Summary Writing - ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ is one of the countless maxims coined by William
Shakespeare. It is relevant to speaking as well as writing. Brevity or Concision is
the cutting out of unnecessary words while conveying an idea.
It aims to enhance communication by eliminating redundancy without omitting important information.
Summary Writing is one of its kind that has been described as one of the elementary
principles of writing. To speak what is required and to write what is necessary is a
requisite towards the development of language skills. It is important to be brief in written expression. To express in brief the main points of a written record, is the summary writing skill and that can be developed by practice. Summarising has a definite purpose.
The purpose of a summary is to give the reader a clear, objective picture of the original
text. Most importantly, the summary restates only the main points of a text or a lecture
without giving examples or details, such as dates, numbers or statistics.
DOs of Summary Writing
• Read and re-read the passage.
• Understand.
• Read the instructions.
• Find exactly what you need to summarise.
• Identify the main idea through the process of asking questions.
• Form short sentences on your own.
• Connect the sentences using linkers.
• Remove redundant words and sentences from the key sentences.
• Omit details.
DON’Ts of Summary Writing
- include
- exclude
- add
- comment give
- examples
As an example let us take an article for summary.
Learning Disability (LD) is an umbrella term for a wide variety of learning problems.
Children with learning disorder might be labelled as ‘slow learners’ but they are as
smart as everyone else. They just need to be taught in proper environment conducive to
their learning speed and level. Observations of a child over a period of time by parents
at home and teachers in school can provide valuable information about the way a child
is able to learn and function in all the ways that he should be able to, at his age and
level.
There may be certain apparent problems while reading, writing, listening, speaking,
reasoning and dealing with Maths. Once these problems are identified it is time for
proper investigation. It is important in order to clarify specific learning disorders and
also rule out any other issue affecting the student’s educational progress.
Investigations may reveal various types of disorders like Dyslexia, Dysgraphia,
Dyscalculia, specific reading disability, Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), ADHD
etc. Auditory Processing Disorder, also known as ‘Central Auditory Processing
Disorder’, is a condition that affects the sound that travels unimpeded through the ear,
is processed or interpreted by the brain. Individuals with APD do not recognize subtle
differences between sounds and words.
Dyscalculia is a condition that affects a person’s ability to understand numbers
and learn math-signs and symbols while Dysgraphia affects a person’s handwriting
abilities and fine motor skills. Dyslexia is a learning disorder affecting reading and
language-based processing skills like reading fluency, decoding, recall, writing and
sometimes even speech. Many aspects of speaking, listening, reading, writing, and
arithmetic overlap and build on the same brain capabilities. It is not surprising that
people can be diagnosed with more than one learning disability.
For example, the ability to understand language underlies learning to speak. Therefore, any disorder that hinders
the ability to understand language will also interfere with the development of speech,
which in turn hinders learning to read and write. ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive
Disorder) includes difficulty in staying focused and paying attention, restlessness and
difficulty in controlling behaviour.
There are many other learning disabilities that can be identified in the normal
classrooms at school level. Such problems can be solved to a great extent using various
methods and treatments if diagnosed at an early stage. Inclusion in education is one
of the ways to solve the problem of children with learning disorder.
In a mixed ability classroom, with effective teaching methods and conducive environment, a child with
learning disability can progress in not only education but also social interactions.
Implementation of inclusive classrooms may vary but the purpose will be achieved.
Unfortunately, our country is less open to Inclusive Learning for Children with LD.
Unless handled efficiently, these disorders often transform to condition like anxiety and
depression. Parents, teachers, educators and other stakeholders must insist on the need
to uplift children with LD. These children need to be handled carefully in their own
space. They need love, encouragement and moral support so that they can emerge with
great self-confidence, self-worth and determination.
Use the following steps for Summary Writing.
Step 1: Read the article twice.
Step 2: Ask questions about the purpose of writing.
Step 3: Identify the main idea.
Step 4: Write the first draft.
Step 5: Revise your first draft and edit it.
Step 6: Write the final draft.
summary writing example -
Summary
Learning Disability: Handle with care
Learning disability is an umbrella term for many learning problems like
reading, writing, listening, speaking, reasoning, maths and other physical and motor
difficulties. These problems need to be identified and investigated.
A child can be diagnosed with more than one learning disability like dyslexia, dysgraphia, auditory
processing disorder etc. Such disorders can be dealt with using various methods, in
a regular classroom. One of the ways is inclusion.
