What are summation papers?

Answer 1

Let's say that you've received reports from 3 different people on a certain topic. Each person has their own point of view. If you want to discuss those ideas in 1 place, you'd write a summation paper.

In other words, it simply summarizes all 3 of those views into one paper, thus making it easier to know where each is coming from without having to read all three.

Answer 2

A summation paper tends to be a paper which gives a summary of what you've learned from observation or original documents handed to you. After that, you can make predictions. Basically, it is an educated opinion paper, a way to see whether or not you learned something from your observations.

For example, in one Women's Literature summer course online, there was a summation paper due which asked the student to:

" . . . seek to explain and describe what you have learned about the image of women in literature and how the experience of the course has influenced your learning and your understanding of gender."

In another Cultural Studies class, where the final paper was a summation paper:

". . . it asks you to present your understanding of what cultural studies is, where it's been, and where you think it might be going, both in terms of scholarship and pedagogy. You might highlight key debates, focus on future issues, assess upcoming problems, and so on [. . .] Lastly, the summation paper is an opportunity for you to begin tailoring cultural studies to your own interests."

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find out how to write a summation paper online (at this point), or at least the answer you're looking for is buried deep under a lot of technical jargon-writing for science (which also has summation papers).