写法

To write your summary, first scan the document you are summarizing to get an overall impression.

Then read it carefully, highlighting or underlining the most significant information.

You will want to especially pay close attention to the first and last sentence of each paragraph. Usually the first sentence is the topic sentence and the last a summary of the paragraph so they will have the most important ideas.

The First Sentence:

An easy way to begin writing a summary is to refer to the author and what they have written about.

A general format for the first sentence is as follows:

First Sentence Examples

In his/her/the article {“Article name,”} {Author’s name} + {primary verb} + {main idea}.

In his/her/the article {“Article name,”} {Author’s name} + {pri mary verb} + {main idea}.

Example: In his article “Children and Video Games,” Steve Peterson

strongly recommends that parents should not allow their children to play video games.

?There are a number of primary verbs that can be used in a summary.

Some of the most common are listed here.

1. Claims

2. Recommends

3. Argues

4. Reports

5. Shows

6. Insists

7. Explains 8. Describes 9. Suggests

Note: Many of these verbs will often be followed by the word “that”.

Other First Sentence Examples

?In the art icle “Men are different than women”, the author

describes 10 important differences between men and women.

?In this article, the author explains how the Chinese

economy has developed so quickly in the last ten years.

The Rest of the Summary

The first sentence should be followed by the main ideas and supporting ideas in the same order that they appear in the text. Remember that all sentences should be stated in YOUR OWN WORDS.

If you absolutely must use a sentence or phrase from the original text, make sure that it is put within quotation marks (" "). Also remember that you are just restating what is expressed in the text; you should NOT be adding any of your own opinions.

Longer Summaries

?Most summaries will be quite short. But if you are

writing a longer summary you can add some phrases like the ones below.

?The author goes on to say that ...

?The article (author) further states that ...

?(Author’s last name) also believes that…

?(Author’s last name) concludes that…

?No matter what format you choose to use, stating the main

purpose of the article in the first couple of sentences is very important if you want to write a successful summary.

?After you have written this you can try to write a summary

of each paragraph. If the article you are summarizing is written well this should be easy to do. It will be harder if the paragraph does not have a good topic sentence.

?Now we are going to take some time to practice writing

another summary in class. Please use this time well as it will be helpful in preparing you for the final examination. This article is an article that was used in the past for the doctorate students examination.