Summary of an Article

1. Assessment Part B:
Summary of an article
by Louise Douse
Week
6
Understanding
Performance

2. Assessment 1 - Portfolio
 Summary of an article
 Write a 500 word summary of the following article, available on
BREO:
 Dance:Au, S. (2012) ‘Ascent and Descent’ in Ballet and Modern and Dance.
3rd edn. London:Thames & Hudson, pp. 45-59.
 Acting: Silvani,G. (2014) ‘MathewG. Lewis’Theatre: Fear on stage’, in
Crisafulli, L and Liberto, F. (ed.)The Romantic Stage: A Many-Sided Mirror.
NewYork: Rodopi, pp185-197.
 [AvailableOnline – see BREO Guided Learning]
Understanding Performance Week 6

3. Summary of an Article
 What is a summary?
 A brief statement or account of the main points of something
 How do I go about it?
 Read
 Key Ideas
 Construct
 Reference
Understanding Performance Week 6

4. 1. Read
 Understand what you are reading
 Use a dictionary or context clues to figure out the
meaning of important words that you don’t know
 Take notes as you read
 Highlight key ideas
 Note down any sub-sections
Understanding Performance Week 6

5. 2. Key Ideas
 Write in your own words
 Broad to specific
 Identify the main chunks of ideas
 Flesh them out
 Specific to broad
 Write a sentence per paragraph
 Group the sentences into related chunks
 Repetition, repetition, repetition
Understanding Performance Week 6

6. 3. Construct
 Use the key terms to form sentences that
summarise the main ideas of the text, using your
own words
 Never put your own ideas or opinions in
 Check your outline to include all the important
points
 Use “summarizing language”
• The article claims
• The authors suggest
 Write a final statement about what the author(s)
wanted to get across
Understanding Performance Week 6

7. 4. Reference
 Start with a clear identification of the work
 Type of work
 Title
 Author(s)
 Main point
 Example: In the featured article Five Kinds of
Learning, the author, Holland Oates, justifies his
opinion on the topic of learning styles, and
contributes to them himself.
Understanding Performance Week 6