Summary

What is a summary?

• a short explanation of a text

• a persuasive argument about a text

• a movie based of a book

• a theme or universal lesson

When would you most likely summarize a book?

• when you want to forget a book you've read

• when you want to tell a friend your opinion of a book but not what it was about

• when you want to tell a friend the main idea of the book

• when you don't understand a vocabulary word you read in a book

A summary should

• tell characters, setting, plot events, and theme

• describe the details but not the main ideas

• never mention the plot of the text

• always mention the age of the author

Which of the following questions should you definitely answer in a summary of the novel My Funny Friend Fiona?

• What's Fiona's neighbor

  s favorite color?

• What happens to Fiona?

• Is My Funny Friend Fiona a boring book?

• How long did it take you to read My Funny Friend Fiona?

What detail should a summary NOT contain?

• opinions

• plot

• characters

• setting

Which best describes a summary?

• A really long and detailed piece of writing

• the entire text, told in your own words

• a dumb thing that teachers make you write

• a shortened form of a text, with the main ideas and important details

What can you summarize?

• only novels

• only nonfiction

• only movies

• anything you read or watch

You should write your summary

• in one draft without revising

• in your own words with complete sentences

• in a secret language that you make up

• in fragments without punctuation