a summary of Should Writers Use They Own English? Vershawn Ashanti Young
Assignment: Write a summary of Vershawn Ashanti Young’s “Should Writer’s Use They Own English.” Your summary will be about 300 words long. Purpose: The ability to write an effective summary is one of the most important writing skills a college student (or any writer) can possess. Much of academic writing requires you to enter a conversation among experts, but before you jump in, you must first listen as a means of carefully, accurately, and ethically understanding the positions of those you’re intending to address. That’s where the critical skill of summarizing comes in. Here, you learn to read and represent the words of others, and this is why we begin the semester with the summary assignment. [unique_solution]Audience: Imagine your audience for this summary to be other students at the college who are entering into the conversation about this article. You might think of your summary as being posted on a course website. Writing the Summary: This summary will demonstrate that you have closely read Young’s essay. Remember, you are summarizing, not analyzing, arguing, or responding. You are explaining objectively and concisely what Young’s essay is about and the main ideas that drive his piece. To achieve your purpose with your audience, use the following strategies in your summary: Introduce Young′s essay in the beginning of your summary so your readers know the exact text you are summarizing. Include the author’s name, the date of publication, and the publication title within the first few sentences. Focus on the writer’s major arguments, central ideas, and main claims. Show that you understand the “big picture”—the writer’s purpose and how he supports it. Focus on the “big picture.” Though integrating some important examples or quotations will be effective, you do not want to get mired in the specific details of the essay. You want to generalize about the types of evidence or methods of arguing Young employs to support his argument. Include only the key phrases and terms that are central to Young’s essay and an explanation of what those mean and how they are employed. Use “author tags” (we′ll discuss these in class) so that your reader understands that you are reporting the author’s ideas rather than suggesting they are your ideas. Use an objective tone and a mix of paraphrased and quoted source material.
