Unit 4: Writing

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

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Module Objectives
Given a spice of fiction or non-fiction
writing learners should be able to:
1. Summarize a piece of writing.
2. Avoid plagiarizing when writing a summary
or paraphrasing work.
3. Identify relevant information.

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We Will Cover Three Sections

Writing Summaries:

Avoiding Plagiarism:

What are they and how can I

write an effective one?

Why it is important and how to

properly cite quotes and texts

The process and the purpose

Identifying relevant
information

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Section 1: Writing Summaries

Have you ever heard someone say, to make a long story short . . . or Tell me the short
version . . . before they tell a brief experience or story?
This short version of the story is almost the same thing as summarizing.
Summarizing means a brief account giving the main points of something
(Dictionary.com). Being able to summarize in your writing is extremely important, not just
for the GED test but also if you want people to take your speaking and writing seriously at
work or in the community.
In this mini-lesson, you should be able to answer these questions:
. How do you write a summary?
. What makes an effective summary?

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Summarizing at the Movies

1. Think about a movie youve seen recently.

2. Think of someone you care about who maybe hasnt seen the movie (one of your
children or a friend).
3. Grab a paper and pencil and write about the story so that if you read your
summary to them, they would have a good idea of what the movie is about.
4. See what you can do in 5 minutes. Ready, go!

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Elements of a Good Summary

There are a few important points to make sure you
include in your summaries.
Without these important elements, it can be
difficult for your readers to understand what your
summary is saying. As you view this video, take
notes as to what the most important points are in
effective summaries. How to Write a Summary
(3 min and 5 s).
[If the link does not take you to the Web site, copy
and paste the following URL into your browser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGWO1ldEhtQ
]

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Video: How to Write a Summary

Important Note About Paraphrasing

In the video, the speaker said not to use direct quotes in your summary but only to use
your own words (paraphrasing).
On the GED test, however, using a direct quote is not only allowed but is also important
when writing a summary.
In Section 2: Avoiding Plagiarism, we will provide further details about how to do this
correctly.

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Check Your Knowledge

Answer these questions about summaries; then, click on the arrow to see the correct
answers. Review the video, How to Write a Summary, if you need help answering the
questions.
1. Good summaries can be long or short.
A. True
B. False

2. Good summaries include ALL of the following except:

A.
B.
C.
D.

Must be clear to someone who hasnt read or seen the material

Includes your opinion about the text and how you feel about it
Hits all the main points
Includes the title or author of the text you are summarizing

When you are finished, proceed to the next slide to check

your answers.

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Answers
1. False. Good summaries are always short.
2. B. B is the only answer that is NOT true because summaries should not include your
own opinion or personal viewpoint. The goal of summarizing is for you to explain in a
short and simple way what someone else is saying.

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How to Write a Summary

Weve talked about what makes a good summary, but what steps can you take to actually
write one?
As you read the text you will be summarizing, ask yourself:
. What is the main idea?
. What are the most important supporting ideas to the main idea?
. How can I tell the short version of this?
Throughout this entire module, we will be using this article, Rise of the Machines, to talk
about summaries, citing, and finding relevant information. Before you go to the next slide,
please read the article carefully.
All done? Great! You can move on to the next slide.

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Summarizing: Guided Practice

If you read a text knowing you are going to need
to summarize it, or if you have finished a text and
are asked to summarize what youve read, then
these steps can be helpful.
As you view this video, take notes as to how the
person thinks through how he would write his
summary of the article you read. Do you agree
with his approach? Summarizing an Article
(3 min and 15 s).
[If the link does not take you to the Web site, copy
and paste the following URL into your browser:
http://youtu.be/MlHmWhzNMYg ]

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Video: Summarizing an Article

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Check Your Knowledge

Now it is your turn to practice.
Read the article, Music Streaming is Here to Stay by Olufunmilayo B. Arewa, and then
write a summary of it.
When you are finished, go to the next slide and assess how well you did.

When you are finished, proceed to the next slide to check

your answers.

