Four Purposes for Academic Writing

Summarize, Analyze, Synthesize, Evaluate

By Prof. Randee Baty with The Lukeion Project

Most of the writing a student will do in rigorous high school classes and college classes will come from material they have been assigned to read or from research they have done. When a student is assigned to write an academic paper on that material, it’s crucial for the student to know what they are being asked to do with the material so that they can complete the assignment correctly. All writing assignments aren’t the same! Usually, when assigning a writing project, the professor wants the student to do one of four things with the material: summarize, analyze, synthesize, or evaluate. Be sure you know which one you are being asked to do!

Summarize

Summarizing is the least requested types of writing for papers. Summarizing is taking someone else’s work and distilling it down to its basic elements. This is usually asked for when a professor wants to ensure that you did actually read the material or that you understand the material. For example, a professor may have you write a summary of each chapter of your textbook or of videos assigned to view.  When you are asked to summarize, you should give all the main points without giving most of the evidence that backs them up. Only give the main supporting information. Unless specifically instructed to do so, no opinions or personal thoughts on the work should be given because you are simply asked to tell the professor the gist of the author’s work.

The biggest mistake students make when summarizing is thinking that a summary implies a few sentences. A well-written summary should be about a quarter of the length of the original material. If you are assigned four pages, it should take about a page to summarize. Less than about the quarter of the original length will most likely fail to do justice to the main points of the reading material.

The reason that teachers rarely want summary are two-fold.  First, they have already read or viewed whatever material they’ve assigned and don’t need you to tell them what it said.  Second, it does not show the depth of understanding that other types of writing show. Summarizing can be done with a surface reading, so don’t summarize in papers unless that is what you are asked to do.

Analyze

Analyzing is the most requested task in writing assignments. When you are asked to analyze, understand that you are not being asked to summarize. Unless you are specifically asked to do so, don’t summarize what you read. Believe me, the teacher already knows what it says. They don’t need you to tell them. What they need you to do is to dig deeper. Go below the surface. Take all the individual elements apart and look at them piece by piece. I like to think of taking individual parts of something and holding them up to the light to see how they look. Turn them around.  Look at them from different directions.  Take complex material and break it down into individual components to see how it works. Put it back together in various ways to make sense of it. It’s similar to a scientist breaking a compound into its individual components to see what it’s made of and how it can be manipulated. An analysis prompt might be something like “Compare the political and societal circumstances of the  Iroquois Confederacy from before the arrival of Europeans through the end of the 16th century.” This shows them your thinking process and how well you understand the subject. Be prepared for plenty of this type of writing in high school and college.

Synthesize

The third reason purpose of writing is to synthesize information from several sources that you have read or researched. This is the basis of most research writing. You’ll take information from several sources to support a new claim that neither of the sources made directly, but that you have realized after reading the sources. Synthesizing sources can require some summary, but mostly it requires analysis. The only way to draw a new conclusion from the sources is to have analyzed them and worked their various parts together. An example of this might be something like researching the value of recess time for middle-school aged students.  It would require information from a number of different sources to create a claim.

A well-written synthesis paper or research paper won’t have the sources standing alone in the points they make.  If each point is made by one source, you essentially are giving the instructor a string of summaries.  Weave the sources together as you make your points.  Show how each point and your overall claim are supported by more than one source.  If you have an over-reliance on one source and aren’t working it together with other sources, it can appear that you are mainly summarizing that one source rather than creating a new idea from plenty of research. That will not work in research writing.

Evaluate

Evaluation is the fourth reason for academic writing.  When you evaluate, you are giving a value judgement on the worth of something, specifically on its academic worth. It could be a someone else’s research, it could be a line of discussion, it could be particular sources.  This will not come into play much until you hit upper levels of academia because you aren’t qualified to make these types of judgements until you have done plenty of research, analysis, and synthesis.  By the time you are asked to evaluate material, your prior knowledge of the topic, your understanding of good research practices, your ability to recognize logical or illogical arguments, and your critical thinking skills should be well-developed.  Evaluating requires a combination of summarizing, analyzing, and synthesis skills.

When a writing assignment is given in any class, thoroughly read the assignment instructions to know exactly what the instructor is asking you to do.  If you have any questions about the assignment, ask them right away!  Understanding the point of the paper is one of the keys to a strong academic performance.

