Summary-Analysis Project Assignment

The goal of this project will be to summarize and analyze an academic article on a subject of interest to you. In the first draft of the project, we will summarize it, being careful to paraphrase fully.In the second draft, we will add an analysis of the article’s rhetorical features: audience, purpose, style, and setting.

We will do the paper in stages, working in and out of class. You will do much of the work right on this page. Please save it so that you can turn it in along with your drafts.

Step 1: Make a list below of your interests in school and out of school:

School Interests / Out-of-School Interests

Step 2: Choose one school interest and one out-of-school interest. For each interest that you have chosen, use GALILEO to look for an academic article on that subject. Find at least two articles for each interest. Paste the bibliographic citations for the articles here. You should have four bib items listed:

Step 3:Look over the four articles. Choose one to summarize. As you read the article, take notes on the most important ideas and facts. Use a bulleted list, and make the notes fragments---not whole sentences:

Also, list and define any words you don’t fully understand below. Use Google to find definitions of the words:

Step 4: Using the list of notes from Step 3, write a summary of the article. Use a new paragraph for each main idea or section of the article that you summarize. Check your summary to make sure that each sentence is your own—no accidentally copied sentences.

Step 5: Add an introduction with an academic hook, source identification, and a statement of the source’s main point. (We will add the analytic thesis later.)

Academic Hook: Almost 80% of adults in American fail to meet the CDC’s guidelines for getting the amount of physical activity that leads to good health. Inactivity in Americans helps account for a growing percentage of the country’s health care dollar.

You may use:

  • An arresting fact
  • A quote
  • A question
  • A brief story

Source ID: In “Too Little Exercise and Too Much Sitting: Inactivity Physiology and the Need for New Recommendations on Sedentary Behavior” published in Current Cardiovascular Risk Reports, Hamilton, Healy, Dunstan, Zderic and Owen (2012) review the evidence about excessive sitting . . .

Source main point: . . . and conclude that it is a serious health risk.

Here is the introduction put together for P1D1:

Almost 80% of adults in American fail to meet the CDC’s guidelines for getting the amount of physical activity that leads to good health. Inactivity in Americans helps account for a growing percentage of the country’s health care dollar. In “Too Little Exercise and Too Much Sitting: Inactivity Physiology and the Need for New Recommendations on Sedentary Behavior” published in Current Cardiovascular Risk Reports, Hamilton, Healy, Dunstan, Zderic and Owen (2012) review the evidence about excessive sitting and conclude that it is a serious health risk.