University of Greenwich The Disability & Dyslexia Team Study skills presentation

 A brief, complete, objective restatement of the contents of a piece of writing.  All of these words are important ◦ Brief ◦ Complete ◦ Objective

 Be shorter than the original  Use as few words as possible (refer to instructions about word limits, typically around 200 words)  Represent the text fairly in structure, emphasis and tone  Involve critical thinking – you need to make judgements about what to include and what to leave out..

 NO  A paraphrase is a “translation” into your own words which is as long as, or nearly as long as, the original.

 A summary should not contain your opinions, about the subject or the author’s treatment of it.  A summary should not contain lots of detail and examples. Try to group these together

 It makes it easier if you break the task down into a number of steps. Try not to rush ahead until you are sure you have completed each stage.

1. Skim the text quickly to get overview 2. Look for clues in layout 3. Read article thoroughly 4. Check understanding 5. Identify author’s main point/theme 6. Re-read and identify main sections 7. Work through section by section 8. Write a first draft 9. Revise 10. Final check

Skim the text quickly to get an overview  Ask yourself questions like who wrote the piece?  When/where?  Why?  What did they want to achieve?

Look for clues in the layout  Formatting can give many clues.  Formatting clues are things like titles, headings, subheadings, abstracts, illustrations, introductions and conclusions.

Read the article thoroughly  Underline key points and terms.  Highlight the main idea or purpose.  Note key points in margins.  Note questions.  Label the different sections of the text – introduction, methods, evidence discussion, conclusions etc.

Check understanding  Look up unknown words or terms in a dictionary or glossary.  Check you understand any statistical information or figures given.  Very importantly - think about it.

Identify the author’s main point/theme  The author may have done this him/herself. Look for a sentence where the author explains what the purpose (the thesis) of the article is.  If not, imagine you have to explain it to someone in a telegram or text message.

Re-read and identify main sections  As you re-read divide the text into sections according to theme.  Remember a section may be more than one paragraph.  Or, some paragraphs will need to be grouped together because they follow a common theme.

Work section by section  Check that you understand the main idea and key terms in each section.  Write one sentence which conveys what each section is about.  Then write one sentence that sums up the whole article e.g. In this article X argues that ……  You might be able to use this to introduce the summary.

Write a first draft  Use the one sentence summaries as a scaffold on which to build your final summary.  Make sure you have captured the article’s central theme: ◦ the main points that support it: ◦ the relationships between supporting points.

Revising the draft  Make sure the piece is smooth and coherent by adding signposting, or transitional words and phrases, but cut out unnecessary words. Every word should be there for a reason.  Check for repetition and sentences that all start the same way eg. X says  Check grammar, spelling and punctuation.

A final check  Have you summarised the ideas in a logical way (not necessarily the same order as the original)?  Make sure the title of the original and author are given near the beginning of your summary.  Does your summary provide the reader with a good idea of the original?