Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly.
Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.
Paraphrases and summaries serve many purposes. You might use them to:
- provide support for claims or add credibility to your writing;
- refer to work that leads up to the work you are now doing;
- give examples of several points of view on a subject;
- call attention to a position that you wish to agree or disagree with;
- highlight a particularly striking phrase, sentence, or passage by quoting the original;
- distance yourself from the original by quoting it in order to cue readers that the words are not your own;
- expand the breadth or depth of your writing.
Steps for paraphrasing
Example of correctly paraphrased information
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Original text (45 words) |
Acceptable paraphrased text (56 words) |
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Traditionally, in oral and written discourses, the masculine pronoun 'he' was used as a pronoun to refer to a person whose gender was unknown or irrelevant to the context. Recently, this usage has come under criticism for supporting gender-based stereotypes and is increasingly considered inappropriate |
If the gender of a person was not known or was unimportant to the meaning of oral or written texts, it was customary to use the masculine form of 'he' when a pronoun was required; however, there has been growing concern about this practice in modern usage because it appears to privilege stereotypes based on gender |
Assess your paraphrase:
- the meaning is the same;
- most of the words have been changed;
- the sentences have been significantly restructured;
- this is about the same length as the original writing;
- the information is correctly referenced.
Steps for summarizing
Example of correctly summarised information
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Original text (103 words) |
Acceptable paraphrased text (31 words) |
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For most people, writing is an extremely difficult task if they are trying to grapple in their language with new ideas and new ways of looking at them. Sitting down to write can be an agonising experience, which doesn't necessarily get easier with the passage of time and the accumulation of experience. For this reason you need to reflect upon and analyse your own reactions to the task of writing. That is to say, the task will become more manageable if you learn how to cope with your own particular ways avoiding putting off the moment when you must put pen to paper |
Inexperienced and even skilled writers can feel a great deal of anguish when faced with writing tasks; however, this response can be managed by recognizing and coping with personal avoidance strategies |
Assess your summary:
- the meaning is the same;
- the summary keeps the degree of certainty of the writer;
- this is a much shorter version of the original writing;
- the source/s of information is/are clearly referenced.
Task 1. Read the following short text and then evaluate the three paraphrases. Give reasons for which example you think is a better paraphrase. Order the paraphrases and write down your comments.
Source text
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king`s horses and all the king`s men
Couldn`t put Humpty together again.
(26 words)
Paraphrase A
A person called «Humpty Dumpty», who was perched on a vertical construction made of stone and brick, came into a colossal uncontrolled contact with the ground. Despite the joint efforts of royal mammals used for riding and the royal mounted personnel, the injured party could not be restored to its original state for a second time. (56 words)
Paraphrase B
Humpty Dumpty was perched on a wall and tumbled to the ground. The horses and men in the service of the king all failed to reassemble Humpty Dumpty. (28 words)
Paraphrase C
Someone called «Humpty Dumpty» fell and could not be restored to health (12 words)
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Order |
Paraphrase |
Your comments |
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1 (best) |
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2 |
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3 (weakest) |
Task 2. Read the following short text and evaluate its three paraphrased versions. Give reasons for which example you think is a better paraphrase. Order the paraphrases and write down your comments.
Source text
Australia has a large, diverse, and exciting body of creative writing that is at least the equal, possibly the envy, of many other national literatures. Its compelling themes – the quest for belonging and identity, the pull between land and language, the continuing attempt to recover and come to terms with an often violent past- reveal links with other nation-oriented settler literatures: American, Canadian, New Zealand, South African. (Huggan, 2007, pp.2-3) (67 words)
Paraphrase A
The large, diverse, and exciting body of Australian literature is minimally on a par with and probably the envy of many nations. Because of its irresistible themes, such as the search for belonging and identity, the influence of land on language, and a constant struggle to find and reconcile with an often violent past, it is related to the nation-oriented settler literatures of America, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. (70 words)
Paraphrase B
Australian literature, Huggan (2007, pp.2-3) argues, is substantial, varied, and stimulating. At worst it matches the literature of other nations, but probably many can only wish they had one like it. It addresses such powerful themes as the longing for acceptance, the search for identity, the interaction between land and language, or the constant struggle to mend a frequently violent history and to reconcile with it. These themes are shared with America, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa, all settler nations concerned with nationhood. (86 words)
Paraphrase C
Huggan (2007, pp.2-3) claims that Australian literature is sizeable, varied, and stimulating. It is as good as the literature of several other nations and it is coveted by many of them. Yearning for acceptance and searching for identity, exploring the ways how land language interact, and hoping to mend a history teeming with violence or to reconcile with it are powerful themes that Australian literature shares with the literates of such other nations with a concern for nationhood as America, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. (89 words)
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Order |
Paraphrase |
Your comments |
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1 (best) |
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2 |
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3 (weakest) |
Task 3. Use the words given in bold and finish the sentences so that they are as close in meaning to the original as possible.