Carpe Diem

Restore your Academic Focus with Rest

Amy Barr with The Lukeion Project

When it comes to staying at the top of your game, academically, don’t forget to rest. Take time off from your daily grind if you want to improve your intellectual acumen. Some will find this admonition to be welcome news. For all you type-A personalities, let me elaborate further.

In our live online classes, we educators regularly ask polls to get everyone settled and seated before the day’s work begins. For years we have asked how many students take breaks from their educational pursuits and how many push through all four seasons and most holidays. Probably half respond that they enjoy breaks and balance. Around 15% of our students never take time off. For them, one season flows into the next without many changes to the relentless academic schedule. Inevitably, the conversation turns to asking these particular students, “how’s that working for you?”

As educators, we have a unique vantage point when we ask these questions. We have a little insight (at least through grades and class behavior) into how well students perform whether they take a more balanced approach (rest, work, and variations in schedules) compared to those who press hard full time. Nobody should be surprised to hear that our best and brightest tend to also have a better life-work balance. Students who push through the year full time tend to be more stressed, academically, and socially. It turns out that balance really is the key to everything.

Breaks during the hard work of gaining an education, one might object, is a luxury that few can afford! How can one be the best at what one does unless one uses every moment?  

Margins, down-time, adjustments to tempo, variations in intensity, switching out of deep habits to try new things or new topics, rest, recovery, review…these are all ways to not only restore one’s tired soul, but also to restore one’s focus and intensity toward the parts of life that matter most. Nobody performs well long term in a life that is all push and no pull.

The Roman poet Horace was a Stoic advocate of seeking the Golden Middle. Through his poetry, he implored us to search for balance in life. There’s no guarantee we’ll have the downtime we crave in the future. Seize the day! This isn’t an admonition to hustle all the time to squeeze every drop from life. Sometimes, seizing the day is a matter of getting away from the desk and computer or walking away from practice and review or briefly forgetting there’s a transcript to fill out for college. Sometimes we should pluck (carpe) the day, like harvesting a juicy apple from a tree. Relish the time. Enjoy the flavor and sunshine.

Seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam /… sapias… spatio breui spem longam reseces. / Dum loquimur, fugerit inuida / aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

"Whether Jupiter is giving you many more winters or this one as your last...Know this: cut short long-term hope for a little while. While we have been speaking just now, hateful time will have already fled! Seize the day! Trust as little as possible in the future."

As we enter a time of year in which there is an increased opportunity for rest. Seize the day and be intentional with your pursuit of balance, margin, and breaks. As we scurry frantically to complete our obligations, let us also –at least occasionally—pull the blanket over our head for a longer snooze on a rainy Saturday. Learn to do some very nonacademic things like roasting a turkey, dancing a silly dance, helping a needy neighbor, or shooting the breeze with an older family member who really misses you. Your obligations will patiently wait while you schedule some much needed rest and restoration.  

 

Ultimate Answers to the TOP 4 Questions Students Ask Educators

Save Time! Learn These Academic Secrets NOW!

By Amy Barr with The Lukeion Project

During a lifetime career of lovingly and attentively educating students, we teachers hear some questions far more often than others. While we educators are known for saying, “there’s no such thing as a dumb question,” we also know that some questions have ulterior meanings and motives. I provide here in no particular order the answers to your biggest and most pressing academic questions, so you’ll never need to ask them in class.

#1 I got busy and forgot. Can you reopen my assignment for me? Will you give me feedback anyway?

"Sure. I had no real reason behind putting a deadline on that task. Do what you like! Not."

Most students ask this question because they’ve had time management issues to the point that things have gone off the rails. For some students this is truly a rare occurrence, and their heart is in the right place. They had one of those weeks. They hope to mitigate the damage.

For other students, time management is mismanaged more frequently. This issue will eventually spread to every class, every assignment, and cause long term trouble in one’s personal life once time is complicated by things like jobs and adult obligations. Some modern pedagogical approaches have given up entirely and now offer endless re-dos and zero deadlines. This approach has its merits for a few subjects but, especially for academic topics I have seen few benefits for anyone, student or teacher.

