Assignment: Summary

Value

This assignment is worth 10% of your final grade.

What is a Summary?

A summary is the identification and distillation of the main points of a given text, in brief. A summary reduces the essential components of a larger work into a concise, accurate, abbreviated representation of the text, using language that more general (i.e., lay) readers can understand.

What is the Purpose of a Summary?

A summary aims to quickly and briefly convey essential information contained in a longer text. A summary allows the reader to “skim” an article or review the main points of a given text without supplementary details, lengthy explanatory notes, or editorial commentary that might take more time, effort, and analytical engagement to absorb fully.

To be able to summarize effectively, first you need to understand what you have read. Summarizing can take many forms (summarizing the plot of a movie for a friend who hasn't seen it yet, for example). Summarizing in professional and technical writing typically means writing a summary or an abstract. 

This assignment relates to the following General Learning Outcomes:

1.      Analyse and critique the relationships between writer, reader, purpose, and text

2.      Practice technical writing skills, including grammar, style, and argumentation

3.      Demonstrate written, verbal, and visual professional communication skills

4.      Apply editing and revision skills to the writing process

5.      Apply APA formatting and academic integrity principles in a range of contexts

Assignment Overview

In this assignment, you will summarize a research article for a specific purpose and audience. Your audience is your instructor, and your purpose is to inform your instructor of the key points from the selected article. Your summary must be concise and accurate, written in your own words, and formatted in APA style.

This assignment also includes a short GenAI supported process activity. You will first map your own thinking process for summarizing before using any AI tool. Then you will use a GenAI tool to generate two draft summaries using a vague prompt and a refined prompt. You will compare those outputs to your own approach and reflect on what this reveals about how AI produces language through pattern prediction. You will use this awareness to write your own final summary.

Remember, when you're summarizing, use your own words to paraphrase key points. Scholarly writing in research articles typically uses complicated ideas, complex sentence structures, technical or specialized terminology, and discipline-specific jargon, all of which can make the article hard to understand and summarize correctly. When faced with a challenging text, students may make the mistake of including too many direct quotes in their summary, as it's easier to quote than trying to understand and rephrase key points in their own words. But for a summary, you need to express the main ideas clearly and concisely, using your own words, and with at most only a few relevant direct quotes integrated. This approach shows that you understand what the article is about and have done the work to read, comprehend, and articulate the article’s key points in your summary.

Instructions

Step 1: Choose and read one of the assigned research articles (see the folder posted on Moodle to access the article PDFs).

1.      Read the article.

2.      As you read, identify the main point and the key components you will need to summarize, including purpose, method, findings, and conclusions. Print and mark up (highlight, underline, etc.) key points or do this digitally.

3.      Mark one short direct quote that is useful and specific enough to include in your summary.

Step 2: Map your task before using any AI

Before you use any AI tool, think about your own mental process for summarizing a research article.

1.         Create a mind map, flowchart, or outline that shows your summarizing process. Any messy visual or notes will suffice here. Your goal with this step is to document the cognitive steps (brain work) you take when summarizing. 

2.         Think about and document:

a.         How do you begin the task? Where do you start?

b.         Key decision points: What choices do you make as you read and write?

c.         Typical format or tone: What the final output should look like for this assignment

d.         Common pitfalls: What people often do wrong when summarizing

Step 3: Use a GenAI tool to summarize the article

1.         Upload the article to a GenAI tool (e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini…)

2.         Run a first attempt using a simple, vague prompt.

Example: Write a summary of this research article for my instructor.

3.         Save the full AI output (screen capture or another format is fine).

4.         Run a second attempt using a refined, detailed prompt that directs the AI to follow the cognitive steps you documented in step 2 and includes clear constraints, such as 

a.         Word limit range (e.g., 250-400 words)

b.         Objective tone, no opinion

c.         Required content (main point, purpose, method, findings, conclusions)

d.         Requirement to include one short direct quote with a signal phrase and citation

e.         Reminder that accuracy must match the article

5.         Save the full AI output.

Step 4: Compare the AI outputs to your own cognitive steps

1. Write a short comparison commentary of 100 to 150 words that answers these questions:

a.         How closely did the AI follow the same pattern you mapped in Step 2

b.         What was missing, inaccurate, oversimplified, or surprising?

c.         Did the output seem like pattern prediction or genuine understanding of the article? (How do know if the AI actually read and summarized the article or relied solely on text prediction?)

d.         What assumptions did the AI make about what matters in a summary in terms of key points included, etc.?

Step 5: Draft and revise your final summary (note: this step is human-only)

1. Use the worksheet provided to write your summary. In your summary: 

a.         Identify the type of source, title, author or authors, and date of publication.

b.         State the main point of the article.

c.         Convey in brief the purpose, method, findings, and conclusions.

d.         Use mostly paraphrase in your own words.

e.         Integrate at least one relevant direct quote.

f.          Use signal phrases and a mix of narrative and parenthetical citations to attribute ideas to the author or authors.

g.         Avoid opinion, assumptions, generalizations, biased language, or editorial commentary.

h.         Be concise (within the 250-400 word limit).

i.           Be edited for clarity, coherence, and logical flow.

j.           Include references in APA format to the 1) article summarized and 2) the AI tool you used.

Step 6: Gather your process work (steps 1-4) and your summary (step 5) into one file (Word or PDF) and submit to Moodle for grading.

Notes

•        Use the Summarizing a Research Article worksheet to plan the components of your assignment.

•        Pay close attention to the word limit for each section. The word limit does not include the title page or references page.

•        Consult the sample assignment as a guide for your own work.

•        APA format requires your assignment to be double spaced, in a standard font (size 10, 11, or 12), with 2.5cm (one-inch) margins on all sides, and to include page numbers, a title page, and a references page. For more information on document formatting, please consult the library’s APA guide online. You may use the APA formatted sample paper template from the Library’s APA guide online.

•        Be selective when including quotations from the article. Students who quote heavily will find that they do not have enough room for their own summary; students who do not quote at all will find that the summary lacks specificity. Part of the challenge of this assignment is to find a balance between these extremes.

Rubric (Total: __/16 marks)