5 SUMMARY TECHNIQUES SUGGESTIONS FOR SUMMARIZING TEXTS WITH

5 SUMMARY TECHNIQUES SUGGESTIONS FOR SUMMARIZING TEXTS WITH EASE

TECHNIQUE 1: WRITE A HEADLINE FOR A CHUNK OF TEXT How To: First, read the chunk of text (ie. A paragraph) and then above it, write a headline that summarizes the content.

TECHNIQUE 1: EXAMPLE Headline: Comment that exclamation points are used too much and are obnoxious Exclamation points are the most irritating of all. Look! they say, look at what I just said! How amazing is my thought! It is like being forced to watch someone else’s small child jumping up and down crazily in the center of the living room shouting to attract attention. - Lewis Thomas, 1979

TECHNIQUE 2: KEY WORDS How To: Identify FIVE key words / word clusters that capture the meaning of the text. In two minutes, explain the passage either to a partner or by quickly jotting. Incorporate the five words in your explanation.

TECHNIQUE 2: EXAMPLE (what five words / clusters would you pick? ) Letter from Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby (1864) Executive Mansion, Washington November 21, 1864 Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and peacefully, Abraham Lincoln

TECHNIQUE 3: SOMEBODY WANTED BUT SO How To: Read the text and summarize according to the following headings, completing each word: Somebody. . . (identify people involved) Wanted. . . (state what they want) But. . . (state the obstacle) So. . . (state the result)

TECHNIQUE 3: EXAMPLES 19 August 2010 DRUG ADDICT BENEFIT WITHDRAWAL CONSIDERED Committee - an independent statutory body - said withdrawing benefits from drug users would lead them into crime and prostitution. The coalition government scrapped the pilot People dependent on drugs and alcohol who Office Somebody: The British Home (government) programme - but the Home Office has now revived refuse treatment could have their welfare benefits the idea. withdrawn under plans being considered by the It asksfrom for views on whethere should be Home Office. Wanted: to withdraw welfare benefits drug addicts some form of "financial benefit sanction" for The idea is in a consultation paper on the government's drug strategy for England, Wales and claimants who do not take action to address their drug or alcohol dependency. Scotland. But: complications such as leading addicts into a further life of The Home Office has also confirmed plans to The proposals suggest that addicts on crimealsoraise concern give ministers the power to ban new substance for benefits should not be required to seek work while a year until they have been properly assessed in a receiving treatment. bid to combat so-called "legal highs". Some experts have suggested that withdrawing So: the government will move forward, as. Crime the. Prevention temporary ban on Minister for James benefits could lead addicts into crime and Brokenshire said: "The drugs market is changingwill to act quickly, as dealers prostitution. welfare allows the government and we need to adapt current laws to allow us to have a harder timeto carry getting around the law. The Labour government intended out act more quickly. pilot schemes this year to get drug users into work. "The temporary ban allows us to act straight Under the plans, addicts who failed to attend a away to stop new substances gaining a foothold in treatment awareness programme would lose the market and help us tackle unscrupulous drug welfare benefits. dealers trying to get round the law by peddling However, in May the Social Security Advisory dangerous chemicals to young people. ”

TECHNIQUE 4: P-Q-R-ST How To: Follow the Acronym: PREVIEW titles and text features (pictures, headlines, text boxes, etc. ) Develop QUESTIONS to which you could find answers in the text. READ the material, twice if possible. STATE the central idea or theme.

TECHNIQUE 4: P-Q-R-ST üPreview üLook at the title üLook at the picture provided üLook at the source (what do I expect from that source? – ie. NPR is a reputable and often intelligent news source) üQuestion üHow is writing obituaries an “art” üDoes the author view obituaries as short stories? üDo I agree that there is a story in each person’s life? üRead üSkim the first paragraph, a middle paragraph, and the end) üSTate thesis (argument) of the article. üObituaries celebrate life, not death üObituaries tell the story of a complete life – start to finish

TECHNIQUE 5: IMPORTANT SENTENCES How To: Read the selection and choose sentences that are important, most puzzling, most controversial, etc. to the content of the text. Jot down a few points per sentence explaining why it’s so important. Summarize based on notes you’ve taken.

TECHNIQUE 5: EXAMPLE The Gettysburg Address Gettysburg, Pennsylvania November 19, 1863 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.