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Annotated Textbook Chapter Summary
Writing Guide

The Basics: An Annotated Textbook Chapter Summary (ATCS) is a concise summary of a chapter or section of

a course textbook. It can serve several purposes in a course: (1) milestones helping you pace your pre-reading

for the class sessions; (2) solidifying your understanding of the reading as you process the material and consider

how best to summarize it; (3) assist with retrieving material you may use in class discussions, writing course

papers, and even after the course is completed; (5) provide insight for the professor into areas which may

require more clarification in class sessions.

Elements: There are 4 components for each ATCS entry: Thesis Sentence, Main Ideas, Application, and

Questions

Thesis Sentence: The first sentence is the thesis sentence—what the chapter is about. This sentence should be

general enough to cover the entire reading yet specific enough that someone who has not read the reading

would have a decent idea of the content and that if you came back to read it 2 years from now you would have

a good idea of the content. This must be a single sentence without semi-colons—although colons, dashes, and

even parentheses are allowed. Learning to express yourself succinctly is an important skill in our cultural

context.

Main Ideas: Following the topic sentence is a bullet point listing of the 4–6 most important or interesting

concepts found in the reading. If you have less than 4 points, go back and see if you can break one of the points

into multiple smaller points to use instead. If you have more than 6 consider how you can combine two or

more or decide which points to cut. Each point should have 1–3 sentences explaining the idea. Use citations

within square brackets (e.g., [13]) so that you can easily go back later and find the location of these main ideas.

Avoid large, explicit quotations from the reading—but you will often find you are lifting words directly from

the text, especially technical terms and phrases. These terms and phrases do not need to be placed within

quotation marks. Doing the Main Ideas is as much of an art as it is a science. Notice in the example below that

in the first point a general statement is made covering pages 8–10, but the next sentence goes back and provides

two additional details. The next entry, however, has two sentences that follow the page order. And the last three

all are single, complex sentences. All are fine—it is just a question of what makes more sense to you and will

help you recall the material when you go back to re-read it.

Application: For the application write 1–3 sentences regarding how an idea or a concept from the reading might

impact your individual life or that you could build a sermon around. If you choose the sermon option, please

include the primary biblical text you would use.

Questions: Finally, you will ask 2–3 questions regarding the reading, again arranged as bullet points. These can

directly relate to understanding the material, implications raised by the reading, questions regarding the

relative strength, etc. Each sentence in this section should end in a question mark—you are asking questions

here, not making comments. Provide a citation—this will help the professor have a better idea of what you are

asking about.

Example ATCS: Note I have indented the margins and changed the font to make it stand out from the rest of

the page:

Thesis: Argues for the priority of grace over alternative starting positions for theology.

Main Ideas:

2

▪ Doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation, taking the inter-trinitarian love of the Father and the Son as

the essence of God [8–10]. The author uses Augustine’s idea of the Holy Spirit as the mutual love of

the Father and the Son [9] and the social model of the trinity as proposed by Richard of St Victor [10].

▪ Grace as the extension of God’s trinitarian essence (love) to creation [13]. Grace precedes all other

relations between God and his creation including being sovereign or creator [15–17].

▪ The priority of grace demonstrated through biblical examples: the calling of Abraham [18], the exodus

preceding the giving of the law [19], and most crucially the incarnation [20–23].

▪ Distortions when alternative starting points are utilized: sovereignty [23–24], power [24], free will

[25], tolerance [26], and rationality [27].

▪ Pentecostal positions are explained in terms of grace including the nature and distribution of spiritual

gifts [28–9], prophecy [30–32], and physical healing [34].

Application: I tend to see sovereignty as the thing that makes God “God,” so Christianity is reduced to

obedience to God’s commands. But if God is essentially love, then God’s commands are based in

love (not just divine power) and my obedience is a loving response to a loving command—this has

a totally different feel to it.

Questions:

▪ Why isn’t the Father’s love for the Son part of the Father and the Son’s love for the Father part of the

Son instead of being a distinct person who is neither Father nor Son [9]?

▪ Does starting with grace [15–17] reduce God’s role to “God for me” compared to other starting points

like God’s sovereignty or glory?

▪ Does the author’s pentecostal background, with its emphasis on “gifts” [28–29] cause the author to be

more inclined to the idea of the importance of grace?

As you can see in the example, grammar is not the highest priority; instead, economy of expression in

communicating the content takes precedence. Even so, intelligibility, including spelling, is still expected for the

entries.

Assessment: Annotated Textbook Chapter Summaries are graded generously as long as it is clear to the

professor a good faith attempt has been made and all requirements are met—typically in the 85 –90% range.

Scores below 85% usually occur from not including an element (like forgetting citations) or failing to meet the

minimum or exceeding the maximum requirements—for example having 8 main ideas or having only one

question. Points may also be deducted for a late ATCS. Typically, ATCSs will not receive credit if they are

submitted after the class session where those readings are being discussed. Talk to the professor if a situation

arises that causes a problem submitting an ATCS on time.

Tips + Tricks: Here are few things that might help—none are required.

Compressing a Long Thesis: If you are having trouble coming up with a single sentence for your thesis here are

two approaches that can help. The first is to write out a multi-sentence thesis. Then try and compress it down to

just one sentence that has the most important parts in it. The second is to do the Main Ideas first, then look at

them and ask yourself, “what do they all have in common?”—that’s your thesis!

Cut and Paste: Some students may find it easier to do their ATCS entries in a Word document and then paste

the particular entry into the assignment on Discovery. This also makes it easier to go back and do a quick

review before the class sessions and doing projects.

Make a Template: The most common loss of points in an ATCS happens when someone (1) forgets to cite their

main ideas, (2) forgets each sentence in the question section ends with a question mark, and (3) doesn’t meet

the length requirements. To help avoid this, create a blank template within your Word document. Fill it out,

then copy and paste what you’ve written into Discovery. You’ll quickly see if you didn’t meet the assignment

requirements. For example:
Assignment:
Thesis:

3

Main Ideas:
▪ []
▪ []
▪ []
▪ []
 []
 []

Application:
Questions:

▪ [] ?
▪ [] ?
 [] ?

In this example I put square brackets to remind me to cite and a question mark at the end of each question—so

that it doesn’t become a comment instead of a question. I also put the minimum number of bullet points with

one symbol (the square) and the optional ones with another symbol (the circle) to help remind myself of the

minimum and maximum. You don’t have to use this system (or do a template at all) but I just put it up here to

stimulate your thinking.

Start Early + Take Breaks: Annotated Textbook Chapter Summaries are a great way to help you read and process

the textbooks at a deeper level, but this deeper level takes more time. So starting earlier is better than starting

later and taking breaks becomes even more important as you work your way through these assigned readings.