International Writers’ Workshop

1. International Writers’ Workshop Week 7 – Analyzing and Summarizing a Text Dr. Erica Cirillo-McCarthy Assistant Director of Graduate and ADEP Writing

2. Today’s Presentation: • Engaged Reading Strategies • Summarizing Strategies • Using reader response to move towards analysis • But first, any questions on last week’s topic?

3. Engaged Reading Strategies • As a reader, you want to engage the text in ways that work for you • As the text makes a mark on you, you in turn make your mark on the text • Effective annotation is one way to mark the text

4. What does that look like? • Use a highlighter, pen, or pencil • When something strikes you as important, contradictory, or confusing, make a mark • Create your own system of marking up a text: • Question mark for confusing parts to alert you to carefully go over that section or ask your professor or classmates • Circle words you do not know to alert you to look them up in a dictionary • Star next to important parts, such as the thesis or supporting evidence

5. Whatever you decide on…. • The first time you read a text, try to use symbols that will assist you when it comes time to use the text in your writing • Avoid highlighting everything without annotating the reason behind your highlighting • Write in the margins your reader response – what do you think of the methodology? What do you think of the results? What do you think of the theoretical framing? • After your first read through, try to summarize the text in your own words

6. Nutshelling the argument • For complex texts, go through a paragraph at a time • Conduct a close, engaged reading of the paragraphs in which you use your symbols to mark the text • Next to each paragraph, answer the following questions in one sentence each: • What is the paragraph saying? • What is the paragraph doing , i.e., what purpose does it serve in the text – to add evidence, to address refutations, to review the literature?

7. Paying close attention to the structure of academic writing • Because academic texts follow similar conventions, use your familiarity with these conventions to help you find crucial information in the text more effectively • Look for the thesis statement – sometimes it is easy to find by its structure: “The purpose of this paper…” or “In this essay, I argue….” • Look at the topic sentences of each paragraph – cutting and pasting topic sentences within a reverse outline will offer an outlineof the text • Look at the different sections and their headings – they will visually assist in understanding the organization

8. Summarizing the text • Summary – a clear statement of the main idea/purpose/hypothesis/methodology of a study written in the reader’s own words. • Paraphrase – a much more focused articulation of an idea/purpose/hypothesis/methodology in a study written in the reader’s own words. • Quotation – must have a clear introduction and contextualization. Cannot just be dropped in and never referred to again.

9. Strategies for summarizing: • After your first read through and annotation, immediately write a one-sentence summary of the text • Try to do that off memory – do not glance at the text • Follow a format to help you nutshell the argument: • Using ‘Y’ theoretical framework, the author argues ‘X.’ • This move will become increasingly second nature as you move through your graduate career, but only if you practice!!

10. Dialectical Journals • Useful for summarizing a text and understanding your response to the text • Create a table with two columns • On the left side, write your objective summary • On the right side, write your subjective response to the text • This serves as a record for you as you move forward and write your research paper/essay

11. Dialectical Journaling

12. Practice: access an article you are using now or want to use in a research paper • Let’s go through the first few paragraphs • Practice engaged reading: use symbols to help you understand the text • Write next to each paragraph: what is the paragraph saying? What is the paragraph doing?

13. Questions? • Thank you!!