how to write articles summary

8/11/2019 How to Write Articles Summary

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The Department of English Education

FITK UIN Jakarta


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The goal of writing a summary of an article, asingle chapter or a whole book is to offer as

accurately as possible the full sense of theoriginal, but in a more condensed form. Asummary restates the author's main point,purpose, intent and supporting details in yourown words.


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A summary or prcis is a shorter versionof a longer piece of writing. The summary

captures all the most important parts of theoriginal, but expresses them in a [much]shorter space

Summarizing exercises are usually set to test

your understanding of the original, and yourability to re-state its main purpose

Summarizing is also a useful skill whengathering information or doing research.

The summary should be expressed as far aspossible in your own words. Its not enoughto merely copy out parts of the original.


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State the main point first. Emphasize the main stages of though.

State the articles conclusion. Summarize rather than give a table of

contents


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Summarizing such texts requires adequateunderstanding of the experimental method and

discussions. In such articles usually the reportfollows the order: Purpose of the experiment, What method was used, What results were found, What the author concludes by looking at the

results of the study.


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Method:

Subjects: 75 young male regular tea drinkers

Experimental design: Ss divided into 2 groups monitored for 2 weeks

Experimental group: given caffeinated tea mixture

Control group: placebo drink

Task: both groups given challenging tasks:

Subjected to one of 3 stressful situations and asked to prepare a verbal response

Results:

Increased blood pressure, heart rate and subjective stress ratings in both groups 50 mins after the task, cortisol levels dropped by an ave of 47% in tea-drinking

group

27% in the fake tea group

Blood platelet activation was lower in tea drinkers

Tea drinkers: greater degree of relaxation in recovery period

Conclusion and discussion:

Tea drinkers recover from stress more quickly than those who drink a fake teasubstitute

Unclear if ingredients in tea responsible

Tea drinking not decrease stress levels but brings stress hormone levels back tonormal more quickly Important bec. slow recovery after acute stress lead tochronic illnesses e.g. heart disease


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Summarizing argumentative ortheoretical texts

follow the authors main line of reasoning

spot his arguments

identify the counterarguments he puts forward to

refute another argument

differentiate between main ideas, and evidenceprovided to support or refute arguments.

decide what is essential information and what isdetail.


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Comprehensive:You have included in yoursummary all of the authors major ideas,assertions and findings

Accurate:in your choice of words andparaphrasing you did not misrepresent theauthors ideas

Neutral:you tried to be objective and fairand did not include your own evaluation or

comments Independent:a person who has not read the

source text can understand what you havewritten


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The purpose of a critical analysis essay is

to accurately summarize and critique the

argument of another article or composition.In summarizing an article, you strive to

present the author's ideas in your own

words. In critiquing the article, you try to

evaluate the author's ideas by determining

their validity


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Write an introduction. In one sentence, paraphrase the thesis of thearticle or essay you are responding to, including the author's name andtitle of the article. Then write another sentence or two that states thepoints you intend to make concerning the article's ideas. This type ofintroduction will tell the reader what you plan to argue and how thepaper will progress.

Write a summary of the main ideas presented in the article or essay youare responding to, consolidating the author's points, leaving out smalldetails, and avoiding any repetition in the original source. Rememberalso to sequence the author's main ideas in a logical order, to usetransitions to connect their ideas, and to quote when necessary.

Write a critique of the author's points. When you critique a point, firstrestate it very briefly, then state whether you agree or disagree. Finally,analyze the author's evidence and reasoning to indicate why you agreeor disagree with the point. Each of your points should be responding insome way to the points in the essay you are critiquing. You maydemonstrate logical fallacies in the author's argument, showinconsistencies in the author's methods, or make practical observationsabout the author's conclusions

Add a conclusion, summing up your overall reaction to the validity ofthe source, explaining its strengths and weaknesses, and evaluatinghow well it achieves its purpose. The conclusion should be no moretwo or three paragraphs.


