Example of Coursework
From EAP 506 and EAP 507, I have learnt how to write a summary for a long academic paper. This is one of writing skills I have attained and I am proud of it.
This is the most perfect summary I have written.
Analytical Summary of Strayhorn
Strayhorn (2012) in his article “Sense of Belonging and Graduate students”, focused on studying sense of belonging among graduate students and its relatedness to success and happiness. The article was initiated for little was known about the field work, incentives and graduate students’ experiences, and less was known on how sense of belonging affected graduate students. Hence, Strayhorn had three steps to detect those issues, respectively including explaining the relationship between graduate students’ socialization and their sense of belonging by finding existing literature and researches, demonstrating the link between aspects of students’ socialization and sense of belonging and identifying implications and providing strategies to enhance sense of belonging. After investigations on graduate students, he found socialization can lead to sense of belonging, and then sense of belonging can produce positive outcomes, such as engagement, achievement and well-being. Furthermore, Strayhorn suggested this article was implicational for educational policy, theory and future research and it can be used to improve existing knowledge of graduate students’ socialization and sense of belonging for scholars, and thus, helping graduate students promote their sense of belonging.
Focused Analysis of “sense of belonging”
“Sense of belonging” is one of main concepts mentioned by several methods through the whole article. Strayhorn defines that “belonging is a universal human characteristic and a basic need” by borrowing the implication of “belonging” from Maslow’s (1962, p.93). In other words, individuals are wanted to be accepted and valued by specific groups or field and then build their sense of belonging. Readers can perceive basic meaning of sense of belonging from the direct quote by Maslow because of its simply and refined definition of belonging.
In addition, several key terms enrich meanings of “sense of belong”: 1) feelings of membership, community, relatedness (p. 92), 2) a sense of belonging among others in the graduate department or professional field (p. 92), 3) valued “insiders”- bona fide members of a group or society to which they belong (p. 98). These terms help describe sense of belonging is feeling like a member belonging to a particular context, here referred to graduate colleges and universities. They may own professional skills or knowledge and try to be insiders in a field. These terms highlighting the studying objective is limited by sense of belonging of graduate students, which also can be understood by terms such as sense of belonging in graduate school (p. 95), graduate students’ sense of belonging (p.98) and one’s sense of belonging (p. 95). These terms also show the relationship between sense of belonging and graduate students. In fact, the process graduate students are seeking for sense of belong is the process they are gaining professional knowledge and experiencing socializing process. Hence, graduate students can be “insiders” with all rights and privileges thereof (p. 104), which lead them to achieve successes in academic.
Language Pattern Analysis
This article is written by using multiple direct quotes and paraphrases and those help extend the content and make the article more convincing and reliable. Strayhorn mostly use paraphrases rather than direct quotes to show findings from other sources. I guess when the author paraphrases other’s sources, because he wants to emphasize the content of resources and deliver his understanding of these source to readers. However, if he quotes sources directly, he might want to highlight the authors of that sources. For example, Strayhorn use direct quotes from Nettles and Millett (p. 101), in this way, he can stress on an event that graduate students were investigated and conclusions were found by Michael and Catherine rather than content thereof. Therefore, readers can catch general idea faster and ignore the detailed information. Otherwise, these authors may enjoy high reputations in particular professional field and it can strong reliability of this article.
Connection to de Araujo, Li and Philips Articles
According to read de Araujo (2011), Philips (2014), Li (2008) and Strayhorn’s (2012) articles, I found these articles contain similar concepts: adjustment issues and academic achievement. In de Araujo articles, adjustment issues are social support, English proficiency, discrimination and relationship with Americans, and those factors have obvious impacts on academic success. In Philips’s, he mentions to be resourcefulness can improve adjustment. In Li’s, she indicates that trying to be insiders can lead to adjust to writing conventions in America. In Strayhorn’s, adjustments are socialization and a sense of belonging and they effect students’ academic also. Those elements aim to help students achieving to academic success.