Summary Characteristics

6 Steps Reread until complete understanding Identify major ideas thesis (author’s main purpose for writing) topic sentences of each paragraph or section) p. 172

6 Steps Write one sentence that captures main idea. Write supporting ideas. Rewrite this section until someone unfamiliar with content understands. You want key ideas, facts, and examples necessary to understanding main ideas Delete unimportant details; condense, combine, compress the rest. p. 172

6 Steps Check your summary to the original to ensure use of own words. (otherwise use quotation marks) Check to ensure no personal opinion Document source material (author, title of work, publication, date, page numbers) p. 172

Does a summary have to be in that order?

What happens in the beginning section? What happens in the middle section? What happens at the end? Middle End p. 172

Let’s try: Summarize this sentence: Schools in large cities, such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, have been criticized for passing students from grade to grade for demonstrated effort, regular attendance, and good citizenship rather than for academic performance. p. 172

One answer Urban schools have been criticized for promoting students for unjustified reasons. p. 172

Let’s take it back to “Heartache” article p. 172

What is Nazario’s thesis? When, and where it was written. Beginning What is Nazario’s thesis? When, and where it was written. What happens within the story at the beginning? Middle End p. 172

What is going on in the middle of the text? Beginning Middle What is going on in the middle of the text? End p. 172

Beginning Middle End What happens at the end? p. 172

Beginning In an October 2013 New York Times editorial, Pulitzer Prize winning author Sonia Nazario argues illegal immigration negatively effects Mexican families. Nazario relates the story of Lourdes, a mother who left her impoverished Mexican home (and children), and immigrated to the U.S. Nearly a decade later her 16-year-old son, Enrique, made the same hazardous journey to find her; Enrique’s girlfriend followed him a few years later. p. 172

middle Nazario describes how laws have tried to stem the flow of migrations through increased deportation of illegal immigrants. Within one six-year period, Nasario reports 409,000 adults were deported, and their children moved to foster care. Enrique was arrested and spent nearly a year in jail waiting to be deported. Nazario describes visiting him in jail with his mother, Lourdes, and Enrique’s children. Enrique agonized about being deported and his children growing up without him. p. 172

End She describes benefits to migration: mothers send money home to care for their children; however, many children resent the abandonment and “disproportionately join gangs or get pregnant.” She describes the U.S. plan as ineffective and proposes her own solutions – primarily providing aid to the four impoverished Mexican communities where most of the women reside. Nazario argues we must demand change…. p. 172

End She concludes her piece returning to Enrique, describing a miracle. His two lawyers secured a visa for him and both his daughters. But she argues, the family would have never suffered if the U.S. addressed the source of the problem. p. 172

Let’s try again …