Summarizing

Summarizi
ng
How do you
retell
stories?
Summarizing
– It is the process of reducing text to one-third
or one-quarter its original size, clearly
articulating the author’s meaning, and
retaining main ideas (Buckley, 2004).
– It involves stating a work’s thesis and main
ideas “simply, briefly, and
accurately” (Hacker, 2008 ).
Various techniques in summarizing
a variety of academic texts
1. Read the work first to understand the author’s intent.
This is a crucial step because an incomplete reading
could lead to an inaccurate summary. Note: an
inaccurate summary is plagiarism.
2. One of the summarization techniques you can do is to
present information through facts, skills and concept in
visual formats. You can provide the cause and effects
charts, time lines, and Venn diagrams, templates for
outlines, use flow charts or infographics.
3. To avoid difficulty, you need first to know the main points
and the supporting details. You can exclude any
illustrations, examples or explanations.
4. You need to analyze the text to save time in thinking
what you will do.
5. Think what information you will put in your summary. Be
sure to cover the main points and arguments of the
document.
6. One of the best things to do in auto summarizing is
restating the words into different one. You should avoid
using the original words of the author instead; use your
own vocabulary but be sure to retain the information.
7. You will fully understand what the document is when you
organize all ideas.
8. One of the things you can do is to write down all
information in a coherent and precise form. Keep in mind
that a summary is a condensed version of the original
paper, so avoid making it long.
9. You can also decide to represent information through
using dimensional constructions in representing concepts,
skills or facts.
10. Paraphrasing is one of the skills you can do in writing a
summary. With it, do not use the same words with the
author
5 Easy Techniques in
Summarizing Various
Academic Texts
Technique 1:
Somebody Wanted But So Then
Somebody: Who is the story about?
Wanted: What does the main charter want?
But: Identify a problem that the main character
encountered.
So: How does the main character solve the
problem?
Then: Tell how the story ends.
Technique 1:
Example
Somebody: Little Red Riding Hood
Wanted: She wanted to take cookies to her sick
grandmother.
But: She encountered a wolf pretending to be her
grandmother.
So: She ran away, crying for help.
Then: A woodsman heard her and saved her from the
wolf.
Technique 1:
– Little Red Riding Hood wanted to take cookies to
her sick grandmother, but she
encountered a wolf. He got to her grandmother’s
house first and pretended to be the old woman.
He was going to eat Little Red Riding Hood, but
she realized what he was doing and ran away,
crying for help. A woodsman heard the girl’s cries
and saved her from the wolf.
Technique 2:
SAAC Method
– The SAAC method is another useful technique for
summarizing any kind of text (story, article, speech, etc).
SAAC is an acronym for "State, Assign, Action, Complete.“
State: name of the article, book, or story

Assign: the name of the author
Action: what the author is doing (example: tells,
explains)
Complete: complete the sentence or summary with
Technique 2:
SAAC Method
– State: The Boy Who Cried Wolf
– Assign: Aesop (a Greek storyteller)
– Action: tells
– Complete: what happens when a shepherd boy repeatedly lies to
the villagers about seeing a wolf
The Boy Who Cried Wolf, by Aesop (a Greek storyteller), tells what
happens
when a shepherd boy repeatedly lies to the villagers about seeing a
wolf. After a while, they ignore his false cries. Then, when a wolf
really does attack, they don’t come to help him.
Technique 3:
5 W's, 1 H
The 5 W's, 1 H strategy relies on six crucial questions: who, what,
when, where, why, and how. These questions make it easy to identify
the main character, the important details, and the main idea.
– Who is the text about?
– What did they do?
– When did the action take place?
– Where did the event happen?
– Why did the main character do what he/she did?
– How did the main character do what he/she did?
Technique 4: First, Then, Finally
The "First Then Finally" technique helps students summarize

events in chronological order. The three words represent the
beginning, main action, and conclusion of a story,
respectively:
– First. What happened first? Include the main character and
mainevent/action.
– Then. What key details took place during the event/action?
– Finally. What were the results of the event/action?
QUIZ TIME
– https://wordwall.net/play/14368/623/924

Summarizing

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Summarizing

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Summarizing

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Summarizi

State: name of the article, book, or story

The "First Then Finally" technique helps students summarize

You might also like