About the Assignment;

Write an objective summary of Deborah Tannen’s article “Who Does the Talking Here?” Include appropriate parenthetical (internal or in-text) citations. Use paragraph numbers since the article does not have pagination. EX: (par. 1) Use literary present tense in the summary. A work-cited page is required.

Requirements:

Begin with a signal phrase that includes the author’s name and the title of the essay. NOTE: After you use the author’s full name in the first sentence, refer to the author elsewhere in your summary by his/her last name (e.g., first reference to author: Deborah Tannen, subsequent references: Tannen).
State the author’s thesis in 1—2 sentences. If the thesis is complex, it may be easier to state it in 2 sentences rather than trying to cram everything into 1. *NOTE: If you have difficulty with this part, you might review the How to SummarizePreview the document link.
After the thesis, include brief (two-three sentences) summaries for each section of the essay. Do use individual paragraphs for EACH major section.
Avoid repetition and do NOT include minor points.
Focus on the facts—do NOT include your opinion.
Use parenthetical (aka internal or in-text) citations to document all direct quotes and borrowed ideas. Also, include a parenthetical citation at the end of EACH paragraph since you are simply summarizing the original document. This means it’s all borrowed information even though it’s in your words. Use paragraph numbers for all in-text citations.
Do NOT rely on direct quotes; summaries should be mostly in your words. That said, do not use more than three (3) direct quotes.
Include a properly formatted Work Cited page. Use the model for an online newspaper article–#25 on p. 151 in Perspectives. Please include the date of access at the end of the citation.
Include transitional words (in addition, however, on the other hand, similarly, etc.) to move from one point to another. Check out Virtual Salt (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. for a great list of transitional words/phrases.
Proofread carefully and spell-check.
Give your paper a title according to the assignment. EX: Summary: “Who Does the Talking Here?”
Reminder: Do NOT include:

1st person (I) or 2nd person (you) pronouns; the summary must be written in 3rd person only (he, she, they, Tannen, people, men, women)
your opinion or comments; summaries only focus on the original content of the essay, NOT the summarizer’s viewpoint or opinion. You are merely “reporting” what the author discussed.