Thursday, September 27, 2012

Sample Summary

Students, please find here a sample of the kind of summary that I want you to write, as discussed here.  For some of you, the article will be familiar, as at least one of my classes has received it.

On 2 October 2011, Dominique Molina's "Conquering My Fear of Speaking in Public" appeared in the New York Times, as recorded by Patricia R. Olsen.  In the piece, Molina notes that an unforced authenticity is her key to doing well at public speaking tasks.  She notes that she had not thought she would have to engage in them, but was surprised to be obliged to do so as part of her duties as a business partner.  Molina also remarks that in her initial foray into public speaking, she attempted to engage in theatrics, only to have them go badly and result in her shame.  Later attempts, she recounts, relied heavily on scripting and were not engaging as a result.  On advice from her father, Molina states, and after significant amounts of practice, she has grown comfortable in her own knowledge of her subject matter and is able to hide a nervousness that she yet feels.  She offers in the piece a successful anecdotal recounting of her own experience negotiating the task of public speaking, providing thereby one model that may be of help for those who face a similar challenge.

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