高级英语写作-summary

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V. Example:
• When a light passenger plane flew off course some time ago, it crashed in the mountains and its pilot was killed. The only passengers, a young woman and her two baby daughters, were unhurt. It was the middle of winter. Snow lay thick on the ground. The woman knew that the nearest village was miles away. When it grew dark, she turned a suitcase into a bed and put the children inside it, covering them with all the clothes she could find. During the night, it got terribly cold. The woman kept as near as she could to the children and even tried to get into the case herself, but it was too small. Early next morning, she heard planes passing overhead and wondered how she could send a signal. Then she had an idea. She stamped out the letters 'SOS' in the snow. Fortunately, a pilot saw the signal and sent a message by radio to the nearest town. It was not long before a helicopter arrived on the scene to rescue the survivors of the plane crash.
Unit 5 Summary 摘要
I. What is a summary?
• A summary is a shortened or condensed version, in your own words, of something you have read. • Although written in your own words, the summary does not include your own opinions about what you read. • A summary is intended to highlight objectively the main points of another writer's work • When you write a summary, you are recording your understanding of the text and communicating it to your reader. • Many students make the mistake of confusing summary and analysis. They are not the same thing. • To summarize is to condense an author's text to its main points and to do so in your own words. Therefore, to include every detail is neither necessary nor desirable. Instead, you should extract only those elements which you think are most important--the main idea (or thesis) and its essential supporting points
IV. How to summarize?
• • • Outline the text. Break it down into its major sections--groups of paragraphs focused on a common topics--and list the main supporting points for each section. Write a one or two sentence summary of each section. Formulate a single sentence to summarize the whole text, looking at the author's thesis or topic sentences as a guide. Write a paragraph (or more): begin with the overall summary sentence and follow it with the section summary sentences. Rewrite and rearrange your paragraph(s) as needed to make your writing clear and concise, to eliminate relatively minor or repetitious points, and to provide transitions. Make sure your summary includes all the major supporting points of each idea. The final version should be a unified, complete, and coherent whole. Of course, You should read the piece for understanding first. Never summarize as you read the article for the first time. Before you begin to write, check the topic sentences and key words (words that are underlined, italicized, or capitalized
• c. It should make sense as a piece of writing in its own right; it should not merely be taken directly from your list of notes or sound like a list of sentences that are strung together in paragraph or essay format.
• What are the consequences of the problem or issue that the author is discussing?
5. recommendations
• What solutions does the author present to the reader to resolve the problem of issue in the piece? • Does the author recommend action or change in his/her piece?
l. purpose
• What is the author's reason for writing? • What is the author's main idea?
2. scope
• What is the author's focus in this piece? • Where does the author concentrate his/her attention?
3. method
• What kinds of evidence does the author provide? • How does the author try to convince the reader of the validity of his/her main idea?
4. results
6. conclusions
• Does the author describe a 'cause and effect' relationship or explain the origins of this issue or problem? • What conclusions does the author draw from his/her study of the issue or problem?
II. Why should we summarize?
• An important writing skill: to summarize your own research work • A valuable learning tool: to pick out the most essential idea of the work of someone else
• a. You should isolate all the important points in the original passage and note them down in a list. Review all the ideas on your list, and include in your summary all the ones that are indispensable to（ be indispensable to v.必需the author's development of his/her thesis (or main point).
• d. You are not being asked to imitate the author whom you are writing about. On the contrary, you are expected to maintain your own voice throughout the summary. Don't simply quote the author; instead use your own words to express your own understanding of what you have read. After all, your summary is based on your interpretation of the writer's points or ideas. However, you should be careful not to create any misrepresentation（n.误传, 误 说）or distortion扭曲 by introducing comments or criticisms of your own.
• b. Eliminate repetitions in your list, even if the author restates the same points. Your summary should be considerably shorter than the source. You are hoping to create an overview; therefore, you need not include every repetition of a point or every supporting detail.
• Summaries are very common in academic writing, and they have a fairly standard form. In essence, summaries inform the reader of six bits of information about the piece of writing:
III. What is百度文库a good summary?
• A summary must be comprehensive（全面） • A summary must be concise（简 练） • A summary must be coherent （连贯） • A summary must be independent（独立）