Summarizing Practice

Your summary shouldn’t be too short or too long. Look for irrelevant or unimportant details that may make your summary too long, and cut them. Be sure you still answer key questions about the text though! If you don’t, your summary might be too short, and you’ll need to add more details when you revise.

Read the summary below.

Cynthia and the Spaceship is a novel by Evelyn Redding. In the book, Cynthia, the main character, overcomes a challenge to accomplish her dream of owning a spaceship. The novel is set in Chicago in the year 2150.
Which of the following would improve this summary?

• cutting the final sentence
  
• adding details about the challenge Cynthia faces in the novel
  
• adding details about what the spaceship looks like
  
• cutting the title and the author of the book
  

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

Opinions don’t belong in a summary. You shouldn’t mention if you liked a text or not. Stick to facts and what the text is mostly about, or the main ideas.

Read the following passage.

The article “Orange You Glad” by Wanda Biederman is all about oranges: the history, varieties and products that are made from them. Oranges are not known to grow wildly. They likely originated in Asia, either in India or in China. Spanish travelers brought the fruit to the Americas in the 1500s. There are bitter oranges and sweet oranges. I like to use bitter oranges to make jelly. Orange juice is made from oranges, and orange oil, which is used to flavor foods, is made of sweet oranges. Oranges are packed with vitamin C, a fact that historically made them a popular food among sailors. Vitamin C helps heal wounds and repair bones. The article concludes with the idea that people should eat an orange, and not an apple, every day.

Which of the following details from the passage does not belong in the summary?

• “They likely originated in Asia…”
  
• “...that historically made them a popular food among sailors.”
  
• “Vitamin C helps heal wounds and repair bones.”
  
• “I like to use bitter oranges to make jelly.”
  

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

The article “The Three Men Who Invented the Telephone” is about three different men who contributed to the invention of the telephone. Which of the following should you include in a summary of this article?

• details about how smartphones and cell phones work
  
• a detail about where the phrase “put someone on hold” came from
  
• a brief explanation of how each man was involved in the invention of the telephone
  
• your opinion about who really invented the telephone

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

CCSS.RL.8.2