Implementation of inclusion may vary but it has a positive effect on the learning disabled. Though the idea of inclusion in not popular in our country, it can prove useful to handle such children. Along with
the methods and techniques the children also need encouragement and moral support
to progress with self confidence and determination.
Summary Writing Format - What are the five steps in writing a good summary?
- When writing a summary, remember that it should be in the form of a paragraph.
- A summary begins with an introductory sentence that states the text’s title, author and main point of the text as you see it.
- A summary is written in your own words.
- A summary contains only the ideas of the original text. Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary.
- Identify in order the significant sub-claims the author uses to defend the main point.
- Copy word-for-word three separate passages from the essay that you think support and/or defend the main point of the essay as you see it.
- Cite each passage by first signaling the work and the author, put “quotation marks” around the passage you chose, and put the number of the paragraph where the passages can be found immediately after the passage.
- Using source material from the essay is important. Why? Because defending claims with source material is what you will be asked to do when writing papers for your college professors.
- Write a last sentence that “wraps” up your summary; often a simple rephrasing of the main point.
What are the 10 steps to writing a summary?
1. SUMMARY SKILLS
Writing a decent summary demonstrates that you just clearly understand a text which you'll make your readers understand what you're trying to mention. A summary may be tough to write down initially as you may include an excessive amount of or insufficient information. However, with the assistance of this 8-step method, you'll be ready to summarise texts quickly and successfully for any class or subject.
2. SUMMARY SKILLS STEP 1: BREAK DOWN & DIGEST
First, skim through the text you're required to summarise and divide it into sections. make sure to specialize in any headings and subheadings. Also, you ought to note of terms in bold and ensure you understand them before you read.
3. SUMMARY SKILLS STEP 2: READ
Now that you simply have prepared, move and browse the choice. Read straight through. At now of your time, you are doing not have to stop to appear up anything that provides you trouble — just get a sympathize with the author’s tone, style, and main idea.
4. SUMMARY SKILLS STEP 3: RE-READING
Rereading should move reading. ensure that you simply underline topic sentences and key facts. Label areas that you just want to confer with as you write your summary. Also, label areas that ought to be avoided because the small print — although they will be interesting — are too specific or unrelated. Identify areas that you just don't understand and take a look at to clarify those points.
5. SUMMARY SKILLS STEP 4: ONE SENTENCE AT A TIME
you ought to now have a firm grasp on the text that you just are summarising. within the previous steps, you've got divided the choice into sections and located the author’s main ideas and points. Now, write down the most idea of every section in one well-developed sentence. ensure that what you include in your sentences are key points, not minor details.
6. SUMMARY SKILLS STEP 5: WRITE A THESIS STATEMENT [HYPOTHESIS]
this can be the key to any well-written summary. Review the sentences that you simply wrote in STEP 4. From the sentences, you must be ready to create a thesis statement that clearly communicates what the complete text was trying to realize. If you discover that you simply are unable to try to to this step, then you ought to return to STEP 4 and ensure your sentences actually addressed key points.
7. SUMMARY SKILLS STEP 6:
able to WRITE At now, your first draft is completed. you'll be able to use the thesis statement because the introductory sentence of your summary, and your other sentences can conjure the body. ensure that they're so as. Add some transition words (for example: then , however , also , moreover ) that help with the structure and flow of the summary. Once you begin writing, observe of those points… (Continued on the following slide)
8. SUMMARY SKILLS STEP 6: able to WRITE [SOME POINTERS]
Write within the present or tense, reckoning on the context of the question (i.e., how the question is phrased) and what tense the primary few words that are given to assist you start are in.
confirm to incorporate the author and title of the work.
Be concise: a summary shouldn't be equal long to the first text.
If you need to use the words of the author, cite them. Otherwise, USE YOUR OWN WORDS (for example, rather than “in actual fact”, write “actually”)!
don't add in your own opinions, ideas, or interpretations into the summary. the aim of writing a summary is to accurately represent what the author wanted to mention, to not provide a critique.
9. SUMMARY SKILLS STEP 7: CHECK FOR ACCURACY.
Reread your summary and ensure that you simply have accurately represented the author’s ideas and key points. make certain that you simply have correctly cited anything directly quoted from the text. Also, check to create sure that your text doesn't contain your own commentary on the choice.
10. SUMMARY SKILLS STEP 8: REVISE
Once you're certain that your summary is accurate, you must (as with any piece of writing) revise it for style, grammar, and punctuation. you ought to be able to understand the most text supported your summary alone. If you are doing not, you'll have focused an excessive amount of on one area of the piece and not enough on the author’s main idea.