Writing a summary of a paper as preparation for interview

[iloveOM]

I just got my second interview email today. In the email, I was told to read an article and then write a summary paper and submit to admission committee 4 days before the interview. This is the first time I have ever heard about this practice. Any idea about the purpose of this?  May be they want to use as a writing sample? I don't know whether they will use the article in my interview. Quite confused now.

[fuzzylogician]

Presumably they want to know if you can read a research paper, synthesize the main data points and arguments that it makes, and summarize it in a paper. This would test both your ability to read the scientific literature and write about it. Given the time constraints and nature of the task, it's probably a better indication of your abilities than your carefully crafted writing sample (if you submitted one), which you could have worked on for months and years and gotten lots of help with.  I would also assume that this might come up in your interview, but that if you do a good job at it, you'd have nothing to worry about because you'd already know everything that you'd need to about this paper. Since you don't give us a field or anything else to go by, it's a bit hard to say anything more than that. I can't say I've ever heard of this kind of requirement before, but I also don't necessarily think it's a bad one (from the school's perspective; it's obvious that it's quite burdensome for the students). 

[iloveOM]

Thanks for the suggestion, fuzzylogician. Actually I apply for PhD in Operation Management ( as my name suggest :D) . The article I need to summarize actually is not a research paper but a case study (MIT Sloan Management review). So I think they put more focus on my writing and analytical skill , not so much on my ability to read scientific literature. Another thing they may pay attention is my viewpoint on the article. Do you think I should read some more paper on internet about the topic in the article, given that subtopic is not in my research interest, so that in case they ask about my viewpoint, I can suggest some?

[fuzzylogician]

Alright, good, then it sounds like you already understood the assignment just fine before posting this question.

47 minutes ago, iloveOM said:

Another thing they may pay attention is my viewpoint on the article. Do you think I should read some more paper on internet about the topic in the article, given that subtopic is not in my research interest, so that in case they ask about my viewpoint, I can suggest some?

I think you should start by reading the paper and forming your own opinions. It doesn't sound like the instructions for this writing assignment include an "opinion" part, so I'm not clear on what you'd use these other sources for. It's a summary piece. (But then, you're in a totally different field with possibly different norms). That said, if, after you're done reading, you do feel like you need to use extra sources, be sure you cite everything that you use. Same for if it's just during the interview: presenting the ideas of others as your own would be considered plagiarism, and you should do everything in your power to avoid the appearance of it (and, of course, doing it!). 

[iloveOM]

Thanks a lot for the advices; they are very helpful! Hope that I can get over this Feb, safe and sound.

[iloveOM]

On 2/3/2016 at 7:49 PM, fuzzylogician said:

Alright, good, then it sounds like you already understood the assignment just fine before posting this question.

I think you should start by reading the paper and forming your own opinions. It doesn't sound like the instructions for this writing assignment include an "opinion" part, so I'm not clear on what you'd use these other sources for. It's a summary piece. (But then, you're in a totally different field with possibly different norms). That said, if, after you're done reading, you do feel like you need to use extra sources, be sure you cite everything that you use. Same for if it's just during the interview: presenting the ideas of others as your own would be considered plagiarism, and you should do everything in your power to avoid the appearance of it (and, of course, doing it!). 

I have one question to ask: The article includes a case study and a commentary part. Do I need to summarize the commentary part too?

[fuzzylogician]

I am in a different field and this is really a question for the person who gave you the assignment, if you're unsure, but my guess is that if the task is to summarize the paper then that would include all parts of the paper, including both the case study and the commentary.