Example: You just can`t decide to marry someone having only met the person once.
Spur
Marrying someone
_____________________________________________
Marrying someone isn`t a decision you can make on the spur of the moment.
1.Fleming was not even suspecting that the mould contained an antibiotic substance.
Took
It
________________________________________________________
Reflects
The fact that
____________________________________________________
reservations
The authors
____________________________________________________
4.Integrative motivation is felt more demandingly by young language learners than by adolescent or adult learners.
prone
Young language learners
_________________________________________
5.Only when the participants started to interact with each other could we see how much learning occurs in an online classroom.
extent
It was not until
_________________________________________________
6.With their 40,000 troops, Romans were far superior to the forces of Hannibal.
match
Hannibal`s ____________________________________________________
7.The findings of the previous research study were significantly different from that of the present one.
contrast
There ________________________________________________________
8.White and Arndt describe the process writing approach in great detail in their book.
account
The book
_____________________________________________________
Task 4. Paraphrase the following excerpts taken from The History of New Zealand by Tom Brooking published in 2004.
The ancestors of Maori did not arrive in one great fleet in 1350-an influential theory suggested by the late nineteenth-century ethnographer Percy Smith. (p.12)
Smith ____________________________________________________
Maori seafarers were expert at reading the stars, following the flight paths of birds, and tracing currents and wave patterns. They truly deserved the title, bestowed by eminent Maori scholar Sir Peter Buck, of Vikings of the sunrise. (p.12)
Brooking __________________________________________________
Unfortunately, European sellters generally ignored the environmental lessons learned so carefully by Maori and repeated the same mistakes all over again. (p.16)
Select a signal word from Table to introduce your paraphrase.
Within their short life span Maori lived relatively healthy lives. Infant mortality appears to have been quite low, and the average woman gave birth to about four children. At least three usually made it to adulthood, a much higher proportion than in preindustrial Europe. (p.20)
Since 1996 New Zealand has employed the West German system of Mixed Member Proportional representation (MMP). …It is too soon to say how well the change has worked, or to predict whether it will survive. (p.9)
Task 5. Paraphrase the following text taken from Lemay`s essay published in 2009.
Source text
But the Autobiography, as every reader knows, is not primarily about Franklin`s economic rise. At best, this is a minor subject. When he refers to it, he generally does so for a number of immediate reasons, nearly all of which are as important as the fact of his wealth. …
Although Franklin writes of his early poverty a number of times, he rarely mentions his later wealth. It might be said that in twice telling of his retirement from private business, Franklin indirectly boasts of his financial success. But the sentence structure on both occasions demonstrates than the major subject is public business, not private wealth. The rags to riches definition of the American Dream is a minor aspect of the American Dream theme in Franklin`s Auto-biography. (pp. 23-24).
Writing a summary
Writing a summary is a complex process that subsumes paraphrase writing. As a result, some of the steps in the summary writing process correspond to the steps of the paraphrase writing process. Figure 1 presents an outline of the main stages of the summary writing process. As can be seen, the additional step in this process is the drafting of the summary. This is followed by the paraphrasing process described in the previous chapter. The revision step is another central element in the case of summarization; it is connected to all the other steps of the summarisation process.
Figure 4.1 – A model of summary writing
Summarisation is a more complex skill than paraphrasing. Like paraphrasing, it draws on reading and writing skills as well as on vocabulary and grammatical knowledge, but in addition it requires a set of information processing skills that are necessary for condensation. These skills are discussed below in the section on the step-by-step description of the summary writing process. Where the steps in the paraphrase and summary writing process. Where the steps in the paraphrase and summary writing processes overlap, the focus is primarily on pointing out the differences that may help you write effective summaries.
