Week 3 – Writing a Summary (deadline: October 9)
Summarizing
Making summaries is a common activity in everyday life. If a friend asks you about a book you are reading, you do not tell her about everything in the book. Instead, you make a summary of the most interesting and important aspects. The same principle applies to summarising in academic work.
When summarizing a text:
- First, identify the main ideas
- Then organize these ideas into a logical order (if necessary)
- Finally, rewrite these ideas in your own words, using linking words
Linking ideas
Transition words and phrases are used to link ideas, sentences and paragraphs. They help the reader to progress from one idea to the next idea. Thus, they help to build up coherent relationships within the text. If you use transitional phrases correctly, your writing will be easier to understand and more mature.
There are different types of transitions. Here is a list of some common transitional phrases organized into categories:
To Add: and, again, and then, besides, equally important, finally, further, furthermore, nor, too, next, lastly, what's more, moreover, in addition, first (second, etc.)
To Compare: whereas, but, yet, on the other hand, however, nevertheless, on the contrary, by comparison, where, compared to, up against, balanced against, vis a vis, but, although, conversely, meanwhile, after all, in contrast, although this may be true
To Prove: because, for, since, for the same reason, obviously, evidently, furthermore, moreover, besides, indeed, in fact, in addition, in any case, that is
To Show Exception: yet, still, however, nevertheless, in spite of, despite, of course, once in a while, sometimes
To Show Time: immediately, thereafter, soon, after a few hours, finally, then, later, previously, formerly, first (second, etc.), next, and then
To Repeat: in brief, as I have said, as I have noted, as has been noted
To Emphasize: definitely, extremely, obviously, in fact, indeed, in any case, absolutely, positively, naturally, surprisingly, always, forever, perennially, eternally, never, emphatically, unquestionably, without a doubt, certainly, undeniably, without reservation
To Show Sequence: first, second, third, and so forth. A, B, C, and so forth. next, then, following this, at this time, now, at this point, after, afterward, subsequently, finally, consequently, previously, before this, simultaneously, concurrently, thus, therefore, hence, next, and then, soon
To Give an Example: for example, for instance, in this case, in another case, on this occasion, in this situation, take the case of, to demonstrate, to illustrate, as an illustration, to illustrate
To Summarize or Conclude: in brief, on the whole, summing up, to conclude, in conclusion, as I have shown, as I have said, hence, therefore, accordingly, thus, as a result, consequently
Look for transitions when you are reading the newspaper, a magazine, or a book. Notice how other writers have used these words, then try to use them yourself in your own writing.
Peer assessment of writing task 3 (2 points)
If you have submitted the writing
task for this session, you can assess someone else’s writing.
To provide peer assessment, go to
Writing task 3, choose one contribution, read it (at
least twice) and provide feedback as a reply to a particular forum entry.
Please choose a contribution that hasn't been assessed by anyone else yet (if
possible). Here are some criteria you can take into consideration:
- Does the summary cover the main idea(s) of the original text? If not, which significant ideas are missing?
- Are the ideas presented logically organized?
- Are there transitional words or phrases to help the reader understand the text?
- Does the author use his/her own words?
- Is the language used appropriate (formal)?
- Is the paragraph revised so as to correct grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes?
You will get the points for peer assessment if you write at least 5 sentences.
Comments on summarizing
1) I have a tip for a useful web site:
This is a search engine that helps your English sound more natural.
2) Activity 3b: some of your summaries
A
The steady growth of population around the world increases the demand for housing and causes overcrowding.
The growth of the world's population results in increased demand for housing.
Some countries of the world are still growing in population at a drastic rate, leading to problems of overcrowding and increased demand for housing.
B
Effective public transportation networks have led to many leaving their personal vehicles at home.
The advancement of public transport systems in larger cities decreases the number of cars in cities.
A quality public transport system helps to exclude cars from cities.
C
High-rise buildings are becoming common in big cities since they take up less space but provide more accommodation.
Skyscrapers can solve the problem of a shortage of land for housing.
High-rise buildings are a common solution to the shortage of available land in big cities
3) Writing task 3
Some of you had problems summarizing the main ideas in your own words. Here’s the beginning of the article:
"Bilinguals get all the perks. Better job prospects, a cognitive boost and even protection against dementia. Now new research shows that they can also view the world in different ways depending on the specific language they are operating in."
In your summaries, quite a few of you used the last sentence of this paragraph and changed just a couple of words. My tip about how to avoid it: when reading the text, you write down the key points, but not the whole sentences, just words or phrases. When writing a summary, you refer only to your notes, you do not look back in the text.
Here are examples of a summary using your own words:
Bilinguals tend to think differently according to the language they are speaking. (Tomáš Čapek)
Studies show that bilingualism affects the way you think. (Veronika Čevelová)
Also, some of you struggled a bit when mentioning or describing the research. Here are some examples of how it can be done:
In a newly published research, a connection was found between bilingual people and viewing the world differently depending on the language they are speaking. (Tomáš Čapek)
In research published in Psychology Science, German-English bilinguals and monolinguals were studied and compared. (Kateřina Brettová)
Recently published research studied English-German bilinguals and monolinguals, and the connection between language patterns and reactions to situations. When researchers asked a German speaking person to describe a situation, they usually described the action and its goal, while English speakers described just the action. However, with bilingual speakers, the description was differentiating based on the language they were given the tasks in. (Vojtěch Hromada)
Here are some examples of well-formulated summaries:
A short summary:
Studies show that bilingualism affects the way you think. German-English speakers were presented with video-clips and asked to describe them. Answers concluded that German speakers are focusing on possible outcomes, whereas English speakers to the action itself. Bilingual speakers switched between these perspectives based on the language of the video-clips. (Veronika Čevelová)
Longer summaries:
Research shows that bilinguals can, among other things, see the world based on the language their mind operates in. Switching languages is often mentioned as a brain exercise, with benefits comparable to regular exercise. Using seemingly ambiguous scenes in pictures to monolinguals and bilinguals provided interesting results to our study.
For example, in monolinguals there was a clear pattern in which they described the picture of a woman walking somewhere. German monolinguals showed goal oriented sentences as a result of their specific grammar system, describing her as a woman walking to a car, or towards a specific goal. On the other hand English monolinguals focused on the action of walking itself, showing the tendencies of their own grammar system. The results of German-English bilinguals mostly served as a proof of how flexible their minds were trained to be, their tendencies leaning towards the language they were using at the time.
These findings are in line with other research showing distinct behavior in bilinguals based on their language of operation, including, naturally, any possible combination of two or more languages. It is therefore safe to conclude that the language you speak really can affect the way you think. (Michaela Maruškinová )
According to recent research published in Psychological Science, bilinguals can see the world from different perspectives. Various experiments with German-English bilinguals and monolinguals were conducted to see the impact of different language patterns on their thinking. For example, in one test, all three groups were shown video clips of events with a motion and were asked to describe them. As a result, most English speakers paid attention only to the action, whereas German speakers also pointed out its goal. In another experiment, where all the participants were required to categorize different events with an ambiguous goal, the results were the same. What is more, the worldview of each group mirrored patterns of both their language usage and nonverbal event categorization, being a holistic one for German speakers and maybe more reductionist for English speakers. As for bilinguals, they changed their perspective and behavior based on the language setting during experiments. For instance, if a German-English bilingual was given a task in English, he/she would act like an English speaker. Therefore, given the above, the language you speak indeed impacts the way you view the world. (Maria Kurash)