Assignment: Critical Summary

This assignment will give you practice in critical reading, summary writing in its objective and critical forms, and evaluation of an article focusing on Canadian literature and culture.

The following is a list of articles published in Canadian Literature related to The Wars. Select one journal article from the list and write a critical summary. See Writing a Critical Summary for help.

This short paper will give you practice in critical reading, summary writing in its objective and critical forms, and evaluation of an article focusing on Canadian literature and culture. Your paper should not exceed four pages double-spaced in 12-point font, excluding title page and works cited page.

Please use MLA style for in-text citations and your works cited.

Keys to Remember

  • Summarize the thesis of the article.
  • Evaluate the article’s strengths and weaknesses.
  • Take a position for or against the argument presented in the article.
  • Keep your summary concise without distorting the meaning of the original paper.

Works Cited

  • Cobley, Evelyn. Postmodernist War Fiction: Findley’s The Wars. Canadian Literature 147 (1995): 98–124. Print. (PDF)
  • Tumanov, Vladimir. De-Automatization in Timothy Findley’s The Wars. Canadian Literature 130 (1991): 107–15. Print. (PDF)
  • Weiss, Alan. Private and Public in Timothy Findley’s The Wars. Canadian Literature 138–39 (1993): 91–102. Print. (PDF)
  • Williams, David. A Force of Interruption: The Photography of History in Timothy Findley’s The Wars. Canadian Literature 194 (2007): 54–73. Print. (PDF)
  • Rhodes, Shane. Buggering With History: Sexual Warfare and Historical Reconstruction in Timothy Findley’s The Wars. Canadian Literature 159 (1998): 38–53. Print. (PDF)