ENGLISH 6 Writing a Summary SOURCE: STRAUCH, Ann O. Writers at work: the short composition. Cambridge, Have you ever explained to a friend what happened in a movie you saw or in a story you read? Have you ever summarized for a friend the most important ideas in a magazine article or a textbook chapter you read?

Read a story and a newspaper article Read the story and newspaper article. After you read the two selections, work with a partner and discuss the following questions for each piece: 1.What is the main idea? 2.What are the most important details? 3.What are the leat important details? LISTING IMPORTANT POINTS ◦ Making a list of important points will help you prepare to write a summary about an article or story. After you have listed points, eliminate any unnecessary ones.

Look at the list of points about the story “One at a Time”. Eliminate the unnecessary ones. 1. A man is on a beach in Mexico. 2. He’s throwing live starfish back into the ocean. 3. It’s a deserted Mexican beach at sunset. 4. It’s low tide. 5. The man keeps tossing them out into the ocean. 6. He doesn’t want them to die on the beach. 7. A second man approaches him. 8. The second man says there are too many starfish to toss back. 9. Throwing only some of them back won’t make any difference. 10. The first man tosses another starfish back into the water. 11. He maked the point that it has made a difference to the one he has just tossed back.

Analyze summaries Read the following summaries of “One at a Time” and “Why Mona Lisa Smiles”. Discuss the questions: 1.What information did the summary writers include in the first sentence? 2.Were the details they chose to include the same as the ones that you said were the most important? 3.Find several details in the selections that were not mentioned in the summaries. Why were these details not included?

SUMMARY OF “ONE AT A TIME” “One at a Time” by Jack Canfield and Mark V. Hansen, from their book Chicken Soup for the Soul, tells the story of a man who wants to make the world a better place. The man is on a beach in Mexico and is throwing starfish back into the ocean to save their lives. A second man approaches him. The second man says that there are too many starfish to toss back, so throwing only some of them back won’t make a difference. As the first man tosses another starfish back into the water, he makes the point that it has made a difference to the one he has just tossed back.

SUMMARY OF “WHY MONA LISA SMILES” In the Los Angeles Times article “Why Mona Lisa Smiles” by Diane Partie Lange (April 14, 2003), the author reports on the findings of Marianne LaFrance. LaFrance is a psychology professor at Yale University who analyzed smile studies. She found that, in general, women smile more than men. When women and men are watched, women smile more than men. The difference between men and women is the greatest in teen years. Teenage girls smile much more than teenage boys. On the other hand, the differences between men and women are less in certain situations. When women and men are not watched, the differences between them disappears. The differences also disappear for men and women in the same occupation or social role.

IMPORTANT STEPS The main idea ◦ In a summary, a clear main idea sentence includes the title, the author or source, and the main idea of the selection. The title of an article or story is in quotation maks. The name of a book, magazine, or newspaper is underlined or in italics. Summarizing ◦ The body of a summary briefly explains the original selection. Follow these extra guidelines.  The summary body should be much shorter than the selection.  Use your own words. If you quote exact phrases or sentences from the original, use quotation marks. Revising ◦ Usually it is important to include specific, supporting details in the body of a composition. On the other hand, you only need to include the most important points in a summary. Thus, delete unnecessary details when revising.