1. Library GI School

2. What is a summary? A summary is the presentation of a general idea in brief form about a text, a book or an article. The most important thing in a summary is, to choose the right and main ideas and not re-write the same text again. Summarizing is more than retelling; it involves analyzing information, distinguishing important from unimportant elements and translating large chunks of information into a few short cohesive sentences. Library GI School

3. Why Is It Important? Summarizing allows both students and teachers to monitor comprehension of material. Summarizing helps students understand the organizational structure of lessons or texts. Summarizing is a skill at which most adults must be proficient to be successful.

4. How to make a summary? To make a summary it is important to know if is for personal use or to let another people know the content of a specific text. To make a very good summary you have to do the following: Library GI School

5. 1. CHOOSE THE MAIN IDEAS To do this is very important to: Read very slowly the text to find the main idea. Underline the most important ideas. Mark the secondary ideas and key words

6. Library GI School 2. TAKE NOTE and TAKE OFF The notes you take in your first reading, will help you to know the topic of the book; then you have to complete it with the ideas you find in a second reading. Cross out sentences that are not necessary or that are redundant to help you pull out what is crucial to the message of the piece.

7. 3. LOOK FOR KEY WORDS Mark key words and phrases and jot down notes about the main idea. Look for signal words such as therefore, in conclusion, or in summary. Library GI School

8. 4. RE-WRITE THE INFORMATION YOU CHOOSE In a summary, the chosen ideas can’t go the same way as in the original text. Those ideas must be reduce to the maximum but without losing sense.

9. Library GI School 5. LINK THE INFORMATION The ideas you reduce, must be organize in your summary. Generally is rather better to put the ideas in the same order as in the original text and connect one with another according to the original relation.

10. Here is an easy way to begin a summary: In "[name of article]" [author] states.... [State the main point of the article first.] For example: In "Computer Chess"* Hans Berliner states that the CYBER 170 series computer can perform well in a chess tournament. Cite the source with correct bibliographic form. *Berliner, H.J. (1981). Computer Chess. Nature, 274(567), 745-748. [ author. article title. journal title. vol(number)/month: pages. ]bibliographic form Library GI School So when you write a summary:  State the main point first.  Emphasize the main stages of though.  State the article’s conclusion.  Summarize rather than give a table of contents.

11. Library GI School Example: Wrong: This article covers the topic of measuring the extent of global deforestation. The article discusses reasons for concern, the technique, the results, and the project’s current goal. Right: According to the author of “Seeing the Forest,” the extent of global deforestation was difficult to measure until satellite remote sensing techniques were applied. Measuring the extent of global deforestation is important because of concerns about global warming and species extinctions. The technique compares old infrared LANDSAT images with new images. The authors conclude the method is accurate and cost effective.

12. Read more on TeacherVision: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/skill- builder/reading-comprehension/48785.html#ixzz1ZAROdkDAhttp://www.teachervision.fen.com/skill- builder/reading-comprehension/48785.html#ixzz1ZAROdkDA Library GI School