Throughout the semester, students in ENG 099 will be expected to compile a number of summaries of current articles from the New York Times. These summaries should follow a simple general format, discussed during class time and outlined below, and should always be accompanied by a copy of the article being summarized.
The first sentence of the summary should include the source of the article (in this case, the New York Times or the online New York Times), the title of the article, the date the article appeared in the source, and the author/s of the article (if given; there is not always one listed). The second sentence should restate the main idea of the article, paraphrasing it (that is, putting it in the student's own words). The next few sentences should paraphrase the major details which support the main idea of the article, and the last sentence should be a summative, concluding statement articulating how effectively the article makes its points or some other appropriate comment.
There are a number of online examples of such summaries to be found. Some appear on my teaching blog, particularly here.