13. Analyze the Story

In this section of my transcript, my subject and I are discussing summaries and what professors are expecting out of them...

S:  Yeah… so do you understand what a professor is expecting from you when they ask you for a summary?

C:  Uh, yes, I mean I feel like we have learned that so young and it has been embedded in our minds since we were in preschool and just the basic so I feel like now in college it’s almost second nature to ya know to pick a summary, to outline a summary or to do a summary.

And as we continue on I explain to her that a there are different types of summaries, interpretation style for one, and although she understood what interpretation meant she did not think of it as a summary.  I think this section stood out the most to me because she is right about explaining how we all feel like a summary is common knowledge and should be "embedded into our minds" so that we are aware of how to do one and how a professor will want us to be able to give them what they want.  And if you don't know what you're doing, you feel inadequate to do good in a course instead of asking a professor what it is they would like for you to do.  It is important, not just for college students, but for everyone if you are unsure if you are doing something correctly you really should ask for help.  Just because things should be like second nature to us, doesn't mean you shouldn't ask the professor if what they want could possibly be a plot summary or a interpretation summary.  

12. Transcript

S:  Okay so if you could just sign these papers right here

C:  Okay.

S:  This is basically just going over that you are my subject and that you’re agreeing to participate in this study and if you don’t agree with anything you can tell me to stop at any time.

C:  Okay.

S:   So do you know what a summary is?

C:  Yes.

S:  Could you define a summary?

C:  A summary is a snapshot of an entire plot where you don’t need to exactly read every word but the summary gives you the descriptive details that you do need, they basically give you the gist of the story, like the character, the plot, maybe the conflict where they may at least attempt to give you the conflict in some type of way but not unreal the whole entire thing for you but a summary is just usually maybe a couple of sentences just to maybe give you an idea of the topic, or a story, or a subject or anything like that.

S:  So clearly you understand what a summary is used for.

C:  Yes.

S:  How often would you say that you’ve used summaries in your major?

C:  For Comm, um, I think a lot, a lot of the times with your research projects and when I’m trying to gather sources for a paper I’ll ya know read the paper and try to give the summary of the source that I’m using so I won’t have to read the whole paper.  When I’m ready to use the source I can write down maybe a couple sentences about the summary that I read and it will help me narrow it down with the sources that I need to use

S:  Yeah… so do you understand what a professor is expecting from you when they ask you for a summary?

C:  Uh, yes, I mean I feel like we have learned that so young and it has been embedded in our minds since we were in preschool and just the basic so I feel like now in college it’s almost second nature to ya know to pick a summary, to outline a summary or to do a summary.

S:  Are you aware that there are different types of summaries?

C:  Um, no. I guess not?

S:  Well, you obviously know from explaining earlier what a summary is, you would say that’s a plot summary, right?

C:  Yeah.

S:  Well, there’s summaries where the professor, if a professor came to you and said “I want you to give me a summary”,  what would you assume that they would want you to do? 

C:  Um, kind of how I described before.

S:  So as a plot summary?

C:  It depends on what class I’m in.  So, if it’s a Comm or English class I’m assuming you mean a plot summary. 

S:  A lot of professors actually want you to give your interpretation of what,

C:  Of what you read in the summary?

S:  Yeah

C:  I could see that

S:  What you read in the work, they want your interpretation of it so if you were say describing… If you had to do a summary for Romeo and Juliet, how would you say?  How would you say a summary for that would be?

C:  I mean for that one, since um, it is Shakespearean, sometimes it is more difficult to understand or decode depending on how knowledgeable you are in Shakespearean literature.  I do feel that in that sense you would probably do more um of a type of summary you described, versus a plot summary I feel ike you would do more of an interpretation because I mean some of the characteristics will always be the same with each of the papers the professor reads from a student but I do feel like it would vary a little bit because the interpretation of what you read is more complex than a regular piece of literature.

S:  Can you name a specific example of where you have done an interpretation summary?

C:  Um… That’s a good question… Um… The class I took last semester, it was an English class. Um, I can’t remember the name of it off the top of my head but it was where we would read a lot of poems in that class and that was a good example of us giving our interpretation summary because basically we presented it, what we thought the poem was about, he was able to tell us off of our interpretation of what we wrote for the summary, were we close to what it was trying to say or were we not so, that’s a good example of one.

S:  Were your interpretations correct?

C:  Actually, yeah, they were pretty spot on, yeah!

S:  Do you think it’s more important to know an interpretation summary or a plot summary?

C:  Uh, probably interpretation.

S:  Why do you say that?

C:  Because I mean, anybody could write verbatim, ya know, of a summary like finding a new way to rewrite a story without writing it the same exact way but interpretative makes it so much more about you and how you look at it and how you angle it so it makes you think more and think about it on your own versus kind of rewording what they have already written as a basic summary format.

S:  Yeah, would you say it’s important to know and learn the basic concepts of a summary? 

C:  Um yeah I think it would help to have it not retaught to us but maybe mentioned to us again while we are in college because ya know some stuff you don’t always remember from college so to have a refresher I think that’s a good idea.             

11. Interview Protocal

I am going to keep the questions I had posted for blog 9, but when starting I will ask for my subject to state their major.  Question 1 will be  "How would you define a summary?  Do you understand what it is used for?" and once the questions are answered I will go into "So tell me about a time when you had to write a summary". Question 2 is "Are you aware of the other types of summary's?" and from there my other questions are

3.  For your major, how often would you say you use summary's?

4.  Do you understand what a professor is actually expecting from you when you are asked to present them with a summary?

5.  Do you feel it is an important thing to know how to proceed with a summary?

Between these questions I will ask more of the ones that give a more in depth answer to the questions but for now this is what I have.  I am having trouble thinking of other questions so any possible feedback would be appreciated.

10. Cultural Stories

Some of the cultural stories towards summary's are
1.  That professors always want a plot summary.
2.  That a summary is always what the piece of work was about.
3.  Every piece should be summarized in no more than two paragraphs.

I am not sure if I did this assignment correctly but that is what our culture expects for summary's.  What many feel a professor always assigns is a plot summary and wants us to tell what the work was about and not what we thought about it.  Which unfortunately, is not always the case. 

Professors say they want a summary but when a student hears the word summary they think that the professor means that they want a small paragraph of what the work was about.  Many do not think about the other ways a summary can be represented and this is where I think when I present the facts of the summary in the interview, the people will understand what I mean by the different types and not what us as a cultural norm understand.

9. Interview

For my interview I will be choosing/asking some of my classmates who are also English majors if they are willing to participate in research about summary's and how to not only identify them, but also do them correctly and understand the different types.  I had thought to choose three English majors to interview and one Communications major and one Math education major, just so that I can see what others from different majors thought of when it comes to a summary. 

I will hold a meeting with them all individually at different times, wherever they want and time is fine with me as my schedule is very flexible.  I will be making an interview guide and outline as to how I plan on starting the interview process.  Not only will I be interviewing them but I will also present them with a short survey about the process of summary's.  I still need to think of how I will ask the questions to make them open ended and figure out how to make the survey as simple as possible, but in the end I'm sure I will get all the data I need.  This is what I have for the interview so far.

Interview:
1.  How would you define a summary?  Do you understand what it is used for?
2.  Are you aware of the other types of summary's?
3.  For your major, how often would you say you use summary's?
4.  Do you understand what a professor is actually expecting from you when you are asked to present them with a summary?
5.  Do you feel it is an important thing to know how to proceed with a summary?

Then I will present the survey which I am hoping will be only yes or no questions so that it will be easy to conduct but I am also rethinking doing a survey because I may get all the answers I need from my interview.