Summarize Like a DragonCreating a Topic Sentence, Chunking,

Paraphrasing using Important Words, and Synthesizing

Information.

Before We Get StartedTerms and Advice

Important Terms:Summary: a significantly shorter version of a source that includes only the main ideas and is put into your own words (paraphrased)

Main Idea: what a source is mostly about; excludes small detail

Paraphrase: putting content into your own words; do not copy/plagiarize

Chunking: breaking an entire source in to smaller, more manageable parts so it is easier to summarize

Steps in the Process:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Read and strategize

Make a topic sentence

Chunk the source

Paraphrase the chunks

Combine all of the parts

Things to Remember

A summary does not contain your opinion on a topic. Keep your own ideas out of your summary.

A summary does not contain every detail from a source, just the main ideas from each chunk.

It’s always best to signal to the reader where the information came from.

Writing the First Sentence of A Summary

Signals and Main Ideas

Topic Sentence

A topic sentence is the first paragraph of a paragraph summary

A topic sentence contains the main idea of a source

A topic sentence contains a signal that identifies where the source comes from

Overview

Topic SentenceSignal

In an article by David Fisher

The article “Ranking NBA Players Begins in Earnest” statesAn article in The Bird Writes claims

*A signal tells the reader that these ideasare not your own.

Topic SentenceSignal

In an article by David Fisher

The article “Ranking NBA Players Begins in Earnest” states

An article in The Bird Writes claims

+

+

It is best to have multiple things identifying your source in the signal.

Try it out!

Topic SentenceMain Idea

Let’s put it together!

Your topic sentence should also containthe main idea of the source you are summarizing.

The New Orleans Pelicans will be a good team this year because they have the most players of any team appearing in a ranking of the top one hundred NBA players.

Main IdeaAn Article in The Bird Writes Claims

The article “Ranking NBA Players Begins in Earnest” states

In an article by David Fisher

Signals

Chunking a SourceManaging Meaning in a Text

Things to Remember

Breaking a source into smaller parts makes it easier to summarize

A source is usually broken up into meaningful parts by section

Smaller articles and denser text can be broken into meaningful parts by paragraph

How would we chunk this?

Chunking

Paraphrasing a ChunkCapturing the Main Ideas of a Source

How to Paraphrase a Chunk

1. Read the chunk carefully.

2. Identify the most important word in the chunk that states the main idea.

3. Write a sentence in your own words (paraphrase) using the most important word you identified that states the main idea of that chunk.

Paraphrasing I do

Paraphrasing

1. What is this chunk about?

2. What is the most important word?

I do

Paraphrasing

How can we write a sentence that captures the main idea of the paragraph using this word?Southwest Airlines has a policy that bigger people pay for two seats.

I do

Paraphrasing

Word 1:

Policy

Word 2: Word 3: Word 4: Word 5:

Sentence 1:Southwest Airlines has a policy that bigger people pay for two seats.

Sentence 2: Sentence 3: Sentence 4: Sentence 5:

Find the most important word for each paragraph.

Put it in a sentence that expresses the main idea of the chunk.

We do

Paraphrasing We do

1. Pick a word that captures the main idea 2. Use the word in a sentence to paraphrase the chunk

Word 1:

Policy

Word 2:

Denied

Word 3: Word 4: Word 5:

Sentence 1:Southwest Airlines has a policy that bigger people pay for two seats.

Sentence 2:Luther was denied entry in front of several people because she did not have two tickets, causing embarrassment.

Sentence 3: Sentence 4: Sentence 5:

Find the most important word for each paragraph.

Put it in a sentence that expresses the main idea of the chunk.

Two do

Paraphrasing

1. Pick a word that captures the main idea 2. Use the word in a sentence to paraphrase the chunk

Two do

Word 1:

Policy

Word 2:

Denied

Word 3:

Sue

Word 4: Word 5:

Sentence 1:Southwest Airlines has a policy that bigger people pay for two seats.

Sentence 2:Luther was denied entry in front of several people because she did not have two tickets, causing embarrassment.

Sentence 3:She tried to sue Southwest, but lost in court because the policy is justifiable.

Sentence 4: Sentence 5:

Find the most important word for each paragraph.

Put it in a sentence that expresses the main idea of the chunk.

