On the Art of Writing Summaries

1. ECH 3330 D / Selected Research Topics in Conflict and Human Rights Civil Wars: The Case of the CaucasusWinter 2011Wednesday 7 – 10Christoph ZuercherGSPIA / uOttawa

2. On the Art of Writing Summaries Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

3. Why writing summaries  To ensure that you understand the main arguments of the text To ensure that you understand how the author(s) reached their conclusion (methods) Because digesting a lot of information is essential for all knowledge-based work Because a summary saves you time when you need to retrieve this information Doing summaries of important texts builds up your knowledge base Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

4. Elements of a Summary Title and source of the text, name of author (and very short biographical information) What is the main question this text addresses? What are related questions? Main findings of the text Related findings of the text Main concepts: How are they defined? Methods used (literature overview, single case, comparative, quantitative, survey….) Title / Source Question Findings Concepts Methods Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

5. What Else? You can add your own critical reflections, assessments, and follow-up questions. This is NOT part of a summary! But it is useful if you plan to work with the text. But note that a summary is about the text you summarize, not about what you think of this text Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

6. QDefFM…… Smart Annotations When reading the text, use smart annotations. For example: “Q” for all questions “Def” for definitions of key concepts “F1, F2, ….” for key findings “M” for methods. If you do this, writing the summary should not take long Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer