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In the humanities disciplines such as Art History, Literature, History and more rely on scholarly articles, journals, and book chapters. It is important that as scholars we can synthesis the information in an article down to the main points. For the assignment you will read the article linked below and the follow the steps and questions to write a 300-500 word summary of the article making sure that you draw out the main argument or idea and the supporting points.
How to Write a Summary
A summary begins with an introductory sentence that states the texts title, author and main thesis or subject.
A summary contains the main thesis (or main point of the text), restated in your own words.
A summary is written in your own words. It contains few or no quotes.
A summary is always shorter than the original text.
A summary should contain all the major points of the original text, but should ignore most of the fine details.
The backbone of any summary is formed by critical information (key names, dates, places, ideas, events, words and numbers). A summary must never rely on vague generalities.
If you quote anything from the original text, even an unusual word or a catchy phrase, you need to put whatever you quote in quotation marks ().
A summary must contain only the ideas of the original text. Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary.
A summary, like any other writing, has to have a specific audience and purpose, and you must carefully write it to serve that audience and fulfill that specific purpose.