ESL Summarizing

This refers to the condensation of significant facts from an original piece of writing.

• summary

• main idea

• topic sentence

• thesis statement

A summary should

• answer the 5 W’s: who, what, when, where and why.
  
• describe the details but not the main ideas.
  
• never mention the plot of the text.
  
• always mention the age of the author.

When you summarize a text, you find its essentials. You think about what you’ve read and decide what matters most. That’s why summarizing builds critical-thinking skills. Summarizing can help you focus on the most important parts of a text and keep them organized in your head. It makes it easier to understand and remember what you’re reading.

According to this passage, why are you building critical-thinking skills when you summarize?

• because you’re evaluating the text to decide what’s most important

• because you’re critiquing the text to determine if it was interesting or boring

• because you’re using your imagination to write a new ending

• because you’re combining what you’ve learned in one text with your background knowledge

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
  

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.”
  

You should write your summary

• in your own words with complete sentences.
  
• in a secret language that you make up.
  
• in one draft without revising.
  
• in fragments without punctuation.

In a newspaper article, the first paragraph functions like a summary of the event. After answering the five W's, a reporter can give more details about what happened in the remainder of the article. This structure is called an inverted pyramid. It starts out general—with the main ideas—and gets more specific—with details.

Based on this passage, reading only the first paragraph of a newspaper article would

• give a reader no information about a current event.
  
• answer all of a reader’s questions about a current event.
  
• give a reader the main ideas of a current event.
  
• answer only where and when an event took place.
  

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

1. Annie tries to get the summary of the text she is reading. She pares down the information she gets into a 20-word summary. What strategy did she use in writing a summary?

• GIST Summary

• Somebody Wanted But So

• Journalist Questions

• Magnet Summary

Read the text below.

Longitudinal studies have also confirmed the role of beliefs in teacher practice. The impact of previously held beliefs was found to be enduring when four school teachers were observed over a two year period implementing a new and specific method of teaching reading (Stephens et al., 2000). Despite the teachers receiving special training, new practice was not comprehensively sustained, with one teacher reverting to practice based on prior held beliefs at the end of the training period. Similar reliance on earlier beliefs has been observed in studies of preservice teachers. In a two year study on development of professional belief systems about reading instruction the teachers appeared to create fictive images of themselves as teachers consistent with their prior knowledge of teachers and reading, and the experiences they had on teaching practicum (Stoube, 2009). These factors seemed more important in forming these teachers’ notions about teaching reading, than formal reading courses undertaken as part of teacher training. In a similar fashion, research with preservice teachers at two American universities found that previous, personal experience and beliefs continued to influence content and instructional choices of these participants (Barnyak & Paquette, 2010).

McHardy, J. & Chapman, E. (2016). Adult reading teachers’ beliefs about how less-skilled adult readers can be taught to read, Literacy and Numeracy Studies, 24(2), 24-42. doi:10.5130/lns.v24i2.4809

Which of the following best summarizes the original paragraph?

• Teachers’ reluctance to implement new methods of teaching reading to adults is regrettable (McHardy & Chapman, 2016). By holding onto their old belief systems, they are not making the most of their training and thereby disadvantaging their students. Studies by Stephens et al. (2000), Stoube (2009) and Barnyak & Paquette (2010) all support this assertion.

• McHardy and Chapman (2016) prove that teachers find it impossible to change their approach to teaching reading to adults despite being trained in alternative methods. They always return to the practices they believe are best. Their views are supported by at least three other studies.

• McHardy and Chapman (2016) discuss previous research into preservice teachers (Stoube, 2009; Barnyak & Paquette, 2010) and experienced teachers (Stephens et al., 2000) and conclude that even when they have received training in methods of teaching reading that differ from their existing practices and beliefs, they often revert to the old ways after the training is completed.

• McHardy and Chapman (2016) stated the role of beliefs has an impact in teaching practice based on the longitudinal studies of different researchers.