2021.09.01
Article Summary Guide
Ming Xia prepared for Pol/Eco 251: International Political Economy
Suggestions from the Instructor:
You are expected to choose any one article from the reading list (I have posted 5 pieces).
As you are approaching any scholarly writing, you should always remember that writers in social sciences often follow a “tour guide” format instead of a “detective story” format. Not to confuse you and not to lose your hand as s/he travels with you in a challenging intellectual journey, the author tries to leave as many road signs as possible for you to follow.
First, you should read the title and subtitles in the text carefully. As we talk, we want to look into people’s eyes to maintain eye contact (G.W. Bush talked about how he could trust Vladimir Putin because he could look into his eyes. I am sorry for this unfortunate example.). To some extent, the title of an article or a book or book chapter, is like the eyes of people; through them, we can guess about and anticipate what the author is likely going to say. The subtitles are major steps for the author to lead you through the journey.
Second, you should read the first one or two paragraphs and the last paragraphs carefully. A good author often starts laying out the context so you can adjust yourself for the topic and build up your interest and expectation. Then, the author is going to tell you what major arguments s/he is going to contribute, how they differ from the “conventional wisdoms” (always a “theoretical straw man” is created for the author to punch), what theories s/he is going to relate to, what method (or a mixture of methods) s/he is going to apply, and what data are to be collected and examined, etc. Then, the author will give you a prognosis for the main body of the text (Often you will see these words: “in the remainder of the article,” “the article is divided into the following sections,” and some equivalent). In reading the introduction and the conclusion, you should pay special attention to words such as “in sum,” “in conclusion,” “all in all,” “generally speaking,” “I argue,” “I conclude,” etc. Also, many scholars tend to use Arabic numbers or bullets to summarize their findings and conclusions. Once you have pretty good ideas about what the article is about through the first reading of introduction and conclusion, it will make it much easier for you to understand and follow the logic lines of the main body of the text.
Third, once you are entering the main body of a theoretical and abstract (for your current academic preparation) writing, you should pay attention to the author’s two modes of organizing his/her reasoning: the chronological order and the logical order.
Finally, as you are reading the text, you should always highlight some quotable sentences (I call them “gems” of writers), so you can incorporate in your summary. Sometimes you can paraphrase and synthesize the author, but many times, you cannot do better than the author, so you just quote them. Since this is a summary, verbatim quotations are not plagiarism.
Last but not least, you are going to encounter many big words that when I discuss in class, you may think I am speaking Chinese. I hope that you are going to consult your dictionary, so you will expand your vocabulary. WWW.dictionary.com is a good place, because it gives you the audio pronunciation.
Remember to find the following important points:
What is the major idea of the article?
What major argument has the author presented?
Does the author give enough evidences and reasons to support the central argument?
What is new to you? Your gains?
Since a summary is like to prepare an Executive Summary for your boss, please use bullets, numbers and key words to list the ideas on the one hand to highlight the most important ideas, on the other hand to save space.
