Summarizing
Reporter's Notes (who, what, why, where, how)
Identify the answer to each of the above items. Take your answers, write them into paragraph form and you have the framework for your summary.
Vocabulary
If a text gives you a list of important vocabulary in it's preview, or your teacher provides vocabulary prior to a unit of study, use these vocabulary words as important information that should be included in your summary.
Keeping
Keep only the important information and main ideas.
Summarizing is:
Keeping Deleting Paraphrasing
Deleting
Do not include supporting details in your summary.
"Summaries are about the author's arguments and details; they are not the place for personal opinions or judgments."
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A summary can be completed in writing, but also orally, dramatically, artistically, visually, physically or musically.
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If the summary is more than 25% of the original text's length, you need to delete more details and keep only the important information
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One of the toughest parts of summarizing, is paraphrasing -- putting important information into your own words.
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Summaries should be between 10 to 25 percent of the original text's length (1 percent for novels).
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Summarizing is a powerful reading strategy. It increases comprehension and retention of information.
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When you summarize, you restate the most important information of a text, using your own words.
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Summarizing Tricks
Text features vocabulary topic sentences Reporters' notes (who, what, where, why, how) Organizers (graphic,
Text Features
Text features such as titles, subtitles, bold, color, margin notes, etc. are clues to a text's most important information -- information you may want to include in your summary.
Paraphrasing
Use your own words!!!
Topic Sentence
When reading a short text, identify the topic sentence in each paragraph. A topic sentence holds the most important information in a paragraph. Therefore, a summary can be written simply by paraphrasing the topic sentences into your own words.