B&R, Chapter 3, pgs. 22-55

The point to remember is that a summary has no fixed ___(1)____ (although by definition it is a brief restatement); rather, you should ___(2)____ it and ___(3)_____ it according to your needs.

1) length; 2) expand; 3) trim

A table may contain so much data that you would not want to summarize all of it for a particular paper. In this case, you would summarize the __(1)___ of a table that you find __(2)____.

1) part; 2) useful

Charts and graphs are preferable when the writer wants to emphasize a pattern or ___(1)_____; tables are preferable when the writer wants to emphasize ____(2)_____.

1) relationship; 2) numbers

Combining your thesis for the selection and your section summaries will give you a ____(1)____ draft of your summary. At this point, you'll need to reread and make adjustments by inserting ___(2)___, for instance, or eliminating ____(3)_____. Your final draft of the summary should read as any finished paper.

1) rough; 2) transitions; 3) redundancies

Before summarizing a source, ____(1)______ key phrases or sentences; circle important words; at each paragraph, write three- to five-word ___(2)____ in the margin. If the author has grouped paragraphs according to specific ideas, give these groupings a __(3)___.

1) underline; 2) summaries; 3) label

A ______ map is a type of chart characterized by disks of various sizes placed on a map of the world, a country, or a smaller region. The relative sizes of the disks represent various percentages or absolute numbers, making it easy to see at a glance which countries or regions have larger or smaller numbers of whatever variable is represented by the disk.

bubble

The author's thesis may be located at the beginning of the work. This is called a _________ organization: main idea first, supporting details following.

deductive

After you have previewed and read a challenging source, you should then write a brief summary of...

each stage of thought. The purpose of this step is to wean you from the language of the original passage so that you are not tied to it when writing the summary.

A _____ graph is a visual that uses bars to compare data among categories. These can be organized horizontally or vertically.

bar

Before writing a summary, review your notes on the sections you've identified and ___(1)___ (if the source author has not already provided headings). For each section, convert your margin notes to ___(2)_____.

1) labeled; 2) sentences

These are some general rules for avoiding plagiarism:

1) Cite all quoted material and all summarized and paraphrased material, unless the information is common knowledge (e.g., the Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865). 2) Make sure that both the wording and the sentence structure of your summaries and paraphrases are substantially your own.

To write a summary of a few sentences or paragraphs, follow these steps:

1) Identify the part of the source you want to use. 2) Decide whether you want to summarize, paraphrase, or quote from the source. 3) State as briefly as possible your understanding of the author's point. *Condense lists into phrases (a list of governors, for example, could be condensed to current governors). *Reduce multiple examples to a single example (or eliminate examples altogether). *Condense stages of a detailed process to a single, descriptive statement. 4) Use your own words. (Quote an occasional word or brief phrase.) 5) Use your own sentence structure. Do not copy the author's sentence structure, substituting your words for the author's. 6) Credit the author. See Chapter 10 for details on citation format.

Before reading a challenging selection word for word, PREVIEW it. Here are some strategies for accomplishing this:

1) Read the title: if you do not understand every word in the title, consult a dictionary. In this example, do not proceed until you understand the word empathy. 2) Read the entire first paragraph. 3) Read the first sentence of every subsequent paragraph. 4) Read the full final paragraph.

When should you quote from a work?

1) To capture another writer's particularly memorable language 2) To capture another writer's clearly and economically stated language 3) To lend authority and credibility to your own writing

When should you paraphrase from a work?

1) To clarify a short or complex passage 2) To emphasize main points

When should you summarize a work?

1) To present the main points of a lengthy passage (article or book) 2) To condense long lists or other details

Here are three goals in writing a stand-alone summary:

1) To state the author's thesis. 2) To state the author's purpose (which will usually be to inform or argue). 3) To state the main ideas that support of the thesis.

To avoid plagiarism when paraphrasing, bear two principles in mind:

1) Use your own words. Quote only an occasional word or brief phrase, if needed. 2) Use your own sentence structure. Do not reproduce the author's sentence structure.

What are some guidelines for reading and summarizing challenging sources?