Decades of teaching (and parenting) experience confirm that simply having firm deadlines is enough to help most students develop the skill of time management now while things are less dire. Experienced educators know that 9 out of 10 students who ask for a please-just-this-one-time-only extension will ask for deadlines to be adjusted for the rest of the semester and forevermore.

Here’s the answer: No, you can’t have an extension because everyone is busy.

A good educator knows that once a student hits a certain age and maturity, she will never build better time management skills by constantly offering her more non-emergency extensions. The rest of the class prioritized an assignment enough to finish work on time so rewarding one person with a random extension is unkind to all, including the one asking for an extension. Your educator allocated a certain amount of time for grading and feedback on a particular task and, by asking for extensions, you are making unmerited demands on another person’s schedule. Many educators are generous to make that offer once or twice but most won’t continue to be charitable once a student turns it into a lifelong pattern.

Manage your time or it will manage you. 

#2 When are you going to grade my assignment?

"Let me check…hmm, yes. I’ll be done next Tuesday at 3:02 am."

Most students ask this question because they are at a loss for how to politely say, “Hurry up! I want to know my grade!”

We understand it can be frustrating waiting for scores. It is tempting to look at your educator’s job as somewhat limited to dealing with only your class and only your assignments. If you have that perspective, then it is easy to imagine your educator is leading a pretty cushy lifestyle. How long can it take to slap a grade on one essay, for goodness sake?!  

Here’s the answer: Nobody is as interested in finishing the task of grading assignments more than your educators!  

The best day of each semester is that one moment when we have everything done at last (the next moment we must start working on the new semester). Your educators spend all day teaching several classes but still tuck in grading sessions every spare minute possible. Toss in some lesson planning, research, writing, unscheduled academic crises, a few emergency college recommendation letters, a couple necessary faculty meetings, and an occasional desire to (gasp) take the weekend off…you get the picture. Your educators have plenty on their plates. Unless you think that something has gone seriously wrong with an assignment you turned in, tread softly. We are all working as quickly as we can. You’ll score more points by being understanding.

#3 Will this be on the test?

Most students ask this question because they want to know if they should bother to listen, participate, take notes or study the material at hand. Whenever students ask this question, your educators actually hear, “do I need to exert any of my own energy here with this stuff going on or can I go back to playing my game online?”

Here’s the answer: Yes, this will ALL be on the test.

Once you get to middle school and certainly high school and beyond, time is very limited in class. ALWAYS assume that what your educator is presenting to you or incorporating into a discussion is intentional. Will this exact material be on a “quiz”? Maybe! Since you are learning the material (not teaching the material) you’ll be delighted to hear that we educators usually have a plan in place to help you master a whole body of material! Presume that your job is to stay engaged during the whole class and to take notes to help you focus. It will never pay to try to calculate how little is necessary to pass a class. You’ll score more points and gain a better education by being attentive and engaged in class and discussions.

#4 Sorry I’m late, did I miss anything?

Most students ask this question because they are at a loss for how to politely excuse themselves for arriving late.

This question, if asked aloud, will cause your educator to grow incensed and, depending on how strong his or her filters are, it will get you any variety of responses ranging from a polite “come in please” to a snarky “we were sitting here silently waiting for your arrival to begin our work.”

The mother-of-all-responses to a student asking this question is a poem by Tom Wayman written in 1945 but so true today.

 

Did I Miss Anything?

Nothing. When we realized you weren't here

we sat with our hands folded on our desks

in silence, for the full two hours

 

Everything. I gave an exam worth

40 percent of the grade for this term

and assigned some reading due today

on which I'm about to hand out a quiz

worth 50 percent

 

Nothing. None of the content of this course

has value or meaning

Take as many days off as you like:

any activities we undertake as a class

I assure you will not matter either to you or me

and are without purpose

 

Everything. A few minutes after we began last time

a shaft of light suddenly descended and an angel

or other heavenly being appeared

and revealed to us what each woman or man must do

to attain divine wisdom in this life and

the hereafter

This is the last time the class will meet

before we disperse to bring the good news to all people on earth.

 

Nothing. When you are not present

how could something significant occur?

 

Everything. Contained in this classroom

is a microcosm of human experience

assembled for you to query and examine and ponder

This is not the only place such an opportunity has been gathered

 

but it was one place

And you weren't here