1 / 15

Writing a summary

Vocabulary Building. Writing a summary. What is a summary?. A summary is a condensed acoount narrative form of the subject matter of a report, letter, series of letter, or any other kind of d o cument or series of doc u ment . It must be written in concise and clear English. .

lydie
Download Presentation

Writing a summary

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Vocabulary Building Writing a summary

  2. What is a summary? • A summary is a condensed acoount narrative form of the subject matter of a report, letter, series of letter, or any other kind of document or series of document. It must be written in concise and clear English.

  3. What is the purpose of a summary? • Your manager, director, principal may wish to know all the important facts of a matter about which there has been considerable correspondence. • They may not have the time to read all the letters and may ask you to make a summary. • This summary must contain all the main points.

  4. How brief should a summary be? • This is not always easy to determine, • Normally, one third of the numberof words in the original matter is sufficient to achieve this. • All direct speech in the original matter must be turned into indirect speech in the summary.  

  5. For example: • The Chairperson said, “The situation is one of great difficulty, and we may be forced to change our attitude to shift work..” • If the whole of this statement is to be included in the summary, it should appear as follows: • The Chairperson said that the situation was one of great dofficulty and they might be forced to change their attitude to shift work.

  6. CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD SUMMARY • Logical order The facts should be set out in their proper order and sequence. • Completeness The summary must contai sufficient details to enablethe subject to be understoo in all aspect withoutreference to the original.

  7. Correct EnglishThe rules of grammar be obeyed. Slang expressions and abbreviations should not appear in a summary. • Continuity The sentence should read easily and smoothly. • Preciseness Care must be taken to present exact meaning of the original.

  8. When making a summary, try to follow these stages: • aRead through the original, if possible twice, grasp the topic dealt with, and gain clear idea of the subject matter • bMake an outline of the summary before writing it.

  9. c Make a rough draft and compare it with the original; be sure you have included everything of importance and excluded all unimportant details. • d Write the summary.

  10. Here are two two examples: • Replying to the statement of the Chairperson, Mr Smith said he did not accept that view of the matter. (19) • This can be shortened to: • Mr Smith disagrees with Chairperson’s view. (7)

  11. you may be asked to make a summary of a speech. Here is an example of a speech followed by a summary of it.

  12. Summary of Company Director’s Speech • The director reported that the inclereased output at harleston was a testimny the efficiency of the whole organization. The completion of the new factory at Monymusk almost on the expected date was a tribute to the constructional staff. Full efficiency should be reached in the next few years. • Previously, the production of sugar from 9 old factories had been 45 000tonnes; the 2 new factories should produce 120 000 tonnes. Succes, however, depended upon human relationships, and the Company would continue to aim at the ideal of a spirit of unity and common pirpose amongst the staff. • In this they would rely not on what happened in other countries, but on the experience and advice of those who had firs-hand knowledge of all conditions in this country, (128 words)

  13. Points to remember when writing summaries: • a Your summary must contain all the important fact and must omit all unimportant details. • b Its length should not be more than one third of the original. • c Speeches and articles in direct speech must bechanged to indirect speech.

  14. d Language and style must be simple, clear, and concise. • e Check that thee are no weak words or pharases or clumsy expressions in your summary. • f Check that you have not used too many words from the original. • g You should make yours points logical order, each leadingon to the next.

  15. 1 Wool prices Once again it is advisableto appreciate that the monetary turnover is, to a large extent, governed by the price level of wool; but your directors have much pleasure in advising that during the year a substantial increase has occurred in the number of clients who are regularly purchasingpart of their requirementsthrough this company. According to all availableinformation, wool must stillbe regarded as statistically very sound, but one the part of consumers to the very high prices now prevailing. This may result in an increasinguse of substitutes, thus slowing up the demand for wool from the consuming centres of the world. • Summarise the above extract. • What word would you substitute for appreciate in line 1? • What is meant by the statement that wool is statistically sound? • Simplify the statement there is an increasing resistance on the part of customers to the very high prices now prevailing.

More Related