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Answers
Grade yourself in the following categories:
1. Is my summary clear to someone who hasnt read or seen the article?
2. Did I include the main points from the article?
3. Is my summary brief and to the point?
4. Did I include the title or author of the article?
5. Did I summarize what the author wrote without including my own opinion?

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Moving On: Section 2

Section 1
Writing Summaries:

Section 2
Avoiding Plagiarism:

Section 3
Identifying relevant
information

What are they and how can I

write an effective one?

Why it is important and how to

properly cite quotes and texts

The process and the purpose

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Plagiarism
Imagine there is a song writing contest in
which you could win a prize. Since song
writing is your specialty, youve decided to
give it a try. You worked extremely hard and
spent all week working on it to make it perfect.
Its original, different and no one has ever
heard of it before. You turn it in and you win!
Lets say someone decides to use your song
for inspiration since there is a another song
writing contest in a few months. They turned
in the same exact song you wrote and took
the credit for it.
This is a form of plagiarism!
Using someone elses work and ideas and not
giving credit is plagiarism.

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What Do We Already Know About

Plagiarizing?
Some things that may come to mind are:
Its unacceptable.
Its unoriginal.
There are consequences.
Lets take a look at this comic strip.
We can clearly tell that the father is not
aware of what it means to plagiarize. Not
only did he fail to properly cite his sources
from his own work, he also fails to realize
that allowing someone else to copy your
work is also considered plagiarizing.

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Plagiarizing Is
Not giving the
appropriate credit to
the sources (articles,
books, sites, text etc.)
that you are using as
references
How can it affect you?
Plagiarizing can cause you to be
dismissed from a school, receive a
failing grade, and in some cases,
cause legal problems for you.

Copying other
peoples work

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Only swamping a few

words within the text

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Check Your Knowledge

Lets say you need to write a summary on an
article about M.L.K. What could you do to avoid
plagiarizing the article?
Select the one that applies.
Would you:
1. Use the authors ideas
2. Copy word for word
3. Include question marks when directly quoting
4. Change a few words

When you are finished, proceed to the next slide to check

your answer.

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Answer

3. To avoid plagiarizing the article, including

question marks when directly quoting any
information from the article is necessary.

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Ways to Avoid Plagiarism

Some steps that will make you successful to avoid plagiarizing
when summarizing and/or paraphrasing are:
1. Always cite your sources.
2. Do not copy word for word.
3. Use your own words to translate the information.
4. Keep track of your sources.
5. Include the page numbers you reference from within
sentences.
6. If it includes a name, time, place, and important
event, cite, cite, cite!
7. Use quotation marks when directly copying information.
Take a look at this article and summary example provided by Gallaudet University. Did they paraphrase the
authors ideas in their own words and avoid plagiarizing?
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Guided Practice: Plagiarizing

Lets review the summary from earlier.
What steps were taken in the article that
avoided plagiarizing?
. Did they give credit to the author?
. Did they use quotation marks in the
appropriate areas?
Citing an Article (3min and 29s).

Video: Citing an Article

[If the link does not take you to the web site, copy and paste the following URL into your
browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgZ0oA-75pE ]
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Check Your Knowledge

Your turn to practice!

Pull out the Rise of the Machines article from your
packet.
Once you have completed
Highlight
sections one and seven from the article
highlighting, continue to the
that
information
nextprovide
slide to check
your work. that are properly citing the
authors ideas.

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Answers
In the first section of the Rise of the Machines (How smart are todays
computers ?) article, you should have highlighted the underlined sections below:
They can tackle increasingly complex tasks with an almost human-like
intelligence. Microsoft has developed an Xbox game console that can assess a
player's mood by analyzing his or her facial expressions, and in 2011, IBM's
Watson supercomputer won Jeopardy a quiz show that often requires
contestants to interpret humorous plays on words. These developments have
brought us closer to the holy grail of computer science: artificial intelligence, or
a machine that's capable of thinking for itself, rather than just responding to
commands. But what happens if computers achieve superintelligence
massively outperforming humans not just in science and math but in artistic
creativity and even social skills? Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of
Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, believes we could be
sleepwalking into a future in which computers are no longer obedient
tools but a dominant species with no interest in the survival of the
human race. Once unsafe superintelligence is developed, Bostrom
warned, we can't put it back in the bottle.

