IA203Week 5

Summarising

SUMMARIES

• Use your own words

• Key points

• Important ideas

• Order of ideas where necessary

Read the following text on summarizing and complete the list of stages below:

A summary may be just one or two sentences, to explain the main idea of the article, and perhaps compare it with another summarized text, or it might be necessary to include much more detail. In other words, a summary can range from 1-2% of the original to more than 50%: summarizing is a flexible tool.

At first students need to follow a series of steps to summarise successfully. With practice the number of steps may be reduced, as the process becomes more automatic.

a)Read the text carefully and check key vocabulary.b)Underline or highlight the…c)Make notes of these, taking care to…d)Write the summary using notes, re-organising the…e)Check the summary to make sure no … have been omitted or distorted

a)Read the text carefully and check key vocabulary.

a)Underline or highlight the key points.

a)Make notes of these, taking care to use your own words.

a)Write the summary using notes, re-organising the order of ideas where necessary.

a)Check the summary to make sure no Important ideas have been omitted or distorted

Read the following text and make notes on its key points:

Researchers in France and the United States have recently reported that

baboons are able to think abstractly. It has been known for some time

that chimpanzees are capable of abstract thought, but baboons are a

more distant relation to mankind. In the experiment, scientists trained two

baboons to use a personal computer and a joystick. The animals had to

match computer designs which were basically the same, but had

superficial differences. In the experiment the baboons performed better

than would be expected by chance. The researchers describe their study

in an article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Do your notes feature the underlined ideas?:

Researchers in France and the United States have recently reported that

baboons are able to think abstractly. It has been known for some time

that chimpanzees are capable of abstract thought, but baboons are a

more distant relation to mankind. In the experiment, scientists trained two

baboons to use a personal computer and a joystick. The animals had to

match computer designs which were basically the same, but had

superficial differences. In the experiment the baboons performed better

than would be expected by chance. The researchers describe their study

in an article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Now the summaries which follow the text. Which one is the best?

Researchers in France and the United States have recently reported that baboons are able to think abstractly. It has been known for some time that chimpanzees are capable of abstract thought, but baboons are a more distant relation to mankind. In the experiment, scientists trained two baboons to use a personal computer and a joystick. The animals had to match computer designs which were basically the same, but had superficial differences. In the experiment the baboons performed better than would be expected by chance. The researchers describe their study in an article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

a)French and American scientists have shown for the first time that baboons have the ability to think in an abstract way. The animals were taught to use a computer and then had to select patterns that were similar, which they did at a better rate than chance.

a)Baboons are a kind of monkey more distance from man than chimpanzees. Although it is known that chimpanzees are able to think abstractly, until recently it was not clear if baboons could do the same. But new research by various scientists has shown that this is so.

a)According to a recent article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, baboons are able to think in an abstract way. The article describes how researchers trained two baboons to use a personal computer and a joystick. The animals did better than would be expected.

Did you consider these to be the key points?

Researchers in France and the United States have recently reported that baboons are able to think abstractly. It has been known for some time that chimpanzees are capable of abstract thought, but baboons are a more distant relation to mankind. In the experiment, scientists trained two baboons to use a personal computer and a joystick. The animals had to match computer designs which were basically the same, but had superficial differences. In the experiment the baboons performed better than would be expected by chance. The researchers describe their study in an article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

a)French and American scientists have shown for the first time that baboons have the ability to think in an abstract way. The animals were taught to use a computer and then had to select patterns that were similar, which they did at a better rate than chance.

a)Baboons are a kind of monkey more distance from man than chimpanzees. Although it is known that chimpanzees are able to think abstractly, until recently it was not clear if baboons could do the same. But new research by various scientists has shown that this is so.

a)According to a recent article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, baboons are able to think in an abstract way. The article describes how researchers trained two baboons to use a personal computer and a joystick. The animals did better than would be expected.

Now read the following text and compare the summaries which follow. Which one is the best?

Researchers in France and the United States have recently reported that baboons are able to think abstractly. It has been known for some time that chimpanzees are capable of abstract thought, but baboons are a more distant relation to mankind. In the experiment, scientists trained two baboons to use a personal computer and a joystick. The animals had to match computer designs which were basically the same, but had superficial differences. In the experiment the baboons performed better than would be expected by chance. The researchers describe their study in an article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

a)French and American scientists have shown for the first time that baboons have the ability to think in an abstract way. The animals were taught to use a computer and then had to select patterns that were similar, which they did at a better rate than chance.

a)Baboons are a kind of monkey more distance from man than chimpanzees. Although it is known that chimpanzees are able to think abstractly, until recently it was not clear if baboons could do the same. But new research by various scientists has shown that this is so.

a)According to a recent article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, baboons are able to think in an abstract way. The article describes how researchers trained two baboons to use a personal computer and a joystick. The animals did better than would be expected.

Read and make notes on the following text:

Now fill the gaps in the summary that Mark will give you:

Indian scientists are checking a__________ w__________ f__________

methods, such as the old saying which links the date of the

m__________ to the f__________ t__________ of a local tree. This has

been used by f__________ to select either peanuts (f__________

w__________ c__________) or c__________ (for d__________). Dr

K__________ of G__________ A__________ U__________ has found

that the m__________ can be quite accurately forecast using the time of

the tree’s f__________.

Now try to reduce this summary to just one sentence: