Today’s Plan:
- Attendance
- 3 Workshop Volunteers
- Paraphrasing and Summarizing
- Homework
Paraphrasing and Summarizing Workshop
This semester I have asked you to summarize quite a bit of reading. I think the quality of your reading summaries are inconsistent, and a few people asked for more guidance paraphrasing and summarizing in our Q&A. So let’s take a day to work on that.
I’ve chosen an article over at fivethirtyeight.com by Nate Silver for this exercise. But before we read the article, let’s be very clear on what kind of reading we are doing. We are reading in order to identify, evaluate, and report on Silver’s argument. This means we need to identify the central claim in the argument and the evidence Silver uses to make that claim. We also want to identify any limitations or qualifications Silver makes about that one, central claim (in some cases there might be more than one claim in an argument–but it is almost always possible to identify the author’s single, main concern).
At the same time, we want to filter out any information that doesn’t relate to the central claim.
Finally, in some articles (not all), we want to separate the argument (what is proven) from the conclusion (what, based on the argument, we should do differently). Sometimes I refer to this as “the walk-away”: walking away from this argument, what does the author hope I will do differently? Note that not all articles will necessarily have a conclusion of this sort.
Ok, let’s read the article. As we read, try to identify and mark off the article’s central claim, identify specific evidence that supports the claim, and look for moments in which Silver anticipates counter-arguments or qualifies his argument (i.e., where he acknowledges limitations or weaknesses). Also, let’s see if we can identify a walk-away.
Group Writing
At this point I would like you to get into groups of three to compare what you have found. As a group, you should identify the part of the article in which Silver makes his central claim and work to paraphrase it. He’s a link to the Purdue OWL’s guide for paraphrasing.
Your group should write a 4-5 sentence summary of the article that paraphrases the main argument, highlights Silver’s evidence, and notes how he qualifies his argument. Be sure to introduce Silver’s argument to a reader, providing contextual information about the author and article as necessary.
Please post your sentences to Canvas, listing all group members.
Homework
Put this paraphrasing exercise into practice by reading and summarizing something for your weekly writing this week. Remember that we are meeting in the computer lab in Ross 1240 on Wednesday.
Also, remember that I have office hours today from 1-2 if you have questions or want me to read and comment on some writing.
