ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND
PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
WEEK 3:
SUMMARIZING ACADEMIC TEXT
Summary
 A brief statement or restatement of
main points.
 Summarizing a text or distilling its
essential concept s into a paragraph
or two, is a useful study tool as well
as a good writing practice.
What are the purposes of summarizing?
 To reproduce the main idea and the
key points of a text
 To restate these as few words as
possible
TAKE NOTE!
1. The main idea is what the text is about
while key points are arguments or
information that is used to support the main
idea.
2. Summaries are not place for your
opinions, background knowledge, and
personal information.
3. Summaries can range in length from two
sentence to several pages.
4. Summarizing improves students’ memory
for what they read and by extending
comprehension.
SUMMARIZING TECHNIQUES
1. Somebody Wanted But So - the strategy
helps students to generalize, recognize cause
and effect relationships and find the main
idea.
2. SAAC Method- is an acronym for “State,
Assign, Action, Complete” these elements
should be included in the summary.
3. 5W’s and 1 H- this technique relies on six
crucial questions: who, what, when, where,
why and how. These questions make it easy to
identify the main idea, character, important
details, and main idea.
4. First Then Finally- this helps students
summarize events in chronological order.
5. Give Me the Gist- this type of techniques is
like giving a friend the gist of a story. In other
words, they want a summary- not retelling of
every detail.
ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND
PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
WEEK 3:
SUMMARIZING ACADEMIC TEXT
Summary
 A brief statement or restatement of
main points. 2. SAAC Method- is an acronym for “State,
 Summarizing a text or distilling its Assign, Action, Complete” these elements
essential concept s into a paragraph should be included in the summary.
or two, is a useful study tool as well
as a good writing practice.
What are the purposes of summarizing?
 To reproduce the main idea and the
key points of a text
 To restate these as few words as
possible
TAKE NOTE! 3. 5W’s and 1 H- this technique relies on six
crucial questions: who, what, when, where,
1. The main idea is what the text is about why and how. These questions make it easy to
while key points are arguments or identify the main idea, character, important
information that is used to support the main details, and main idea.
idea.
2. Summaries are not place for your
opinions, background knowledge, and
personal information.
3. Summaries can range in length from two
sentence to several pages.
4. Summarizing improves students’ memory 4. First Then Finally- this helps students
for what they read and by extending
summarize events in chronological order.
comprehension.
5. Give Me the Gist- this type of techniques is
SUMMARIZING TECHNIQUES like giving a friend the gist of a story. In other
words, they want a summary- not retelling of
1. Somebody Wanted But So - the strategy every detail.
helps students to generalize, recognize cause
and effect relationships and find the main
idea.