By taking a close look at the research on an issue, you will build a solid foundation for discussion of the scientific and social debate in your mid-course and term papers. You will turn in three critical summaries of scientific texts during the first half of the semester. Your task in the critical summary is to identify and summarize the main scientific findings and supportive evidence in the text. The hypothesis is the main topic of the text. The scientific findings may show the hypothesis as valid or invalid, subject to uncertainties, or may answer the question posed in the hypothesis.
Every scientific finding has some associated uncertainty or range of conditions where it is true.
The observations and predictions may each be part of the main findings, depending on the nature of the hypothesis. They may also be part of the evidence. From Writing in Social Studies 10 by April Flakne, Alan Keenan, and Henry Rubin Central to the writing philosophy of Social Studies 10 is the belief that the practice and experience of writing is itself the only way to come to a real understanding of the ideas read and discussed in the course. Return to the top of the page. This page was authored by Harvard's Expository Writing Program .