Summarizing Text

What is a summary?

• a short explanation of a text
• a persuasive argument about a text
• a movie based off 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 gist or main ideas of a book
• when you don't understand a vocabulary word you read in a book

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

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 be cut from the following summary?
My Funny Friend Fiona is a novel about a girl named Fiona. It’s really quick to read, and you should read it because it’s the funniest book in the world.

• the name of the main character
• the title of the book
• the fact that the book is a novel
• the opinion that it's the "funniest book in the world"

When should you write a draft of your summary?

• immediately after reading the text for the first time
• before coding the text
• before re-reading sections you didn't understand
• after you've read the text, coded it and re-read any sections you didn't understand

Which of the following is an example of coding while you read?

• looking a word up in the dictionary
• putting an exclamation mark next to surprising or new information
• drawing a picture of your kitten in the blank space at the end of the chapter
• re-reading the same page 10-15 times

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

What can you summarize?

• only novels
• only nonfiction
• only movies
• anything you read or watch

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