The Summary Analysis:

You will read a NYTimes opinion piece, “Gang of 40,” by Nicholas B. Kristof and write a short essay summarizing, with utter neutrality, the piece’s argument;

Length: 1/3^rd of the original’s 786-word length;

Style: MLA;

Points: 15:

7 for grammar, usage, syntax and punctuation; especially, but not limited to, using Professor Joseph Williams’s 3 axioms

·      use characters as grammatical subjects in all your clauses (independent or subordinate);

·      closely link those subjects to action verbs in the active voice;

·      build paragraphs from clauses strung together with consistent grammatical subjects;

You will also earn points (or fail to earn points) for:

·      pronoun use (that your pronouns have clear, unambiguous referents as covered in class and posted on Blackboard);

·      punctuation (where punctuation miss-use or omission inhibits the reader’s understanding);

·      spelling (again, where misspellings inhibit understanding, or indicate overall sloppiness (rather than an occasional and innocent typographical error));

·      register (that your word-choice avoids slang or language not befitting an academic setting).

8 for having a well-informed, thesis-driven, accurate, neutral, comprehensive and independent summary; a summary with:

·      limited quotes from the original;

·      a summary that, as the assignment indicates, contains short paragraphs equivalent in the number, the scope and the pith and substance of the original’s sections;

·      a summary rendered in the same order as the original.