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Tipsinsummarizing an essay. Ask yourself, "what is the essay trying to tell me?" The topic of your essay may be

about secondhand smoking, global warming or just about any other. You may have to

carefully identify the topic of the essayfirst before you can be able to further

elaborate on your summary. Identify the thesis of the essay. The thesis of the essay is the main argument of the

article stating something about the topic. For example, if the topic of the essay is

"secondhand smoking," the thesis states something about secondhand smoking,

something like "secondhand smoking is worse than firsthand smoking" or "the

government should look into secondhand smokers as a main concern for legislating

health laws related to smoking in public." After identifying the thesis of your essay, you have to look for the main arguments

supporting the thesisor main claim of the essay. If the thesis of the essay is

"secondhand smoking is worse than firsthand smoking", identify the main arguments in

support of and/or against the thesis.

You can provide in your essay summary a few examplesmentioned in the essay

pertaining to the main arguments. However, try to limit the number of your examples toat least one or two as maximum since you are simply summarizing the article.

Close your summary with a brief sentence about the essay's conclusion.

DO NOTwrite as to whether the essay is well written or otherwise as it is not required

for a summary. It is required, however, if you are doing a reviewof the essay instead

of a summary. DOprovide the author's name and the title of the essay at the beginning of your


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paper. A research paper may have an abstractwhich basically tells the

reader about what to expect from the article. If the research papercontains an abstract, it can serve as your most basic yet most concisesummary of the entire research paper.

If there is no abstract, go the introduction of the research paper.Identify the purpose and the background of the research. These thingswill serve as your introduction for your summary. The introductory partof the research paper typically includes the thesis.

Go to the literature reviewand list down the main arguments of thereviewed literature in the research paper, whether they be in support of

or against the article you are summarizing. Identify the methodologyused and the reason why the author chose

that methodology. This usually refers to the methods, calculations orexperiments applied to the variables in the research.

Write down the data analysisdone by the author. This typicallyincludes the method used in the research in getting the needed datafrom the methodology.

Briefly list down the resultsof the data analysis. Results may includethe outcome of the experiment, the end-products or the effectsobserved at the end of the data analysis.

Provide a short summary of the discussionof the results in theresearch paper. It basically includes the possible suggestions on howto improve the research or on how to conduct future research based onthe iven research.


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(Name) (NIM) (Class)

Article Review Form

Article title: _______________________________________________Writer: __________________________________________________Journal/Newspaper: ________________________________________Date published: ______________ Number of words: ________________List No.: ______________

What is the main issue of the article? (please refer toSummarizing argumentative or theoretical texts)

What is the method used in the article and what is the result?(please refer to Summarizing an experimental report)

How did the writer put him or herself in the article?

Would you support or contradict the writer? Why?

Any personal experience or evidence or thought related to thetopic of the article?


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Monkey Brain Research: The CaseAgainst: Student Summary

Dr Ray Greek, medical director of Europeans For MedicalAdvancement, in his article titled Monkey Brain Research: TheCase Against asserts that there is no need for monkey brainresearch. Dr Greek states that brain research on monkeys cannotpredict side effects on human beings. Many drugs and vaccines that

had no side effects on primates may cause serious damage inhumans, e.g. an Alzheimers vaccine that was seen completelyharmless on primates caused brain inflammation in humans.

Another reason why we should not conduct experiments onprimates is that human and primate brains are completely differentin size, biochemical pathways and genetic expression. Finally,

knowledge about human diseases came from autopsies, populationresearch and studies on human tissues. Greek concludes thatfunding had better be spent on research involving DNA arrays,

bioinformatics, human stem cells and not on animal research.


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Paper: A4, 70gr

Font: Times new roman 12 Spacing: 5 pt

Line spacing: exactly 15

Lay out: 3 cm for all sides

Maximum 800 words (one page)

Due time:

I. Oct 28 (2 articles)

II. Nov 11 (3 articles)III. Nov 25 (3 articles)

IV.Dec 9 (2 articles)

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