Model Assignment:
Summary of an Assigned Reading

Journalism J110
Foundations of Journalism and Mass Communication
First Essay

Instructions

You are to summarize the article assigned you in no more than 150 words. You should write for an educated reader who has not read the article.

Reading the Article

Begin by reading carefully so that you understand the article. As you read, ask: What is the writer's main purpose--to present information, an idea, or an argument for or against something? Then identify the writer's main information, ideas, or arguments. Select only the most important. In the few words available to you, you should restate the essence of the original.

Criteria for an effective summary

  1. Accuracy: Report as precisely as possible the essence of what the writer wrote. Do not write what you think of the article or whether you agree with its information, ideas, or arguments.
  2. Comprehensiveness and balance: Report the article's essential information, ideas, or arguments as fully and fairly as possible in the few words available to you.
  3. Clarity and correctness: Write clearly. Your word choice and sentence structure must convey your meaning without vagueness or ambiguity. Write correctly. Do not let problems in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or syntax distract your reader from paying attention and from understanding your meaning.

Evaluation

To evaluate your summary, we will use a 12-point scale with a 3-point range for each of the standards of judgment--excellent, good, fair, and poor.

Excellent (12–10)
Your summary meets all the criteria.
Good (9–7)
Your summary is excellent in meeting two of the criteria but is weaker in meeting the third.
Average (6–4)
Your summary gives a fairly accurate account. But it is incomplete, or unbalanced, or the writing is unclear.
Poor (3–1)
Your summary is weak in meeting all the criteria.

Length

No more than 150 words.

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