Summaries

Before moving into praising or ripping a part a reading, let's make sure we understand what is going on in the text

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summaries are useful if you want to return to this reading several months from now in a upcoming paper

Like poems, novels, and plays, summaries are a genre with pretty typical characteristics. 

for our class, shoot for these guidelines:

keep it short

add context (who, what, when, where)

keep big picture in mind--what is the major argument?

know you are leaving something out

here's a summary I for a reading

In this 1997 Rhetoric Review article, “Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents,” Keith Grant-Davie helps readers think more expansive about the concept rhetorical situations. He connects his thinking to previous work, which described rhetorical situations and spends the bulk of his article defining exigence, rhetors, audience, and constraints. These terms, to his mind, collectively constitute a rhetorical situation. Ultimately, he believes his work is important because, “teaching our writing students to examine rhetorical situations as sets of interacting influences from which rhetoric arises, and which rhetoric in turn influences, is therefore one of the more important things we can do” (264).

Ugh. 

That's a lot of text. Let's break it down.

add some context

In this 1997 Rhetoric Review article, “Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents,” Keith Grant-Davie helps readers think more expansive about the concept rhetorical situations. 

He connects his thinking to previous work, which described rhetorical situations and spends the bulk of his article defining exigence, rhetors, audience, and constraints. These terms, to his mind, collectively constitute a rhetorical situation.

Yeah: that seems to cover most of what he is trying to get done. I wish I had a quote in these sentences, but I think it works ok.

end it. tell me why this reading is important. but make sure those words come from the writer--not you.

Ultimately, he believes his work is important because, “teaching our writing students to examine rhetorical situations as sets of interacting influences from which rhetoric arises, and which rhetoric in turn influences, is therefore one of the more important things we can do” (264).

cut your opinion

the reading is wonderful or perfect or awesome

the reading doesn't suck, the author doesn't contradict herself

just tell me what the author says