Summarizing: Writing a Clear and Objective Overview of Essays or Articles, Guide, Progetti e Ricerche di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Summarizing: Writing a Clear and Objective Overview of Essays or Articles e più Guide, Progetti e Ricerche in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! SUMMARIZING A common writing assignment in a variety of college courses is the summary of a particular essay or journal article. The purpose of a summary is to accurately describe the main point and the important details of the piece. In short, you are describing what the essay (or other piece of literature) is about to someone who has not read it. While summary writing is generally fairly short, it is not easy. A good summary incorporates all of the important aspects of a particular essay so that a reader who has not read the original work can understand what it is about. Thus, the most important element of a good summary is the ability to accurately depict what is in the original article. In order to do so, you must be familiar with the work you are summarizing. A good summary begins by reading the piece many times in order to gain a full understanding of it. Once the work is fully understood, it is important to relate the thesis and the important points that support it. Summaries should be fairly short and significantly shorter than the work itself. If your summary is close to the overall length of the work, chances are you are simply paraphrasing the majority of the work rather than summarizing. If the summary is too short, then you probably missed some important points. Generally, the length of a summary should be about one quarter to one third of the total length of the article that is being summarized. For example, if the essay you are summarizing is three pages, the summary should be roughly three-quarters to one full page). Tips for Summarizing • Read the essay as many times as necessary to gain a full understanding of it. • Do not interject your personal opinion into any summary. No first person ("I" statements) are allowed (save these for the response portion, if there is one). • Always name the author (full name) and the article or essay title in the introductory paragraph, usually in the first or second sentence. • After introducing the author with the full name, refer to the author by last name throughout the rest of summary. • Always use present tense to discuss the essay and facts from the essay. • Use direct quotes from the text or paraphrase examples to support your claims. Paraphrasing should be done more than quoting, which should be kept to a minimum. Quoting should only be used with unique language that is hard to paraphrase. • When talking about an essay or article, always capitalize the title and place it in quotation marks. Do not use italics. Italics should only be used when referring to longer works, such as books or movies. Example: "Just a Smile and a Handshake." Not "Just a Smile and a Handshake." http://www.aims.edu/student/online-writing-lab/assignments/summarizing Writing a Summary A summary is condensed version of a larger reading. A summary is not a rewrite of the original piece and does not have to be long nor should it be long. To write a summary, use your own words to express briefly the main idea and relevant details of the piece you have read. Your purpose in writing the summary is to give the basic ideas of the original reading. What was it about and what did the author want to communicate? While reading the original work, take note of what or who is the focus and ask the usual questions that reporters use: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Using these questions to examine what you are reading can help you to write the summary. Sometimes, the central idea of the piece is stated in the introduction or first paragraph, and the supporting ideas of this central idea are presented one by one in the following paragraphs. Always read the introductory paragraph thoughtfully and look for a thesis statement. Finding the thesis statement is like finding a key to a locked door. Frequently, however, the thesis, or central idea, is implied or suggested. Thus, you will have to work harder to figure out what the author wants readers to understand. Use any hints that may shed light on the meaning of the piece: pay attention to the title and any headings and to the opening and closing lines of paragraphs. In writing the summary, let your reader know the piece that you are summarizing. Identify the title, author and source of the piece. You may want to use this formula: In "Title of the Piece" (source and date of piece), author shows that: central idea of the piece. The author supports the main idea by using _____________________ and showing that _________________________ Here is a sample summary: In the short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," author James Thurber humorously presents a character who fantasizes about himself as a hero enduring incredibly challenging circumstances. In his real life, Walter Mitty lives an ordinary, plain life; he is a husband under the control of an overbearing, critical wife. Thurber uses lively dialogue to give readers an understanding of Mitty's character. The story takes place over a period of about twenty minutes; during this brief time, Mitty drives his wife to the hairdresser and runs errands that his wife has given him while he waits for her. In between his worrying that he is not doing what she wants him to do, he daydreams about himself as a great surgeon, brilliant repair technician, expert marksman, and brave military captain. This story shows that fantasy is often a good alternative to reality. Remember: • Do not rewrite the original piece. • Keep your summary short. • Use your own wording. • Refer to the central and main ideas of the original piece. • Read with who, what, when, where, why and how questions in mind. • Do not put in your opinion of the issue or topic discussed in the original piece. Often, instructors ask students to put their opinions in a paragraph separate from the summary http://homepage.smc.edu/reading_lab/writing_a_summary.htm The purpose of a summary is to give the reader, in a about 1/3 of the original length of an article/ lecture, a clear, objective picture of the original lecture or text. Most importantly, the summary restates only the main points of a text or a lecture without giving examples or details, such as dates, numbers or statistics. Before writing the summary: 1. For a text, read, mark, and annotate the original. (For a lecture, work with the notes you took.) • highlight the topic sentence • highlight key points/key words/phrases • highlight the concluding sentence • outline each paragraph in the margin 2. Take notes on the following: • the source (author--first/last name, title, date of publication, volume number, place of publication, publisher, URL, etc.) • the main idea of the original (paraphrased)