The author’s hypotheses or predictions and the reasons behind those predictions
The summary should be about 500 words in length (3 or 4 paragraphs) and it should essentially provide the answers to the “who, why, where, when, how, and what” questions. The summary must be written in paragraphs with sentences (no bullet points). Imagine your summary might be published in a review journal/outlet. You should include the following parts:
1.Title of the article you are summarizing
2.Introduction
a.The topic
b.The author’s research question(s)/thesis statement
c.The author’s hypotheses or predictions and the reasons behind those predictions
3.Methods
a.Brief description of the population/community studied, materials and procedure, variables measured and controlled variables
4.Results and discussion
a.Main results
b.Discuss whether the results supported or contradicted the hypotheses
5.Conclusions
a.Implications of the findings (especially in the larger context of climate change effects) and applications of the study
b.Limitations of the study
6.Complete reference of the article you summarized following APA style. See the Purdue Online Writing Lab for help with APA formatting.
It is very important to keep in mind that this summary needs to be written in your own words and thus avoid plagiarism and/or lack of creativity in your writing. Watch this video on how to avoid plagiarism. Also, check this Excelsior OWL video on types of plagiarism.
This exercise emphasizes paraphrasing and summarizing skills. Thus, also avoid direct quotations as they do not demonstrate your skills of summarizing and your originality and direct quotes are rarely used in scientific writing. Here is an Excelsior OWL example on paraphrasing.
These are a couple of Excelsior OWL links explaining summarizing: Drafting and Integrating Summarizing and Summarizing.
I recommend that you follow these steps:
1.First read the article without taking any notes to get a first impression
2.Then try to explain in your own words (imagine that you talk to family or friends) what you understood from the article. (It may take a second reading to catch some of the subtleties of the article findings.)
3.Next, read the article again and take notes filling out the information required above.
4.Then, write a first draft of your summary without looking at the article or your notes. (If you find yourself stuck, you may need to go back to reading the article and your notes once more before writing your first draft. If you are still stuck, you may want to choose a different article.)
5.With your next draft, add any additional required details you wrote in your notes
6.Proofread your work before submitting your final draft to the dropbox in Turnitin and then in Canvas.
Remember, your overall aim is to write concisely and clearly.
For more information on what a peer-reviewed article is and how to find such articles through Excelsior Library, please review the following two short tutorials and tip sheets from Excelsior Library:
·Peer-Reviewed Articles: What are they? [PDF, File Size 305 KB]
·Parts of a Peer Reviewed Research Article [PDF, File Size 303 KB]
Answer preview the author’s hypotheses or predictions and the reasons behind those predictions
APA
592 words