＊*Nellie's Blog*＊

1. The first sentence of the summary must include the author's name, title of  the article and reflect the thesis or main idea of the entire original article.

2. The first word and the main words of the title must be capitalized.

3. The reporting verbs throughout the summary must be in the present tense and the comma after the article name is inside the quotation marks. Ex: In the article, "Street-Corner Immigration," the author argues.....

4. Include phrases like "The author suggests that...." or "The author describes how..." throughout the summary so that it is clear the ideas belong to the author and not the writer of the summary.

5. When using direct language from the original text this language must be in quotation marks. Otherwise, this is plagiarism which is a serious academic offense. Do not use too many quotes, it is better to paraphrase (put into your own words) the ideas of the author.

6. The final sentence (concluding sentence) of the summary must paraphrase the first sentence of the summary, which is the main idea (thesis) of the original article.



From Instructor-Colleen Ryder (SUNY Albany - IELP)