Sample: Summary Mini-Lesson

Dr. R Lets speech some epitome. Based on the APA homework and the diagnostic rough drafts, its pretty white some folks be still having difficulties discerning mingled with compend and plagiarize. The distinction between these two is incredibly important to grasp, as your thick in your Essay 1 must be clear and concise. billhook that you should be able to summarize the of import argument claims of your chosen member in a single paragraph. OK, so what is a compend?When we talk around summaries, we ar usu all toldy talking virtually the summary of the main ideas of an entire work (although, if were focusing on a specialized chapter or word in a larger work, wed hence be summarizing that virtuoso major component. For instance, most of us are summarizing single denominations, non the entire issue of a magazine or journal). abbreviation is engagementd to state the major ideas of an entire source or dowry of a source see above in your own words (Faigley, 2010, p. 20). Note that the summaries are significantly shorter than the source.Most academic guides recommend that a summary be no longer than ? the length of the original source. In other words, if you bewilder a four page article and your summary is two pages long, thats not an effective summary. Faigley even mentions that summaries are practically a paragraph or perhaps even a reprove (emphasis mine (2010, p. 631). Note the fall upon ideas in the section abovesummaries are short and they are in your own words. They only focus on the main points, not most of the examples or supporting materials (Faigley, 2010, p. 20).To put this in laymans terms for you as you check your summary work, note that this means that words like uses examples or uses statistics or smith discusses a man in Ireland who are not summary appropriatethose are areas where you are in truth paraphrasing supporting data/details, not summarizing the authors main ideas. How are paraphrase and summary different? First, we tend to paraphrase specific examples or sentences. A paraphrase of a statement is often used to help clarify the ideas in that one statement, rather than to give an overview of an entire work.We most often use paraphrase after weve quoted a workyou use that paraphrasing to help gear up and show connection between the quoted material and your own ideas, for instance. As Faigley notes, when you paraphrase, you run the idea of the source in your own words at about the same length as the original (emphasis mine (Faigley, 2010, p. 631). Note that the main distinctions between summary and paraphrase are the length and the purpose of the tasks. Paraphrase is all about explaining a specific single idea at about the same length while summary is an overview of the entire piece that is oft shorter.What are some strategies for effective summary? One tip is to disembodied spirit at the overall document. Are there headings in the source? If so, those headings should directly relate to the main ideasthey are like little summary hummer points for the article, which means the author did some of the work for you If there are not clearly marked sections of the source (which there often are not), youre going to constitute to create some notes to work from. Read the article from start to finish, barely reading. Then, on a second reading, read one paragraph at a time.Once you read the paragraph over, write in the margins what the main point of that paragraph is. ( A print out of the article is great for this, but if you are paperless, you can copy the article into countersignature and type in your paragraph notes in a different people of color font or use the insert comment feature to colour the source). Once you have created that list of notesone phrase or sentence per paragraphyou can then take those and read through them. What main ideas are repeated that you can group together? What paragraphs seem to just list supporting examples and should be therefore excluded f rom your summary?Use those notes to actually develop a single paragraph of summaryyour summary should have no more sentences in it than the source has paragraphs (and in most cases, should have fewer). Common thick Errors 1. Including supporting details or discussing data and examples from the source. 2. Adding military rank or commentary to the summary from your own point of view. 3. composition the summary by focusing on retelling the entire sourcethis is paraphrasing and can often be identified by the keywords in the long section that accommodate things like he begins and he goes on to discuss and having covered X, he moves on to Y. Those are phrases that indicate youre including minor details an retelling everything, not summarizing. 4. Including quotations. 5. Incorporating additional sources (other than the thing you are summarizing). 6. Lacking signal phrasing that indicates key points. Your summary should set up the thesis/position of what is being summarized and repres ent with the main ideas or claims. Using signal phrasing like Smiths main argument is and one reason Smith argues X is will help you make smoother transitions and remind the reader you are summarizing the main points only. Resources Columbia University School of Social Work (n. . ). Writing summaries. Writing Center Handouts. Retrieved from http//www. columbia. edu/cu/ssw/write/handouts/summary. html Faigley, L. (2010). Writing A guide for college and beyond. New York Longman. Student Development Centre (2009). Writing resources Summary Writing. The University of Western Ontario. Retrieved from http//www. sdc. uwo. ca/ composing/index. html? handouts direct link www. sdc. uwo. ca/writing/handouts/Summary%20Writing. pdf The Write Place (1997). Process for writing a summary. social lion Literacy Education Online. Retrieved from http//leo. stcloudstate. edu/acadwrite/summary. html