This document provides instructions on how to summarize a text. It explains that summarizing is condensing the most essential ideas from a text or experience by removing unnecessary details. The steps include reading the text multiple times and underlining key ideas, finding the main point, breaking the text into sections, writing summaries for each section, and combining the information into a concise overall summary while removing extra words. An example compares an original passage to a brief summary that captures the main idea. Effective communication relies on assuming the audience has an appropriate level of background knowledge on the topic, according to the source cited, to avoid confusion or offense. Summaries should stick to the author's arguments and details without personal opinions.

2. spend your
summer? Tell me
something about
it.

3. What is the title
of your favorite
movie? Mention
your favorite
scenes from it.

4. What was the
memorable thing
that happened in
your life?

5. Tell me something about this:

6. Summarizin
g
English
Practicing
Teacher
By
Miss Carmelle
Dawn Laurente
Vasay

7. What is Summarizing?
Summarzing is the process of condensing or
squeezing text or an experience into a statement
of the most essential ideas.
it requires a reader to choose the key ideas,
delete trivial and insignificant or irrelevant
information.

8. Summary?
Read the article.
Reread the article. Underline
the important pieces of idea.
Enircle key terms. Find the
main point of the article.

9. Divide the article into sections or
stages of thought, and label each
section or stage of thought in the
margins.
Note the main idea of each
paragrapgh if the article is long.

10. Write brief summaries of each stage of
thought or if appropriate of each
paragraph.
Write the main point of the article. This
should be a sentence that expresses the
central idea of the article as you have
determined it from the steps above.

11. Write your rough draft of the summary.
Combine the information from the first four
steps into paragraphs.
Edit your version. Be conscise. Eliminate
needless words and repititions.
Compare your version to the original.

12. For Example:
Original: Writing things in a
calendar helps me
manage my time better.
For example, instead of
napping in the afternoon, I’m
more likely to start working on
my sociology paper that’s due
in 10 days. I fit my grocery
shopping in before a busy
weekend. I plan my visits to
the laundromat during the
football game when more
machines are likely to be open.
Summary: I get more school
work and chores done by
keeping track of my
obligations on a calendar.

13. In order to communicate effectively
with other people, one must have a
reasonably accurate idea of what
they do and do not know that is
pertinent to the communication.
Treating people as though they
have knowledge that they do not
have can result in
miscommunication and perhaps
embarrassment. On the other hand,
a fundamental rule of conversation,
at least according to a Gricean
view, is that one generally does not
convey to others information that
one can assume they already have.
Nickerson (1999) argues that
clear communication hinges
upon what an audience does
and does not know. It is
crucial to assume the audience
has neither too much nor too
little knowledge of the subject,
or the communication may be
inhibited by either confusion
or offense (p. 737).

14. “Summaries are about the author’s
arguments and details; they are not
the place for personal opinions or
judgments.”
-- Rick Wormeli

15. Thank You
Generosity