Academic English for Tertiary Studies: EAP 4

Summary writing practice

Adapted from: Extended writing and research skills by J. McCormack & J. Slaught, Garnet, 2007

N.O.W. summarising approach:

 NOTE down key points

 Organize the points
 Write your summary using these points

A Using the same order of facts and ideas as the original

B Using all the information from the original

C Using none of the same vocabulary as the original

D Using different grammatical structures from the original

E Emphasising the points that you feel are important in the original

F Giving your opinion about or commenting on the original text

(Adapted from: Trzeciak, J. & Mackay, S.E. (1994) Study Skills for Academic Writing, Hemel Hempstead
UK: Prentice Hall)

 Below is a short extract from a text on Environmental Problems and

Management. The key points have been underlined and notes made.

 Read through the text and notes and then write a summary based on the
notes.

Interest in the environment is not a recent phenomenon; the environment

has always affected the growth and development of humankind, both as a
source of materials as well as a refuge for the human spirit. The recent
interest in protecting the environment is a reflection of both the demand of
society for a better quality of life, which may include using the environment
as a haven, as well as the need to replenish sources. The difference between
the present day and the pre-1960s era is the extent to which concern for the
environment has become important; there is much greater interest…

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Academic English for Tertiary Studies: EAP 4

1: interest in env. = not just recent: always int. as source of raw

materials + ‘refuge for human spirit’

2: reasons for recent int. = int. in ‘better quality of life’ + need to

replenish sources of raw materials

3: cf. current interest with pre 1960s = environmental concerns

now given more priority

Summary

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

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Academic English for Tertiary Studies: EAP 4

Information Technology and the New Workplace

From textbook: Schermerhorn, J.R., Campling, J., Poole, D., Wiesner, R., (2004) Management, An Asia-Pacific
Perspective, John Wiley & Sons, Brisbane

 Read the first paragraph of the text about Information technology and the
new workplace and then complete questions 1 & 2 below.

1. How is Information technology defined in the first paragraph?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

2. How is this signalled?

______________________________________________________________

 Below is a summary of the whole text as a total cloze. Read the complete
text and underline or highlight the important information that you would
include in a summary. Now look at the cloze below and make guesses
about the words that fill in the spaces – remember: a summary is a
paraphrase of the main ideas of a text.

___ ‘_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _’ ___________ ___

______ __ ___________ __________ __ ____

_ _ _ _ _. __ ____ __ _ _ _ _ _ _, _________ ___

_______ ____________ ___ ________ __

_________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, ____ _____ __ ___

_______ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. _______ _ _,

_____________ ___ __ _______ “_ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _, ______ _______ ___ ________

________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _” -___ _ _ _ _, ___________

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

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 Academic English for Tertiary Studies: EAP 4

4. Look at the chart carefully and complete the cloze description of it below.

People, teams and Organizations are

departments are flatter as IT
better connected replaces
by IT management levels

IT
breaks
barriers

Supplier Customer
s s

Supply chain Customer

management is relationship
improved by IT management is
connections Strategic improved by IT
partners connections

More things are done by

outsourcing and
partnerships using IT

Figure 3.1: Information technology is breaking down barriers and changing

organizations.

The impact of information technology in businesses is most evident in its

____________________________________________ inside and outside of

organizations. Within organizations, because of IT, management

_______________________________________ and individual workers,

__________________________________________. Outside organisations,

because of IT, suppliers ________________________________________

________________________ management, _______________________

benefit from _________________________________________________

and ________________________ from the increased efficiencies.

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Academic English for Tertiary Studies: EAP 4

Referencing
In academic contexts it is always important to include details of all the
sources used in your work. Usually sources are referenced within the text as
well as in a reference list at the end of a text.

For each source, you need to supply several pieces of information. Different
information is needed for different types of texts. For example, books and
journal articles require different information:

For a book For a journal article

 author’s name  author’s name

 title of book  title of book
 date of publication  name of journal
 name of publisher  date of publication
 volume and number of journal
 pages on which the article is
published

Adapted from: Academic culture: A student’s guide to studying at university by J. Brick, 2006, Macquarie
University, Sydney

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Academic English for Tertiary Studies: EAP 4

 Complete the exercise below which requires you to recognize how

different types of texts are referenced.

In the reference list below, find the following:

1. A document on the internet

2. A book by one author
3. A newspaper article from an electronic database
4. An E-book
5. A book by two authors
6. A book with seven authors or more
7. An article in an edited book of articles

Reference List

Andreasen, NC 2001, Brave new brain: conquering mental illness in the era of
the genome, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Davis, M, Charles, L, Curry, MJ, Shanti, P, Prasad, S, Hewings, A et al. 2003,

Challenging spatial norms, Routledge, London.

Este, J, Warren, C, Connor, L, Brown, M, Pollard, R, O’Connor, T 2008, Life in

the clickstream: the future of journalism, Media Entertainment and Arts
Alliance, viewed 27 May 2009,
<http://www.alliance.org.au/documents/foj_report_final.pdf>

Ferres, K 2001, ‘Idiot box: television, urban myths and ethical scenarios’, in I
Craven (ed.), Australian cinema in the 1990s, Frank Cass, London, pp. 175-
188.

Schneider, Z, Whitehead, D & Elliott, D 2007, Nursing and midwifery

research: methods and appraisal for evidence-based practice, 3rd edn,
Elsevier Australia Marrickville, NSW.

Storey, KB 2004, Functional metabolism: regulation and adaptation, John

Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, viewed 4 April 2009, NetLibrary database.

Wentworth, WC 1984, ‘Why we need a permanent base on the moon’, Sydney

Morning Herald, 24 January, p. 11, viewed 3 April 2009, Sydney Morning
Herald Archives database.

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