Writing a summary

Summary: A brief statement of the main points of something (e.g. book, article, movie, play, etc.)

 
The following steps were taken from and slightly modified for our purposes from this website.

Recommendations for writing a summary:

1. Note the major points of the work you a summarizing, either in an outline or bulleted list.

2.Write a first draft of the summary without looking at the article. Then go back to the article and include any major points you missed.

3. A summary paraphrases someone else's work.  If you do copy a phrase from the original, be sure it is a very important phrase that is necessary and cannot be paraphrased. In this case put "quotation marks" around the phrase.

4. Summaries are meant to be brief but also thorough. If you leave out main points, then it is not a thorough summary.

The features of a summary:
1.Start your summary with a clear identification of the type of work, title, author, and main point in the present tense.

Example: In the feature article "Four Kinds of Reading," the author, Donald Hall, explains his opinion about different types of reading.

2.Check with your outline and your original text to make sure you have covered the important points.

3.Never put any of your own ideas, opinions, or interpretations into a summary.

4. Write using "summarizing language." Periodically remind your reader that this is a summary by using phrases such as the article claims, the author suggests, etc.

Epigraph assignment

Epigraph:  a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme.

Assignment:

1) Find an epigraph in a book (preferably one that you've read and are familiar with)

2) In your writer's notebook, write down the title and author of the book

3) Copy down the epigraph

4) Write a short explanation as to why you think that quote fits the theme of the book

* Due when I collect your writers' notebooks this Friday.

Parts of Speech Pre-Test

Find the Google Form for you class and complete the pre-test. You may not look up answers in your textbook or on the Internet. When you're finished, be sure to click submit.


8E

8F

8H

JK Rowling Quote Reflection

You recently reflected on the following quote from JK Rowling's 2008 Harvard commencement address.


"Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default."

1. What I'd like you to do right now is go back to that reflection and re-read it.
2. Look for a sentence or phrase that contains the heartbeat, the pulse of what you wanted to say. This is your wish for the piece, what you wish it was most about.*
3. Using the comments feature in Google Drive, highlight that sentence and comment (by right clicking) and pointing out that "This is the heartbeat of my piece."
4. Share your document with a classmate. Have them read your paragraph. If they agree with your "heartbeat" then have them reply to the comment. If they think the heartbeat is somewhere else in the piece, have them highlight that sentence and comment by saying, "I actually think this is the heartbeat of the piece."

* This wording is taken directly from the book Inside Writing: How to Teach the Details of Craft by Donald H. Graves and Penny Kittle.