Response, Summary and Evaluation

ENGLISH 111/009

Article Response, Summary and Evaluation

Dr. Diane Thompson NVCC, ELI

For each summary, locate a relevant, recent, useful source on your topic. Do not prepare two summaries of articles from the same web site, same author, same journal, or other source. Do not select articles that you do not want to use in your research project. If the items are from the Internet, print them out. You should take notes while reading the article, so that you can more easily assemble your ideas when you write your summary. You may also want to print out these instructions to work with.

Write a Response, Summary and Evaluation for each article you have selected. Follow this order:

1. PUBLICATION DATA (bibliographic information) for the article. Include as much information as you can gather about the article--who wrote it, where it was published, the date of publication, the web site, if that's where you found it, the date when you found it there, etc. See Bibliography or your textbook for information about how to select and arrange the publication data for each article. If you cannot find all of the relevant information, you should select a different article.

2. Write YOUR RESPONSE TO THE PIECE YOU READ (about a paragraph). Write down any ideas or feelings you have about the article after reading it through. Do you like it? Is it clear and understandable? Does anything about it irritate you? Does it remind you of anything else you have read or done? This will help you to separate how you feel about the writing from what you think it actually says.

3. Write A SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE, CHAPTER, ETC. This is the most important part of the assignment. Your summary needs to be thorough enough and detailed enough so that other people can read it and get a good sense of the content of the article. Write two or three paragraphs that explain the basic topic of the paper, its main ideas and the main supporting details or examples for each idea. Pay special attention to the first sentence in each paragraph--it often states the main point of the entire paragraph. If the article or essay includes tables of information or other visuals, briefly explain their content.

4. Write an EVALUATION. This should have two parts:

Start with your evaluation of the reliability of the article. Why do you think it can be trusted? You must give specific details here. Is it from a well-respected site such as a national newspaper or newsmagazine? Is it from a government site? Is it from the site of a reputable association, such as the AMA or a college or university? Explain your reasons for trusting the article in detail. If you cannot justify the article's reliability, you need to start over with a different article.
Finally, you will make your criticisms of the article, positive or negative. Did the author seem to have a good grasp of the material? Do you think he/she was well-qualified to write such an article? Why or why not? Was the article confusing, well-organized, clear, useful, interesting, funny, biased, etc.? Did it use good specific supporting details? Was it well focused? Clear? What audience was it aimed at? What specific elements from it do you expect to use in your research project?

To post an article review, go to Blackboard, "Unit 2, Task 2."