Summarizing

“Always have a plan and believe in it. Nothing good happens

by accident.” — Chuck K.
 What is summarizing?

• A short statement of the main points

• A brief statement that gives the most
important information about something
• So if you were going to summarize a
chapter, it might be a page. If you were
going to summarize a paragraph, it
might be a couple of lines.
 How to summarize?
How to Write a Good Summary

1. Use your own words and your

own sentence structure.

2. Remember that a summary is

much shorter than a paraphrase.
Include only the main points and
main supporting points, leaving
out most detail.

3. Do not change the meaning

of the original.
 How to summarize?

• Give only the main points or core information

of something excluding redundant
information. It reproduces main points of
speech, article, section, chapter or book.
• Use your own words !
• Be concise.
• Juxtapose your summary with the original
text. If the look the same then it is not really a
summary.
 Take notes

• Write down
keywords
• Don't overdo it
• Ask
• Compare
• Organize
• Summarize
Take notes
 Example: Original Source
Unfortunately, many people don’t take notes effectively. Some
try to write down everything a speaker says. They view note
raking as a race, pitting their handwriting agility against the
speakers' rate of speech. As the speaker starts to talk. The note
taker starts to write. But soon the speakers is winning the race.
In a desperate effort to keep effort to keep up, the note taker slip
into a scribbled writing style with incomplete sentences and
abbreviated words. Even this is not enough. The speaker pull so
far ahead that the note taker can never catch up. Finally, the
note taker concedes defeat and spends the rest of the speech
grumbling in frustration.
 Example: Skim to locate the main idea
Unfortunately, many people don’t take notes effectively. Some
try to write down everything a speaker says. They view note
raking as a race, pitting their handwriting agility against the
speakers' rate of speech. As the speaker starts to talk. The note
taker starts to write. But soon the speakers is winning the race.
In a desperate effort to keep effort to keep up, the note taker slip
into a scribbled writing style with incomplete sentences and
abbreviated words. Even this is not enough. The speaker pull so
far ahead that the note taker can never catch up. Finally, the
note taker concedes defeat and spends the rest of the speech
grumbling in frustration.
 Example: Summary
Ineffective note taking becomes a problem during a speech.
Often it leads to confusion and writing verbatim what the
speaker is stating. This may result in a lack sufficient information
recorded on page (Lucas, 1998).