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You can write a summary of the 2nd scene of the 1st act of the play ‘Macbeth’ of Shakespeare. You should not use the word ‘abstract’ to mean summary. In other words it is wrong to say ‘write an abstract of the 2nd scene of the 1st act of the play Macbeth’. It is right to say ‘write a summary of the 2nd scene of the 1st act of the play Macbeth.’ This is the main difference between the two words abstract and summary.
1.Read again the article The Potential of the APEC Grouping to Promote Intra Regional Trade in the Asia-Pacific Region (Unit 4, p.20) and write a summary. (refer to the Supplementary Material section for more information about summarizing). Compare your summary with the abstract of the article.
2.Find articles in your field of study and summarize them.
ANNOTATION WRITING
An annotation is a brief summary of a book, article, or other publication. Annotations describe (summarize important content) and evaluate (critically analyze) the resource based on standard criteria. An annotation differs from an abstract or summary, as abstracts and summaries usually only describe or summarize the content and do not critically evaluate.
Annotations may be written to describe books, Web sites, government documents, videos, or other items.
The purpose of the annotation is to help the reader evaluate whether the work cited is relevant to a specific research topic or line of inquiry.
Annotations could be descriptive or evaluative, or a combination of both. A descriptive annotation summarizes the scope and content of a work whereas an evaluative annotation provides critical comment.
Descriptive Annotations describe the content of a book or article and indicate distinctive features.
Critical Annotations, in addition to describing the contents, evaluate the usefulness of a book or article for particular situations.
Generally, annotations should be no more than 150 words (or 4-6 sentences long). They should be concise and well-written. Depending on your assignment, annotations may include some or all of the following information:
Main focus or purpose of the work
Intended audience for the work
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Usefulness or relevance to your research topic (or why it did not meet your expectations)
Special features of the work that were unique or helpful Background and credibility of the author
Conclusions or observations reached by the author Conclusions or observations reached by you
Sample descriptive annotation
London, Herbert. "Five Myths of the Television Age." Television Quarterly 10(1) Spring 1982:81-89.
The author explains how television contradicts five ideas commonly believed by most people, using specific examples seen on television, such as the assassination of John Kennedy, to demonstrate his points. His examples contradict such truisms as "seeing is believing", "a picture is worth a thousand words", and "satisfaction is its own reward." London uses logical arguments to support his ideas, and doesn't refer to any previous works on the topic: the article is his personal opinion.
Sample critical annotation
London, Herbert. "Five Myths of the Television Age." Television Quarterly 10(1) Spring 1982:81-89.
Herbert London, a Dean at New York University and author of several books and articles, explains how television contradicts five ideas commonly believed by most people, using specific examples seen on television, such as the assassination of John Kennedy, to demonstrate his points. His examples contradict such truisms as "seeing is believing", "a picture is worth a thousand words", and "satisfaction is its own reward." London uses logical arguments to support his ideas, and doesn't refer to any previous works on the topic: the article is his personal opinion. His style and vocabulary would make the article of interest to any reader. The article clearly illustrates London's points, but does not explore their implications, leaving the reader with many unanswered questions.
Annotated bibliography
An annotated bibliography adds a brief summary of the contents of each item on the list. Placed just below the facts of publication, the annotation describes the essential details of the work and its relevance to the topic. It will help future researchers determine whether or not to consult the work. Provide enough information in about
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three sentences for a reader to have a fairly clear image of the book's purpose, contents, and special value.
Sample annotated bibliography entry
Gibson, Walker. Tough, Sweet, and Stuffy. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1966.
This essay on modern prose styles describes the three extreme styles: tough talk, sweet talk, and stuffy talk. Samples in the appendix are especially helpful.
1.Summarize the difference between an abstract, a summary and an annotation.
2.Read the following texts and decide on the type of each piece of writing.
A.
DeBono, K.G., Leavitt, A., & Backus, J. (2003). Product packaging and product evaluation: An individual difference approach. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 513-521.
Past research has shown that consumers are influenced by the way a product is packaged when evaluating its quality. Packaging may imply the promise of a particular image that the consumer can attain by using the product. The individual difference of self-monitoring may affect how likely a consumer is to be influenced by product packaging. High self-monitors tend to adapt their behavior to suit particular situations, while low self-monitors are instead likely to maintain consistency between their private beliefs and their public personas. Studies have shown that high selfmonitors tend to be more influenced by the promise of the packaging when rating product quality than are low self-monitors. DeBono, Leavitt and Backus (2003) predicted that high self-monitors would look more favorably upon products with attractive packaging, while low self-monitors would be less influenced by packaging.
The first study was conducted with 64 college students who were rated as either high or low selfmonitors by their scores on a self-monitoring inventory. These participants were given four samples each of coffee, chocolate and bottled water. Although each of the samples of the three types of product was identical, they were presented as different brands with varying degrees of attractiveness in packaging (as predetermined by independent evaluation). The results of participants’ ratings of the products via questionnaire showed that high self-monitors rated attractively packaged products more favorably than low self-monitors did. The type of product (coffee, chocolate or water) did not significantly affect ratings.
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The second study was conducted with 200 college students who were similarly rated as high or low self-monitors. Participants were asked to evaluate scents that had been previously determined to be either pleasant or less pleasant smelling. These scents were presented in bottles that were either attractive or less attractive (as evaluated beforehand). Analysis of the results of questionnaires rating the scents showed that high self-monitors rated the quality of a scent more favorably when it was presented in an attractive bottle. Low self-monitors tended to rate the pleasant scent more favorably regardless of the attractiveness of the bottle.
Both studies showed that high self-monitors were more influenced by product packaging. The researchers also consider that packaging may play upon the high selfmonitors’ desire to be more socially acceptable by connecting the promise of an attractive image with use of the product. Low self-monitors tend to be more concerned with maintaining personal integrity and are therefore more likely to rely upon their own opinions when evaluating products.
B.
This thesis examines quality assurance standards and practices for the development of software systems in a geographically distributed environment. This thesis will also identify the problems that distributed software engineering teams face when collaborating on a project. It will be shown that as a software project becomes distributed, the need to verify the quality of the software process increases. A special focus will also be given to the problems that affected the performance of the Quality Assurance Engineer (QAE) in such environment. This study found that the team must be kept informed of all the events surrounding quality assurance and one way to do this is by creating a repository, such as a web site, to store all quality assurance work. Thus, every member will have access to the QAE’s work throughout the software development process, potentially increasing the performance of the whole team.
C.
McCloskey, Donald “An economic uncertainty principle”: Economists claim to know the next month’s interest rates, yet they are not rich. Their claim is also a claim that others in the market do not know the future of interest rates. The economic uncertainty principle is examined.