The purpose of this
assignment is to practice the important skills of reading and
summarizing scholarly articles and to help you and your cluster members
learn about your chosen topic.
Each member of your research cluster will post one article abstract. To do that, follow these steps:
First, select the
one scholarly article you have found in a peer-reviewed journal
that you think would be of most interest to your cluster members. (If
you are unsure how to identify a scholarly article, read the Campus
Library's guide at <http://www.bothell.washington.edu/library/guides/sources.html>,
which you also can get to from the "External Links" area in
Blackboard.) It is o.k. if more than one group member chooses the same
article to abstract. If your
article includes its own abstract, or you have found an abstract of
your article somewhere else, I strongly recommend that you do not read
it! It is difficult not to be influenced by an abstract
written by someone else, and it makes it harder to produce your own
based only on your own critical reading and thinking. Moreover,
you run the risk of using too much of the original abstract, either
intentionally or unintentionally, which can lead to academic integrity
problems. It is important to avoid the appearance of using
someone else's intellectual property without attribution.
Then, read "Writing Abstracts" at <http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/bizwrite/abstracts.html>, which you also can get to from the "External Links" area of Blackboard.
Then, write an informative
abstract of 200 to 300 words, following the "Writing Abstracts"
guide. Please write your document in Microsoft Word. Although
the "Writing Abstracts" web site example is single-spaced and does not
contain full publication information, please make sure that your
abstract is double-spaced and contains, anywhere in the document, the
article's full publication information: full title, author, journal
title, and publication
date, and full information about the database from which it was
retrieved, if any (e.g., ProQuest.
Retrieved 23 Jan. 2006.). Please use a standard
academic header as shown in item
#20 in "Tips for Better Prose" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Prose.html>
(which does not count toward the word count).
Finally, no
later than 8:35 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 14, post your abstract in
Blackboard. To do so, log onto Blackboard
and click on
"Communication," then on "Group Pages." Click on your research
cluster link, and then on "Discussion Board." Then click on the
"Article Abstracts" link and then on my message. Click on the "Reply"
button and add your abstract, which must
be a Word document, to your message as an attachment.
Note that the
abstract originally was going to be included in your midquarter
portfolio, but instead will be posted in Blackboard so your cluster
members can benefit from your work.
Your abstract will
be graded on the following criteria:
Completeness and
accuracy 80 percent Conventions 20 percent TOTAL 5 percent of
course grade
This page last updated January 23, 2006.
