WRITING AN OBJECTIVE SUMMARY What is an Objective

WRITING AN OBJECTIVE SUMMARY

What is an Objective Summary? § Objective means non-biased. In other words, you want to tell the story like it is, without adding your own opinions. And a summary is just a shortened retelling of the important parts of the story.

Steps for Writing an Objective Summary Step 1 Read and Annotate Read carefully Annotate as you read (notes) Ask yourself: What are the important (not interesting) parts? Annotate these! Step 2 Finding the Main Important Points To find main points, look for words/ideas that are repeated through the story. Step 3 Writing the Summary Start with a clear identification of the title, author, & main idea of the article or story Look for topic sentence of each paragraph Use present tense No details Paraphrase the important points

Words/Phrases to use Use one of the following “summary” verbs: shows, describes, explains, discusses, lists, explores, illustrates, teaches, compares, states. ". . . the author suggests. . . " "…. the article claims. . . "

THINK ABOUT: WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A FRIEND WHO ASKS, " WHAT IS THIS ARTICLE ABOUT? "

DON'TS • Do not copy word for word • No opinions allowed!! • Do not interpret or tell what you think the author meant • Don't use a lot of details

Example: "Amigo Brothers" Objective Summary The short story, “Amigo Brothers” by Piri Thomas, is about two boys who have grown up together and are such great friends that they feel like brothers. Set in New York City, but heavily influenced by Puerto Rican culture, the story describes the two boys’ love of boxing. For both, boxing has been a way to escape the negative influences that frequently beset young men in the inner city. When the two boys, Antonio and Felix, learn that they are to compete against each other in the biggest fights of their lives, they are conflicted. They are such good friends and they don’t want to hurt each other. They decide to fight each other without “pulling any punches”, and it doesn’t destroy their friendship. Despite beating each other quite severely in the match, they walk away from the fight, arm-in-arm, as the great friends they always were.

Let's Practice • You will read three objective summaries about “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, by J. K. Rowling. After reading each summary: Analyze the characteristics Determine if the sample is a good or bad representation of an objective summary Use evidence from the summary to support your position.

See if you can tell what the difference is between this slide… In “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, Harry Potter is the most miserable, lonely boy you can imagine. He’s shunned by his relatives, the Dursley’s, that have raised him since he was an infant. He’s forced to live in the cupboard under the stairs, forced to wear his cousin Dudley’s hand-me-down clothes, and forced to go to his neighbor's house when the rest of the family is doing something fun. Yes, he’s just about as miserable as you can get. Harry’s world gets turned upside down on his 11 th birthday, however. A giant, Hagrid, informs Harry that he’s really a wizard, and will soon be attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry also learns that, in the wizarding world, he’s a hero. When he was an infant, the evil Lord Voldemort killed his parents and then tried to kill Harry too. What’s so amazing to everyone is that Harry survived, and allegedly destroyed Voldemort in the process.

this slide… ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is a red-blooded adventure movie, dripping with atmosphere, filled with the gruesome and sublime, and surprisingly faithful to the novel. A lot of things could have gone wrong, but none of them did: Chris Columbus' movie was an enchanting classic that did total justice to a story that was a daunting challenge. The novel by J. K. Rowling was muscular and vivid, and the danger was that the movie would make things too cute and cuddly, but it didn’t. Like an "Indiana Jones" for younger viewers, it tells a rip-roaring tale of supernatural adventure, where colorful and eccentric characters alternate with scary stuff like a three-headed dog, a pit of tendrils known as the Devil's Snare and a two-faced immortal who drinks unicorn blood. Scary, yes, but not too scary--just scary enough.