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Answers
In the seventh section of the Rise of the Machines (When robots learn to die)
article, you should have highlighted the underlined sections below:
In 2009, Swiss researchers carried out a robotic experiment that produced
some unexpected results. Hundreds of robots were placed in arenas and
programmed to look for a food source; in this case, a light-colored ring. The
robots were able to communicate with one another and were instructed to
direct their fellow machines to the food by emitting a blue light. But as the
experiment went on, researchers noticed that the machines were evolving to
become more secretive and deceitful: When they found food, the robots
stopped shining their lights and instead began hoarding the resources even
though nothing in their original programming commanded them to do so. The
implication is that the machines learned self-preservation, said
Louis Del Monte, author of The Artificial Intelligence Revolution.
Whether or not they're conscious is a moot point.

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Last Section: Section 3

Section 1
Writing Summaries:

Section 2
Avoiding Plagiarism:

Section 3
Identifying relevant
information

What are they and how can I

write an effective one?

Why it is important and how to

properly cite quotes and texts

The process and the purpose

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Section 3: Identifying Relevant Information

Here are key steps you can take when identifying relevant information
in an informative text.
Read Carefully
What type of vocabulary is in the
text?
What are the definitions?
Who is it about?
What is it about?
When did it take place?

Look Out for Clues

What evidence is proved?
What are the details that support
the main idea?
Refer back to the title?
Refer back to the question?
How did the main events occur?
Key words?
Does the topic connect with the
details?

Identify the Main Ideas

What is the text trying to say?
What are the main points?
What would you consider important
information?
What is the topic of the text?
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Questioning Relevant Information

What type of questions should we ask ourselves while reading

when trying to identify relevant information?

What information are we searching for?

Think about it for a minute

What would you consider important information right off the bat?
(Are there facts?)

What is the concept or idea behind the text?

What is the claim or argument the author is trying to make? (What

is his/her point?)

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Relevant Information
. Important
Relevant information will
help you select certain
information that relates to the
main topic, question or idea
that is provided.

. Related
. Compatible
. Fitting
. Pertaining to
. Referring to
. Significant
. Useful

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Irrelevant Information
. Pointless
Irrelevant Information does
not obtain the necessary
information you need to
determine the main idea of a
story or to answer a question
that may be provided.

. Inappropriate
. Not connected
. Off the point
. Not important
. Useless
information

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Lets Take a Look Below...

In the following job descriptions, what is considered relevant information?

Darren is a fitness instructor at a

community college. He has
worked as an instructor at the
college for 10 years. His goal as
an instructor is to help his
students achieve inner piece. He
loves to watch movies on his free
time.

Gretchen is a public speaker. She travels

around the world giving presentations to a
variety of audiences. Her travel time is
between 3 to 12 hours depending on the
location. Her favorite place to eat while
traveling is Burger King. Gretchen works 80
hours a week.

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Answers
Take a look at the underlined areas. Is this what you thought was considered
relevant to the job descriptions?
If you did, great job! You are correct.

Darren is a fitness instructor at a

community college. He has worked as
an instructor at the college for 10 years.
His goal as an instructor is to help his
students achieve inner piece. He loves
to watch movies on his free time.

Gretchen is a public speaker. She travels

around the world giving presentations to a
variety of audiences. Her travel time is
between 3 to 12 hours depending on the
location. Her favorite place to eat while traveling
is Burger King. Gretchen works 80 hours a
week.

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Lets Try Again

In the following job descriptions, what is considerd irrelevant information?

Darren is a fitness instructor at a

community college. He has
worked as an instructor at the
college for 10 years. His goal as
an instructor is to help his
students achieve inner piece. He
loves to watch movies on his free
time.

