Tuesday, February 03, 2015

Background Reading--Summarizing Sources

[The advice for summarizing at the end of this worksheet is not my own, but taken from Pathways 4 published by National Geographic Learning.]

Assignment:  Write down (in bibliography style) 10 sources that you have found related to your topic, and write a 100-200 word summary.
1. ____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary:












2. ____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary:












3. ____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary:















4. ____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary:












5. ____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary:












6. ____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary:















7. ____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary:












8. ____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary:












9. ____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary:

















10. ____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary:












Tips for Summarizing:

A summary is a shortened version of a text or listening passage that contains all the main ideas and a few important details.  A summary usually includes (1) a general opening statement, (2) the main ideas, and (3) a concluding statement.  The parts of the summary should be connected with transitions.  A summary should not include your own opinion, but should simply report the information in the article.

A summary is shorter than the original passage.  When you write a summary, you report--in your own words--only the most important information from a passage in the same order that it is given in the original.  Follow these steps to summarize successfully.
 1.  Read the passage once.  As you read, underline the important facts.  Then, without looking at it, write notes about the passage.
2.  Reread the passage, comparing your notes against it to check your understanding.  Correct any incorrect notes.
3.  Use your notes to write a quick summary.  Remember that the introductory statement in a summary is not quite the same as the thesis statement in a regular essay.  The introductory statement is more like a restatement of the original author's main idea.
4.  Compare your summary with the original.  Make sure that your summary expresses the same meaning as the original.

5.  Check your sentence structures and word choices.  If your summary is very similar to the original, change your sentences and structures and replace some content words (e.g., key nouns or noun phrases) with synonyms.

No comments: