The Art of Summary (Barker and Taylor)
Due by Sunday, 3/6, 11:59pm PST

Your task for this first short essay response is to write a brief, focused summary of a particular aspect of Barker and Taylor’s text (the introduction and fourth chapter of their : “Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music”

The Art of Summary
Summary is an essential move for writers. In order for you to respond to what other writers have said, you must first introduce their ideas. In fact, college writing typically asks you to address an audience of general readers who are not familiar with the sources you are using or the writing assignment itself. After all, you’ll likely want your writing to be accessible to the maximum number of readers. Therefore, you have to frame up the context of what others have said before introducing your own ideas about the topic at hand; that is our goal in this response.

Summary isn’t quite as easy as it seems; it’s not easy to do it well. When summarizing, you have to translate the text to your readers accurately, efficiently, and in your own words. This is a crucial move as you work with sources in an essay, before you offer direct quotes or your analysis/commentary on the source.

The art of summary is not just mechanically writing down the main ideas or unanalytical reporting. Summary is an analytical move where you can come to an understanding of the text through your own lens as a reader/thinker. By nature, any summary you write is based on your individual understanding of the text. No two readers interpret a text in the same way, and there is no such thing as a completely accurate and objective summary. You should, however, strive to be fair and neutral as you represent the ideas of others. Your summary should highlight a key idea or set of ideas, through your perspective, as a way to come to an understanding of the text and begin to ask questions about it. Summaries are a way to respond analytically, particularly once you move from what a text is saying to how they are saying it and why they are saying it.

Faking It – Book CoverGetting Started: Write a Draft
1). The following questions, might be helpful to consider as you begin to write your summary:

Which of the ideas in the reading are most significant? Why?
How do these ideas fit together?
What do the key passages/keywords in the reading mean?
2). After re-reading Barker and Taylor, reduce scope. Since the reading is lengthy, you won’t be able to cover everything. Imagine that you are telling someone who has never read Barker and Taylor about their text. You’ll want to give an introduction and overview of the piece, as a favor to your readers, then move to a particular an idea, assertion, or complication the text raises that is interesting to you.

In other words, it is easier to say more about less. Use the annotations and notes you’ve put together as a guide.

3). Without looking at the text, write a draft which summarizes the key points you’ve chosen to highlight.

4). Now look back at the Barker and Taylor text. Have you done an accurate job of representing the key points you want to highlight? Did you leave out anything important? Did you include a minor detail that isn’t really important to the summary?

Important: Make sure that you are not accidentally using the authors’ own specific wording or phrasing in your summary without citing it, which is a form of plagiarism. For now, focus on putting everything in your own words.

5). Now take your draft and write your revised summary, using the guidelines below.

Writing Your Response: Final Draft (to turn in by 3/6)
1). Craft a final version of your summary to turn in as Response #1.

2). In your first sentence, it’s a good practice to mention the title, the full name of the authors, and introduce the authors’ overall subject matter or purpose for writing.

Example: In their chapter “Heartbreak Hotel: The Art and Artifice of Elvis Presley” from Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music, Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor argue…

3). Add to your summary by mentioning the key idea(s) or complexities you want highlight from the text. Remember to focus in on particular aspects. Don’t try to cover everything.

4). Once you tell your prospective readers what Barker and Taylor’s text discusses, you can move into a discussion of how they present their ideas and why they might be pursuing these ideas. Still hold off on judgement or your opinion as you write the summary. Doing so both establishes the text for your readers and your credibility as a writer as you present the ideas of others in your own words.

Guidelines for Summary Writing:
Represent the ideas of the original text as accurately as possible.
Be neutral. Don’t criticize, agree or disagree with either the authors’ viewpoint or the content of the book. For now, focus on the original text, not on your own reaction to the piece.
Remember that the summary does not need to be written in the same order as the original.
Use your own words. If you must borrow specific, brief phrases or words from the original, put them in quotation marks. (Don’t get crazy here. Obviously, if you are writing a summary on an essay about authenticity, you are free to use the word authenticity without putting it in quotation marks.) Avoid borrowing entire sentences in a summary.
If you use any quotations, or paraphrase something directly, include the page number(s) in parentheses to tell readers where the quote appears in the original text.
Be sure to write about the text in the present tense/active voice.
Example: “Barker and Taylor write/explore/question/suggest…”

“Their book explores the notion of authenticity and how performers…”

Assignment Requirements:
Your response should be a minimum of 400 words and completed before the cutoff deadline, Sunday, 3/6, 11:59pm PST.
Please type your response, 12pt. font, Times New Roman, double-spaced. Make sure to proofread and edit it carefully.
This response is part of your “support writing” grade (pass/no pass evaluation). No late responses will be accepted.