Objective Summary

When writing an objective summary, you must include the central idea of the text you are reading. What does the term central idea mean?

• a detail that supports the main idea of a text

• the main idea or big idea of the text

• the conclusion sentence in a text

• the sentence in the middle of a paragraph

If you are asked to write an objective summary, which of the following should you avoid?

• Listing the major events of the story

• Choosing only the most important parts

• Explaining your ideas about the meaning of the story

• Stating the central idea of the story

• Explaining the resolution of the conflict

When listing the events of the story, what should you keep in mind when choosing what to list?

• Don't pick events that spoil the ending

• Don't pick events that explain the conflict

• Pick events related to the central theme.

• Pick your favorite events

As you read a text, you should be keeping track of the supporting details you can use for your summary. Which question below is a question you should ask yourself when looking for supporting details.

• Is this detail interesting to me as a reader?

• Does this detail relate to my topic or central idea?

• Does this detail entertain me?

• Is this a detail that shares an opinion that I agree with?

When writing an objective summary, the key to staying objective is to avoid including ___________

• dates

• opinions

• statistics

• true events

When you write the events you'll want to paraphrase them. Paraphrase means....

• to objectively summarize

• to change the wording to your own words

• to list chronologically

• to list objectively

• to reduce to five sentences or less

All of the following should be included in the topic sentence except....

• Central idea

• Transitional word

• Verb

• Title