1) Use your preview skills (see Chapter 2, "Reading with Attention"). 2) Realize you may not complete your reading in one sitting. 3) Expect to be confused. When you encounter sentences that confuse you, reread them. Place a question mark in the margin. Move on—and when you complete your reading, revisit passages you've highlighted with a question mark. 4) Identifying sections as you read—groupings of related paragraphs—is a key to understanding: the better you can divide the whole into parts, distinguishing main ideas from supporting ideas, the clearer the entire piece will be.

In most cases it's possible to produce a reasonably objective, and accurate, summary of a passage if you read with ___(1)_____ and make a conscious, good-faith effort to be ___(2)_____—which means not allowing your own feelings on the subject to ___(3)___ your account of the text.

1) attention; 2) unbiased; 3) distort

In your reading in the sciences and social sciences, you will often find data and concepts presented in nontext forms—as ___(1)___ and ___(2)____. Such visual devices offer a snapshot, a pictorial overview of material that is communicated more quickly and clearly in graphic form than as a series of (often complicated) sentences. Note that, in essence, these visuals are themselves ___(3)___.

1) figures; 2) tables; 3) summaries

To organize your summary, ___(1)____ paragraph or section summaries to your version of the thesis. After placing these sentences into paragraph form, ___(2)____ to ensure the smooth flow of ideas and to eliminate redundancy. Match the length of your summary to your intended ___(3)__ of the summary.

1) join; 2) revise; 3) use

___________ charts, found online, allow you to bring up concealed data by moving your cursor over particular areas. (If all the data were actually shown on the chart, it would overwhelm the graphic.)

Interactive

________ graphs are useful for showing trends over a period of time. Usually, the horizontal axis indicates years, months, or shorter periods, and the vertical axis indicates a quantity: dollars, barrels, personnel, sales, anything that can be counted.

Line

__________ a passage when you want to preserve all (or virtually all) the points, major and minor, of a brief original passage and when, for clarity (perhaps the language of the original is especially complex), you want to communicate the ideas in your own words.

Paraphrase

________ are charts that use drawings or icons to represent persons or objects.

Pictograms

Bar and line graphs are useful for visually comparing numerical quantities. ______ charts, on the other hand, are useful for visually comparing percentages of a whole.

Pie

A third, more detailed kind of summary consists of...

a thesis followed by summaries of most of the selection's paragraphs.

You may have learned that a thesis statement must be expressed in a single sentence. We would suggest a slight rewording of this generally sound advice and say that a thesis statement must be ______ in a single sentence. For reasons of emphasis or style, a writer might choose to distribute a thesis across two or more sentences.

expressible

The author may locate the thesis at the end of the work: specific details first, leading to the main idea. This is called an ___________ organization.

inductive

By definition, writing a summary requires you to select and restate some parts of the original source and leave out other parts. Deciding what to select and what to leave out calls for your personal judgment, so a summary is in one sense a work of _________.

interpretation

You might use a one-sentence summary to...

introduce a quotation or to make a brief reference to a source.

One factor affecting the nature and quality of your interpretation in summarizing is prior ________. If you're new to the subject of anthropology, say, and you're summarizing a journal article in that field, your summary will likely differ from that of your professor.

knowledge

As a general rule, the longest summaries should be no longer than _______ the length of the original source. If you are summarizing a book, a book chapter, or an especially long article, your summary should be quite a bit shorter than that.

one-fourth

When you devote a _________ or more to discussing a source, you may want to introduce it with a longer summary.

paragraph

A ______ is also an objective restatement of a source, but it may be more detailed or the same length as the original passage.

paraphrase

A _______ is a brief, objective, and complete restatement of a source.

summary

A _______ presents numerical data in rows and columns for quick reference. If the writer chooses, the information in this form can be converted to graphic information.

table

The briefest summary would consist of...

the thesis only—and, possibly, a brief expansion to essential points of the passage.

The ________ is the statement that announces a paper's subject and the claim that you or—in the case of a summary—a source author will be making about that subject. It is the one-sentence conclusion, or main idea, of the selection. This sentence will be the most general statement of your summary and (absent details, of course) can serve as a summary.

thesis

Frequently, a line graph features multiple lines (perhaps in different colors, perhaps some solid, others dotted, etc.), each indicating a separate ________ to be measured.

variable

Use an expanded summary when...

you intend to devote significant discussion to the source—if, for instance, you are planning to evaluate it.

Every selection you read will have a thesis, a main point. Begin the summary paper with...

your summary of the author's thesis.