1. SUMMARY WRITING

2. A summary is condensed version of a larger reading

3. When you summarize,
you provide the author’s main point and the supporting ideas;
you leave out unimportant details and examples

4. Your summary reflects how clearly and accurately you understand what you have read.

5. The summary is an excellent way to remember of what you have read, because it helps you to focus on the author’s main points

6. In order to summarize effectively, you need to make use of 2 other skills:
paraphrasing
and
outlining

7. To paraphrase-
to say
in different words:

8. 1. To substitute a word (to find a synonym for a word):
Developments in medicine have enormous effects on individuals.

9. Developments in medicine have colossal effects on individuals.

10. 2. To change the structure of a sentence
(Active → Passive) :
Most of the students attended the technical sessions of the conference.

11. The technical sessions of the conference were attended by most of the students.

12. 3. To reduce a sentence:
Denmark and Norway are similar in that they both have a constitutional monarchy.

13. Denmark and Norway
both have a constitutional monarchy.

14. To outline-
to organize information:

15. 1.To present the importance of the ideas:
to sort out the major ideas from those that are less important

16. to look for their similarities or differences
2.To show the relationship between the ideas:
to look for their similarities or differences

17. 3. To present the order of the events:
what is the first, the second and the last one

18. THE PROCESS OF WRITING A SUMMARY
1. Preview the article to get an idea of what it is about. 2. Read the article carefully and highlight the main ideas. (Be selective – write the main idea of each paragraph in margins and also make notes about the purpose of the paragraph.) 3. Express in one sentence the main idea of the article. The sentence should include the author’s name and the title (e.g. The article X written by Y discusses / deals with… 4. Write your first draft using what you have highlighted. Paraphrase the ideas – put them into your own words. 5. Write a shorter version of your draft making decisions about what information is essential.