8. Lesson Objective:
At the end of the discussion the student is
expected to:
Use various techniques in summarizing a
variety of academic texts.
9. What is a Summary?
Summary - is a shortened or simplified version of
an original text using your own words. It is also
known as abstract or précis (pray-see)
10. Why is summarizing a significant critical reading skill?
Barrot and Sipacio (2017) argues that summarizing is an
important skill because it helps you
⮚ deepen your understanding of the text;
⮚ learn to identify relevant information or key ideas;
⮚ combine details or examples that support the main idea
and key words presented in the text; and,
⮚ capture the key ideas in the text and put them together
clearly and concisely.
11. What is NOT Summarizing?
You are NOT summarizing when you:
⮚ write down everything;
⮚ write down ideas from the text word-for-word;
⮚ write down incoherent and irrelevant ideas;
⮚ write down ideas that are not stated in the text; or
⮚ write down a summary that has the same length or
is longer than the original text.
12. Strategies/ Techniques in Summarizing
1. Finding the Main Idea
2. Separating General Ideas from Details/Examples
3. Identifying Key Words
General Guidelines in Summarizing
as suggested by Barrot and Sipacio (2017):
1. Clarify your purpose before you read.
13. 2. Read the text at least twice until you fully understand its
content. Locate the gist or main idea of the text, which can
usually be found either at the beginning, in the middle, or in
the end.
3. Highlight key ideas and phrases; another strategy is to
annotate the text.
4. Write all the key ideas and phrases you identified on the
margins or on your notebook in a bullet or outline form.
14. 5. Without looking at the text, identify the connections of
these key ideas and phrases using a concept map.
6. List your ideas in sentence form in a concept map.
7. Combine the sentences into a paragraph. Use appropriate
transitional devices to improve cohesion.
8. Never copy in verbatim a single sentence from the original
text.
9. Refrain from adding comments about the text. Stick to the
ideas it presents.
15. 10. Edit the draft of your summary by eliminating redundant
ideas.
11.Compare your output with the original text to ensure
accuracy.
12.Record the details of the original source (author’s name/s,
date of publication, title, publisher, place of publishing, and
URL, (if online). It is not necessary to indicate the page
number/s of the original text in citing sources in summaries.
16. 13.Format your summary properly. When you combine your
summaries in a paragraph, use different formats to show
variety in writing.
General Rule in Writing Precis, Abstract or Summary:
condense information into around 15% of the original
length of the text A 6000-word research article for an
academic journal requires only 200 to 250 words for its
abstract.
17. Structure of an Abstract, a Precis, or Summary
Research Abstract
✔ Usually contains 150 to 300 words;
✔ It does not use any citation;
✔ It does not include specific result statistics;
✔ Last to be written.
18. Research Abstract Structure:
● Rationale (around 20%)
● Research problems (around 10%)
● Methodology (around 20%)
● Major findings (around 40%)
● Conclusion and implications (around 10%)
19. Summary of Expository Texts
✔ Condenses information into 15 to 30% of the original text;
✔ It is achieved by getting the thesis statement of the text and
the main idea
or topic sentence of each paragraph;
✔ Main ideas are combined into a paragraph using cohesive
devices;
✔ Name of the author and the title of the article are indicated
in the first
sentence.
20. Formats in Summarizing
1. Idea Heading Format
In this format, the summarized idea comes before the
citation.
Example:
Benchmarking is a useful strategy that has the potential to
help public officials improve the performance of local
services (Folz, 2004; Ammons, 2001).
21. 2. Author Heading Format
In this format, the summarized idea comes after the citation.
The author’s name/s is/are connected by an appropriate
reporting verb.
Example:
Blackstone and Hardwood (2012) suggest the facilitative
strength of FB as it elicits greater engagement on
collaboration among students.
22. 3. Date Heading Format In this format, the summarized idea
comes after the date when the material was published.
Example:
In their 2004 study on the impact of participatory
development approach, Irvin and Stansbury argue that
participation can be valuable to the participants and the
government in terms of the process and outcomes of
decision making.
23. Using Reporting Verbs when Summarizing
A reporting verb is a word used to discuss another
person’s writings or assertions. They are generally used to
incorporate the source to the discussion in the text.
Example:
Having syntactically correct sentence is not enough to create
meaning. As Noam Chomsky pointed out, a sentence can be
perfect in terms of syntax and still not make sense. He showed
this by coming up with the famous sentence, “Colorless green
ideas sleep furiously” (Chomsky, 1957).
24. ⮚ Use the past tense if you think the idea is outdated
and you want to negate it.
⮚ The use of the present tense, on the other hand,
indicates that you view the idea to be relevant or
agreeable.
⮚ Reporting verbs are used according to discipline.
Hyland (1999) lists a frequency of reporting verbs
according to discipline.
