differ from what others have said? What issue is missing or overlooked? Is the reasoning sound? Is the article plausible? How could it be expanded? Use other articles on the reading list to help you out. In fact, having another article is an effective foil.