Theme: Summarizing essay

What is a summary?

• Is a shortened version of a text that focuses on the thesis or main idea.

• It does not include many details or examples;

• It does not include personal opinions.

• Is to take larger selections of text and reduce them to their condensed parts referring to their main points.

• It is to make a summary of what the book is about, using your own words.

What is summarizing?

Why to summarize? To

redu

ce in

form

ation

to

esse

ntial

idea

s in

ord

er to

:

Comprehension Understand and learn important information

Communication Expand the breadth or depth of your writing

What is not to summarize

• To write down everything• To write different ideas

that the ones stated on the original writing

• To write complete sentences

• To write too little that the sense of the text is missing.

• To copy word by word.

• Take out the main ideas• Focus on the details• Use key words and phrases• Brake down the larger

ideas• Write only enough to

convey the gist• Take only enough to

convey the gist• Take succinct but complete

notes

What do we expect from a summary?

The steps for summarizing

MIDASM

Main idea: identify Topic sentence (if

there is one) or use basic signal words

I Identify supporting

details

D Disregard

unimportant information

A Analyze redundant

information

S Simplify,

categorize, and label important

information

The topic sentenceIt introduces the main

idea and the controlling idea which is your idea or opinion about the main idea.

It controls what you write in the

rest of the paragraph.

All the sentences in the paragraph must

relate to, describe, or illustrate the

controlling idea in the topic sentence.

It may not always be so clearly stated, and it can come in the middle or

end of a paragraph

Main Idea

Supporting detail Supporting detail

Supporting detail Supporting detail

How to plan your summary?

Ask and answer Wh-questions

Who?

Subject

What

Action

Where?

Location

When?

Time

Why?

Reason

How

Process

Summarizing

Let’s practiceOne paragraph at a time…

Summarizing_ppoint.ppt

Example paragraphs…

A tornado is a powerful, twisting windstorm. It begins high in the air, among the winds of a giant storm cloud. People who have watched a tornado’s howling winds reach down from the sky have said it’s the most frightening thing they have ever seen. In some parts of the United States, these windstorms are called twisters or cyclones.

Main idea and supporting details

Tornado is powerful, twisting

windstorm

Part of giantstorm cloud

FrighteningAlso called

twister or cyclone

Sentence Summary…

Tornadoes are frightening, powerful, twisting windstorms sometimes called twisters or cyclones that start in giant storm clouds.

Tornadoes cont…

Tornadoes are not the only whirling windstorms that move through the earth’s air. Dust devils, hurricanes and typhoons all have twisting winds. But these windstorms differ from tornadoes in important ways.

Main idea and supporting details

Dust devils, hurricanes,

and typhoons have twisting winds

Whirling windstormsDiffer from tornadoes

Sentence Summary…

Dust devils, hurricanes and typhoons also have twisting winds, but they are different from tornadoes.

Thanks for attending the class!

Have a nice day!