Summaries Assignment

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Background

Preview of summaries The Article Summaries assignment asked me to prepare an informative summary and a descriptive summary for a piece of technical writing entitled "Nested Selves, Networked Communities: A Case Study of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction as an Agent of Cultural Change" by Katherine McBirney.

What I Did Well

In this assignment, there were only a handful of things that I did well. I produced only a small amount of spelling errors, and I used grammar and mechanics appropriately.

What Needed Improvement

There were a variety of areas that needed improvement in this assignment.

First and foremost, I was lacking an understanding of the different components that comprise an informative summary versus a descriptive summary. I failed to include the critical components in both summaries. The informative summary should have included the purpose, methods, findings, and conclusion of the summarized document whereas the descriptive summary should have included the purpose and methods of the summarized document.

Secondly, I failed to organize my content appropriately, disregarding paragraph breaks and phrasing my sentences awkwardly. Every time a new idea is articulate, it needs to be placed into a new paragraph. I need to ensure that a sentence only has to be read once to communicate its meaning.

What I Learned

From this assignment, I gained a greater understanding of different types of summaries. An informative summary consists of the summarized document's purpose, methods, findings, and conclusions. A descriptive summary consists of the summarized document's purpose and methods only.

I also learned not to procrastinate. If I would have allowed more time to complete this assignment, I would have been able to incorporate what I learned about summaries into my final assignment. More time would have also allowed for better proofreading, allowing me to recognize awkward word choices and phrases.