The summary-critique
essay assesses students’ abilities to both summarize an external source as well
as to critique the source’s validity, credibility, argumentation, and organization.
The summary-critique essay provides a first step for students as they begin to
evaluate sources and interact with them as they approach the course-culminating
individual research paper. The summary-critique paper is both an initiative in
summarizing objectively as well as learning how to evaluate a source from a
critical perspective.
Summary-critique essay (15% of final grade)
Topic: Summarize the articles provided by the instructor and then critique their argumentation, organization, validity, and credibility.
Type of Assignment: 5-paragraph essay.
Task: You will be asked to read a series of 3
articles on the same topic. The articles will be selected and distributed by
the instructor. Your summary-critique (often simply called a critique or
response or reaction paper) will be in response to the third article. For the
summary portion, objectively summarize the article you're responding to. Give
the reader as much information as they need to understand the context of your
article and what the original author's argument was. For the critique part of
the paper, discuss aspects of the author's original work in terms of originality,
argumentation, credibility, organization, and validity to establish your
critical opinion of the work. You should refer to the article frequently
throughout the paper and take care to provide specific examples from the
original article when available. This is not just a representation of your
argument, but rather your response to the original work.
Formatting: Your assignment should be 3-to-5 pages long, with a title, not including the cover page. Your summary-critique paper must have the following: 1) APA-style cover sheet; 2) APA-style citations throughout; 3) an APA-style references page; and 4) no plagiarism. Times New Roman, 12-pt., double-spaced, with 1-inch margins on all sides. (Paper size: 8 1/2 x 11-inches)
Sources: The article MUST be used and referred to
throughout the essay, and should be introduced in the introduction of the
essay. This paper should interact and reference the source often; mentioning
the article only once or not at all is unacceptable. APA-style in-text
citations are required, so notate where your information comes from in the
original work.
Plagiarism: AVOID PLAGIARISM: Summarize (whenever
possible)! Quote (appropriately)! Paraphrase (acceptably)! Cite the source
(correctly)! Correct paraphrasing and APA citations are expected at this level.
Deadline: to be announced.
The Grading Rubric and The Sample Paper will be provided in the due course.
