Writing Summaries

What are the two separate processes involved in summarizing a reading?

1. Identifying the most important material. 2. Restating the material in your own words. You may quote material, but do so sparingly.

Describe an abstract summary

A special form of an informative summary that is very short. It is usually a paragraph long summary of a reading and frequently accompanies scholarly texts. An abstract succinctly overviews the reading, informing readers of the text's primary assertions, findings, or arguments.

Anticedent

A thing or event that existed before or logically precedes another.

Succinct

Briefly and clearly expressed.

Brevity

Concise and exact use of words used in writing or speech.

Herald

to be viewed as a sign that something is about to happen.

Name the three types of summaries.

1. Abstract 2. Informative 3. Explanatory

Name and describe the qualities of a good summary.

1. Comprehensive: It conveys all the important main ideas of the reading. Each individual writer must decide what is more important in the source text. This is what causes some essays to contain different information than others. 2. Brief: It conveys these main ideas briefly and concisely. Needs to be comprehensive, but brief. Brevity is usually achieved by carefully selecting your content and words to describe it. If you can say something gracefully in four words rather than five, say it in four. 3. Accurate: It accurately conveys the author's ideas, findings, assertions, or arguments. Readers are relying on you to provide accurate information. Do not misrepresent an ideas the author has either by omitting information or using inaccurate, slanted, or vague language. 4. Neutral: It avoids influence from your bias, preferences, judgements, or opinions. 5. Independent: It makes sense to someone who reads it independently of the main piece.

Describe how to read, re-read, and annotate the source text when summarizing a text.

1. Read the text and try to get an idea of its main ideas and structure. 2. Re-read the material but slower. As you read, carefully highlight important material and take notes in the margin that identify key points, info, and structure. 3. If you are summarizing a paragraph, locate and mark the topic sentence. If no topic sentence, paraphrase the main point of the paragraph in the margin. If summarizing an entire essay or article, locate the thesis. If thesis is stated, underline it and take note of it in the margin. If thesis is implied, paraphrase the main point of the piece at the end of the passage. 4. Identify the major sections of the pieces structure; where the author discusses one idea, finding, or argument. 5. In the margin of the passage or on a separate sheet of paper, briefly summarize each section of the text; every idea, assertion, or finding along with primary supporting information provided. 6. Check your section summaries against the source text. Make sure they are comprehensive, brief, accurate, neutral, and ultimately clear to anyone when combined to form a summary.

Bravado

A bold manner or a show of boldness intended to impress or intimidate.

Describe an explanatory summary.

A brief but comprehensive description of a texts' most important ideas, findings, or assertions as well as frequent references to how the author explained, structured and organized the source text. In the opening section of the summary, the topic of the source text, the title of the piece, the name and credentials of the author, and the thesis are mentioned. In a summary, the thesis will likely be a paraphrase of the source text's thesis. Generally, summaries do not need conclusions. They simply end by summarizing the author's last point.

Describe an informative summary

A brief but comprehensive description of a texts' most important ideas, findings, or assertions that generally follow the source text's organization. This following of the organization is not completely necessary though. The source text's topic, full title, and full names of its author, and the thesis is stated in the opening section. Summaries do not have conclusions like other forms of source-based essays. Instead, you close your summary by summarizing the source text's key assertion, finding, or argument.

Why should summaries include documentation?

Even if you paraphrase the author's ideas, you still need to give credit to the author for those ideas, arguments, assertions, or findings. Documentation also tells your readers where they can locate the source text if they want to read the whole piece for themselves.

What is a summary?

It is a brief but comprehensive description of only the most important ideas, findings, or arguments of a reading.

Why do you write brief summaries of each section of a source text when annotating?

The brief summaries help you incorporate the material into a longer essay you are writing, compose an abstract of the source text, or produce an explanatory summary of the reading.

When you are engaged in a research project, abstracts can be invaluable how?

They are short enough to where you can quickly read them to see if they contain any relevant info for your project.