How my group organized the presentation on Summary.

9/17/2012


Participants: ZeYu Chen
                   ShaoHua Sun

We chose Summary for our topic because that summary is very common in our daily life. After that, we found the definition of summary and know summary is used to make the article more concise make us know the outline of article quickly.

Then, we tried to find the elements of a good summary. We saw the five important elements that are 1. A general outline of the paper. 2. No opinion. 3. Only include the most important details. 4. Identify the main idea or theme of the paper. 5. Only use the key words from paper. Actually, we searched lots of information about that, and we chose the most important one. For instance, we also put that how to write a general outline of the paper, it should include the main character, the main event in the paper, how the event developed and the setting of the paper. 

At last, we started to find that how to write the summary. It can be divided into 7 steps.

First, divide and conquer. We need to focus on any headings and subheadings and also look at any bold-faced terms and make sure us understand them before we read.

Second, read the paper. We need to read straight through. At this point, we don’t need to stop to look up anything that gives us trouble—just get a feel for the author’s tone, style, and main idea.

Third, reread the paper. Underline topic sentences and key facts. Label areas that we want to refer to as we write our summary. Also label areas that should be avoided because the details—though they may be interesting—are too specific. Identify areas that we do not understand and try to clarify those points.

Next, write thesis statement. Write down the main idea of each section in one well-developed sentence. Make sure that what we include in our sentences are key points, not minor details and create a thesis statement that clearly communicates what the entire text was trying to achieve.

Now we start to write. Use the thesis statement as the introductory sentence of our summary, and other sentences can make up the body. 

Then we need to check for accuracy. We should reread summary and make certain that we have accurately represented the author’s ideas and key points. Make sure that we have correctly cited anything directly quoted from the text. Also check to make sure that our text does not contain our own opinion on the piece.

Last but not the least is revising. We need to revise our summary for style, grammar, and punctuation. If we have time, give our summary to someone else to read. This person should be able to understand the main text based on your summary alone.

After our presentation, we hope that all of audience could understand what is summary, how importance is the summary and how to write the summary. Also, we may put on some example of good summary for audience to look. I think it will make you easier to learn.



Resource: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/summary.html#ixzz26D0CzWYB

http://www.enotes.com/topics/how-write-summary