P2- How to write a summary

HOW TO SUMMARISE.
SUMMARY VS ESSAYWRITING.
HOW TO WRITE AN EFFECTIVE SUMMARY.

THE A.S.A.P. FORMULA
□Appreciate question requirements. The summary question directs you to a specific area (which paragraphs) and asks you on concentrate on a particular aspect. Focus on these specific areas.
□Select relevant information. Decide which information to include and omit in your summary. Mark information you have decided to include in your summary with a pen. Include
□Arrange your information. For instance, you may be asked to state the reasons for and against a certain proposal. In the passage however, the various advantages may scattered all over the passage or may be interspersed with disadvantages. Furthermore, the points may not be arranged in order of importance.
Example: the author sees benefits but also dangers and limitations in the pursuit of scientific materialism, using your own words as far as possible, describe these benefits, dangers, and limitations.
Thus, the student is required to organize their points into:
i) Benefits
ii) Dangers
iii) Limitations of scientific materialism
Use the triple ‘S’ rule to organize you points
i) Separate your sections clearly. You may wish to give each category its own paragraph.
ii) Signal to the examiner when you move to a new category. A brief introductory phrase such as “The disadvantages of such a system include”
iii) Show the examiner that you understand the distinction between each category

□Paraphrase the information.
After you have organised the material, put the information in your own words.
If you merely copy from the passage, the examiner will assume you do not understand the passage (COMPREHENSION) or that you are unable to re-express the ideas in the passage as your command of the language is too weak (LANGUAGE).
Things to note in you summary:
i) The summary should be clearly expressed and structured. Make separate specific points and give each point a different sentence. (ONE point per sentence).
ii) Language used should also be precise and concise.
iii) Do not repeat yourself in the summary. (Concise rephrasing).
iv) Eliminate unnecessary detail.
v) Condense information. (ie even if it is your own words, a description IS NOT a summary if it takes similar number of words to express the same ideas.

SUMMARY TIPS/COMMON ERRORS.

1) Time management
Most students spend too much time on previous questions, leaving insufficient time to write a good summary.20-25 minutes should be allotted for summary.
2) 1 or 2 summary.
There could be 2 minor summaries (5 marks each) or 1 major one(8 marks each)
. Skim read and check the marks awarded.

3) Too much repetition of the same point and irrelevance
This wastes words and time in a summary.

Example:
Question: “What does the author regard as the worst forms of damage to the environment and why does he regard each as harmful?” Write your summary in no more than 150 words, but not counting the opening given. Use your own words as far as possible. (GP 1995)
One kind of environmental damage that the author views as serious is…………………..
Answer: One kind of environmental damage that the author views as serious is forcing species into extinction, thereby permanently reducing variety of life on our planet and preventing any future breakthroughs in medicine, farming and manufacturing that might have arisen from studying these organisms. The author also identifies a number of other actions perpetrated by man which he regards as constituting the main causes of severe environmental damage, each one having a different effect on mother earth’s ecological well-being.
As seen in the above example, although the student is given an opening to start with. He manage to start well, but stray on to discuss irrelevant points. (from second sentence onward).
The student could have cited another damage, then followed by a concise explanation of the specific harm to the environment.
4) WORD FOR WORD SUBSTITUTION MISTAKE.
A Summary is NOT TRANSLATION. Some students attempt a blow by blow word for word substitution.
Example:
Original: Roads should be designed to calm traffic and discourage the power games motorists play.
Word for word substitution: Highways must be invented to appease vehicles and dishearten drivers who amuse themselves by engaging in authoritarian practices.
The above results in a mechanical and clumsy version and many of the substituted words are unnecessary, inappropriate and inaccurate.
Try to get an overview (topic sentence/thesis statement) and rephrase the overall idea in your own words.
Thus a much better and natural version would be:
Roads should be constructed so that they reduce vehicle speed and driver aggression.
A frequently ask question : “To what extent do I have to change the original wording of the passage in order to demonstrate my understanding and earn full marks?”
Don’t copy chunks (lift words/phrase) of information containing crucial words or phrases but change only the key words in the passage that is relevant to the question. Paraphrasing irrelevant material will only signal to the examiner that you do not understand the passage.
Question : How much should be change to earn full mark? :
“ALWAYS CHANGE THE KEY WORDS IN THE PASSAGE THAT SUPPLY THE ANWSER TO THE QUESTION.”
Lifting also show you don’t understand the passage. (ie comprehend).

5) SELECTION OF MATERIAL
Proper selection of material is critical – choose relevant points and omit the rest.
Irrelevant(to the topic)
Repetition
Example
Do not include the following in your summary
6) Separating points
Do not mix different points into 1 long sentence. This confuses the examiner. Make it easy for the examiner to identify the points and allow him to award you the full marks for the point.
7) Word count
It is important to stick within the word count as words written after this are not awarded marks.Contractions sch as “don’t “ or ” won’t” are counted as two words and hyphenated words count as one.