Outline for Science Article Summary

 

          Follow this outline when you summarize your weekly science articles. 

 

1.       Science articles (not the summary) must be of a minimum length not counting connecting words like a, the, of, an, etc.

  1. 6th grade – 400 words
  2. 7th grade – 600 words
  3. 8th grade – 900 words

2.     Articles must come from some form of periodical or Internet source.  You may not use sections from books or encyclopedias. 

3.     Article should be relatively recent (at least within the last year).

4.     The original article or a copy of the article must accompany the summary.  (If from a magazine, do not turn in the whole magazine).

5.     The following format MUST be used for the summary:

 

a.)   Title of article

b.)  Source (title of magazine, newspaper, internet URL, etc)

c.)   Date published (this is usually at the bottom of WebPages)

d.)   Summary of article

I don’t set a minimum length for the summary but it should of sufficient length to accurately and adequately summarize the article.  A good rule of thumb is at least one sentence to summarize each paragraph in the article.

e.)   After the summary, you should list three things from the article that could lead to further research.  List each as a question you might answer through research.  Questions must be relevant to further research.  Therefore:

Do not ask about:

·         Definitions to vocabulary used in the article.  (Get a dictionary)

·         What I think of the article or the research in general.  My opinion is irrelevant. 

·         “How much money does the research cost/”

·         Generalities like “What impact will this research will have on mankind?” 

These kinds of questions do not relate to further research

 

If you follow these rules each article will receive a 100.  If the word count is short the score drops to 70.  If you do not follow the summary format the score drops by 10 points for every deviation.  If you do not turn in an article and/or do not summarize it, it will be a 0.  You will turn in 5 articles every six weeks.  Each article is due on Friday.  At the end of the six weeks, all 5 article scores will be averaged into one grade and applied to your six weeks average as a MAJOR grade.