Gretchen is a public speaker. She travels

around the world giving presentations to a
variety of audiences. Her travel time is
between 3 to 12 hours depending on the
location. Her favorite place to eat while
traveling is Burger King. Gretchen works 80
hours a week.

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Answers
Take a look at the underlined areas. Is this what you thought was considered
irrelevant to the job descriptions?
If you did, great job! You are correct.

Darren is a fitness instructor at a

community college. He has worked as
an instructor at the college for 10
years. His goal as an instructor is to help
his students achieve inner piece. He
loves to watch movies on his free time.

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Gretchen is a public speaker. She travels

around the world giving presentations to a
variety of audiences. Her travel time is
between 3 to 12 hours depending on the
location. Her favorite place to eat while
traveling is Burger King. Gretchen
works 80 hours a week.

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Check Your Knowledge:

You may be thinking, how do I decide what
information is considered relevant?
Lets go back to the Rise of the Machines
article.
As we can see and hear in the video, the
student is identifying what the relevant and
irrelevant information could be in this article.
Identifying Relevant Information in an Article
(5 min 18 s)
[If the link does not take you to the Web site,
copy and paste the following URL into your
browser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHgv00G
tB5U
]

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Video :
Identifying Relevant Information
in an Article

Module Summary: Key Points

A. Summaries must be clear, include main points, and include the title or author of the
text you are summarizing.
B. Always cite sources you are using to avoid plagiarizing.
C. Always include quotation marks when directly quoting from text.
D. When reviewing informational text (articles, newspapers, handouts, textbooks), think
about the message the author is trying to convey.
E. Read carefully and think about the question presented if any.
F. And most important, think about what information is considered essential in the
informational text.

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Module Assessment
Step 1. Read the article You Might Be Allergic to Penicillin from Science Daily provided
by your tutor.
Step 2. Using relevant information, summarize the article using your own words without
plagiarizing.
Once you have completed the activities, check your results with your tutor.

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Module Complete!
You have now completed the tutorial!

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Module Links
A. How to Write a Summary. YouTube video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGWO1ldEhtQ
B. Rise of the Machines article. PDF on the web. http://bit.ly/1u1YePc
C. Summarizing an Article. YouTube video. http://youtu.be/MlHmWhzNMYg
D. Music Streaming is Here to Stay. New York Times Website.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/11/06/is-streaming-good-for-musicians/m
usic-streaming-is-here-to-stay
E. Sample of a News Article Summary. Gallaudet University.
http://www.gallaudet.edu/tip/english_center/writing/abstracts_and_summaries/sampl
e_of_a_news_article_summary.html
F. Citing an Article. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgZ0oA-75pE
G. Identifying Relevant Information. YouTube video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHgv00GtB5U
H. You Might Be Allergic to Penicillin. Science Daily. http://bit.ly/1xrSbUX

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References
A. Brewster, E. (Ed.). (1988, March 14). Sample of A News Article Summary. Retrieved December
7, 2014, from http://
www.gallaudet.edu/tip/english_center/writing/abstracts_and_summaries/sample_of_a_news_ar
ticle_summary.html
B. Rise of the machines. (2014, October 14). Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://
theweek.com/article/index/269989/rise-of-the-machines
C. American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). (2014, November 7). You might
be allergic to penicillin; then again, you may not. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 6, 2014
from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141107091214.htm
D. What is Plagiarism? (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://
www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism
E. AVIDWeekly, Marking the Text, (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2014, from
http://www.sps186.org/downloads/blurbs/23663/Marking The Text.pdf
F. Olufunmilayo B., A. (2014, November 7). Music Streaming Is Here to Stay! Retrieved from
http://
www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/11/06/is-streaming-good-for-musicians/music-streaming-i
s-here-to-stay
G. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/relevant(n.d.).
Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/summary
H. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2014, from, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism
I. Zheng, X. (2009). Chinese cute girl [Online Image]. Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike
2.0. Retrieved December 7, 2014
from for
http://www.freestockphotos.biz/stockphoto/9382
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