You Do

Paraphrasing

1. Pick a word that captures the main idea 2. Use the word in a sentence to paraphrase the chunk

You do

Word 1:

Policy

Word 2:

Denied

Word 3:

Sue

Word 4:

Who

Word 5:

Sentence 1:Southwest Airlines has a policy that bigger people pay for two seats.

Sentence 2:Luther was denied entry in front of several people because she did not have two tickets, causing embarrassment.

Sentence 3:She tried to sue Southwest, but lost in court because the policy is justifiable.

Sentence 4:There is question concerning who will decide who needs two seats.

Sentence 5:

You Do

You will do the last paragraph completely on your own.

SynthesizingCombining All of the Parts

Put it all together.We should have learned to make a

topic sentence that contains the main idea of the article

We should have a signal that lets the reader know these aren’t our own ideas

We should have broken this essay into chunks

We should have identified the most important word in each chunk

We should have written a sentence using the most important word and expressing the main idea of each chunk

Put it all together.

Word 1:

Policy

Word 2:

Denied

Word 3:

Sue

Word 4:

Who

Word 5:

Switched

Sentence 1:Southwest Airlines has a policy that bigger people pay for two seats.

Sentence 2:Luther was denied entry in front of several people because she did not have two tickets, causing embarrassment.

Sentence 3:She tried to sue Southwest, but lost in court because the policy is justifiable.

Sentence 4:There is question concerning who will decide who needs two seats.

Sentence 5:Luther switched airlines and has not had issues since.

Put it all together.

Identify

Identify

Put it all together.

Word 1:

Policy

Word 2:

Denied

Word 3:

Sue

Word 4:

Who

Word 5:

Switched

Sentence 1:Southwest Airlines has a policy that bigger people pay for two seats.

Sentence 2:Luther was denied entry in front of several people because she did not have two tickets, causing embarrassment.

Sentence 3:She tried to sue Southwest, but lost in court because the policy is justifiable.

Sentence 4:There is question concerning who will decide who needs two seats.

Sentence 5:Luther switched airlines and has not had issues since.

An article in People magazine called “Unfriendly Skies” discusses a controversial change in airline rules.

Put it all together.

An article in People magazine called “Unfriendly Skies” discusses a controversial change in airline rules. Southwest Airlines has a policy that bigger people pay for two seats. Luther, a woman who flew Southwest, was denied entry in front of several people because she did not have two tickets, causing embarrassment. She tried to sue Southwest, but lost in court because the policy is justifiable. However, the policy may be in jeopardy because there is question concerning who will decide who needs two seats. Since the incident, Luther switched airlines and has not had further issues.

CHUNKING

If you spill out of one seat, you must pay for two—that's the logic of a long-standing rule that Southwest Airlines has announced it will now strictly enforce. Since the plus-size policy became public, Jay Leno and others have had a field day. But Cynthia Luther, for one, isn't laughing.

In December 1999 Luther, 48, was stopped from boarding a flight from Reno to Burbank by a Southwest gate agent who insisted that the divorced telephone-company rep-who stands 5'5" and weighs about 300 lbs.—buy a second ticket because of her size. Although she had flown Southwest several times before—including earlier that weekend—and always fit into a single seat, that day Luther was denied entry in front of dozens of holiday travelers. "I was so upset. I felt embarrassed and furious," she says. "They didn't treat me with dignity."

After a friend paid $73.50 for the extra ticket, a tearful Luther finally boarded—and took up only one seat. (She eventually received a refund.) Luther sued Southwest, arguing they should have taken her on the plane to see if she needed two seats before charging her double. A judge dismissed her lawsuit in 2000, finding no discrimination (an appeal was also dismissed last year). "The interest of the policy is not to humiliate anyone," maintains company spokeswoman Linda Rutherford. "We sell our service in the form of 18¾-in. seats."

But, wonder advocates for the overweight, who decides who fits, and how? "It's ultimately going to be no different than putting African-Americans in the back of the bus," says attorney Walter Lindstrom, an obesity-law specialist. "It's a visual call."

Luther, who never got a formal apology from Southwest, has since switched airlines and not had any problems with other carriers. Still, her experience with Southwest has made her warier of flying. "If I treated my customers the way they treated me," she says, "I'd be fired."

Unfriendly Skies