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Editing summaries for accuracy and correctness

Page history last edited by sandra jamieson 15 years, 6 months ago

 WARNING:  Good summaries are harder to write than you may think -- bad summaries are easy!



 

Why we write summaries

 

Summary skills in College

The ability to write an effective summary might be the most important writing skill a college student can possess. You need to be able to summarize before you can be successful at most of the other kinds of writing that will be demanded of you in college, and it is an important part of note taking, too. The links below will help you master the various kinds of summary writing that you may be called upon to complete in college.

 

Summary skills in daily life

To answer questions such as “what was the movie about?” “how did the game go?” and “what did I miss in class today?” you must be able to summarize.  Your questioner doesn't want to know every line and action in the movie, every play in the game, or every word from class;  the question asks you to select the important details and summarize them.  Similarly, when you summarize a reading you need to be able to find the important data and then present it as clearly and concisely as possible. 

 

Summary skills after College

Politicians and corporations employ people to read every newspaper and newsmagazine and summarize relevant stories and articles. The more concise the summary the better, yet if any major details are omitted the purpose of the summary is lost--its readers will be uninformed on key aspects of the news and may make embarrassing errors as a result. The summaries that you write in college are as important to your academic career as these summaries are to these politicians and business people, and accuracy and concision are just as important, too. 


 

How to write a summary

 

The key features of a summary

(1)  it is shorter than the source,

(2)  it repeats the ideas of the source in different phrases and sentences. 

 

The Reader's Summary

Obviously, you cannot write a good summary of a source that you do not understand.  There are reading strategies that will help you comprehend a source text as fully as possible.  One of those techniques is thereader’s summary

, which you write for yourself, as a way of understanding the text you are reading.  Read a section of the book or article, or the whole thing if it is short, and then close the text and write a summary of the key points.  When you've finished, skim the text again to make sure you didn't omit anything.  This use of summary helps you learn

and helps you check what you've learned.


 

Summaries as part of an annotated bibliography

 

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources on a specific topic with an annotation for each. The annotation takes the form of a summary that tells readers what the source is about. An annotation is like an abstract of the content of the piece, but it MUST be written in your own words.

The bibliographical information should be organized in MLA or APA format, just like that of a works cited page of a paper. 

 

The citation should include the following AS THE TITLE:

1) the author of the article if one is listed, last name first (Associated Press & Reuters count as authors);

2) the title of the news article (in quotation marks);

3) the source of the story (eg: New York Times online), in italics;

4) the date the story was published;

5) if you read it online, include:

    a) the URL of the story

    b) the date (and time) you consulted it 

6) if you read it in print, include:

    a) the page number(s)

    b) if you read it in a newspaper with column numbers, include the column number

  

The annotation should include the following:

  1. A summary or paraphrase of the main idea, argument, or thesis of the piece
  2. A summary of the main arguments, evidence, or examples used to suport the idea, argument, or thesis

some annotated bibliographies also include the following in a final sentence or two at the end:

  1. An assessment of the text indicating difficulty-level, appropriateness for a specific topic, or relevance to a specific analysis. The assessment sometimes focuses on the idea, argument, or thesis; other times it focuses on one or more of the main arguments, evidence, or examples used to suport the idea, argument, or thesis arguments; finally it may comment on the datedness of the source, or any bias or innacuracy.

 

Revising and editing summaries

 

To edit a summary, make sure it provides the following: 

  1. the author, title, publishing information of the source (publisher, date, location, and page number if a book; URL or date and page number if a newspaper or periodical);
  2. a summary or paraphrase of the main idea, argument, or thesis of the piece;
  3. a summary of the main arguments, evidence, or examples used to suport the idea, argument, or thesis;
  4. make sure you include enough information to allow readers of your summary to get an accurate picture of what was included inthe original source (if a summary s too short it is no use).

 

Once you have ensured you have the correct information, make sure you have provided the following:

  1. that you have provided accurate summaries for #2 and #3 above (you may need to re-read the source);
  2. that you have used your own words--do not copy or quote from the source, use your own words (remember that a summary is shorter than the source, so it is especially iportant to put the ideas into your own words).

 

Once you have ensured you have the correct information, read your summaries and remove the following:

  1. any sentences of phrases that offer your opinion about the topic;
  2. any words that express an opinion or bias;
  3. any information or argument that was not in the original source.

 

Finally, edit your summary for grammatical and mechanical correctness. Summaries should NOT:

  1. be wordy: the purpose is to inform readers in the most efficient manner possible (pretend you have topay for each word and try to save money);
  2. include grammatical errors because in a short text these can be very confusing. Check for correct verb tense, subject/verb agreement, and pronoun/reference agreement;
  3. include mechanical errors because in a short text these can be very confusing. Check you commas and periods, and try to avoid run-on and incomplete sentences.

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