Source text selection
As opposed to paraphrasing, the length of the source text is not an issue in the case of summarization. You can summarise texts of any length. Depending on your purpose, the density of the source text, and the type of summary you are writing, your summary can be of varying lengths and conciseness, ranging from a single sentence to several paragraphs to several pages. If the main ideas of a source are both relevant and enough for the main point you want to make, you should summarise rather than quote or paraphrase.
Reading for summary writing
You have to read carefully any text that you summarise, using a dictionary if necessary, to make sure you thoroughly understand the entire text, the points the author is making, the individual idea units, as well as the way in which they are related. If you are writing a global summary, you must analyse each part of the text with equal attention in order to reconstruct the author`s whole line of thought.
If, however, you set a focus for yourself, you can read a text selectively and write a guided summary, using only the information relevant to you. However, even in this case you must be aware of the context from which the relevant passages come. Selective reading is guided by a question, which is the interrogative version of the point you want to make. Imagine you are reading a book on the various language teaching methods (e.g., grammar translation, total physical response, communicative language teaching, task-based language teaching) because you have to hand in a written assignment on them. You have decided to focus on learner interaction in each method. The guiding question you formulate is the following:
What are the ways in which language learners influence their peers` learning?
Using this question as your guide during your reading, you select the parts of the book that discuss the issue in focus and exclude everything else. Guided summary writing therefore reduces your reading load because you only have to work intensively with those parts of the text that discuss the ideas relevant for the point you want to make. Your purpose determines what relevant information you select from which parts of the text.
For the assignment on learner interaction, you will concentrate on those parts of the book that discuss peer effect on learning. You have to find the main ideas and separate them from their supporting details. This requires several close readings of the relevant passages. The information you extract can them be written up as a coherent text which you can then use in your assignment, for example, to compare the different ways in which learners influence one another in the different methods. Based on that comparison, you can determine which method leads to most peer learning.
Providing source information and reminders
As discussed above, you have to give your readers information about the source so that they know what the source text is and can the it and read it if they want. Most writers give the name of the author and the year of publication when they integrate a summary into their writing and put the full bibliographical reference at the end of their work in the section that lists all their references.
If the summary you include in your writing is long, you have to remind your readers from time to time that they are still reading a summary of others` ideas rather than your own ideas. This you can do by using phrases like the author goes on by stating that or the author further mentions that. There is no rule about how many times you have to remind your readers, but in a long summary that is introduced with a signal phrase it makes sense to remind your reader somewhere halfway through and then somewhere close to the end (the author finally notes that) they are reading someone else`s ideas. You want to make clear for your reader where the summary begins and ends in order to set it apart from your own ideas.
Summarising the source text
At this point in the summary writing process you focus on those parts of the source text(s) that contain the main ideas relevant to you. As in the case of paraphrasing, it is a good idea to work with one idea unit at a time. Identify a main idea and exclude its supporting details, or use supporting details to generate a main idea before you move on to the next idea unit. Work your way systematically through the relevant parts of the text.
Summarisation is not a random process. It is rule governed. There are three basic summarization rules: construction, generalization and deletion. The rules must be applied in the order construction --- generalisation ---deletion. This order guarantees that no information that can be included in an abstract statement is lost with deletion before it can be used for construction or generalization. Research evidence has shown that students have problems with the application of all three rules and that they find the construction rule the most difficult of the three.
Construction
This rule allows you to join together a series of events as one overarching event, using your background knowledge. Subordinate events or actions can sometimes be combined as a superordinate event or action. Here is an example: you could describe a person`s efforts (1) not to think that everything that goes wrong is their fault, (2) to avoid only focusing on the negative critical remarks about themselves and ignoring the positive ones, and (3) to stop thinking about the future only on the basis of bad past experiences as making a conscious effort to become a positive thinker. Other actions such as (4) accepting the idea that things cannot always be exclusively one way or another, (5) attempting to recognize and challenge each negative thought, and (6) replacing negative thoughts with positive ones are also things that a person may do when trying to become a positive thinker. However, the first three representative subordinate actions given above are sufficient to construct the summary sentence that expresses the essence of these actions. You do not need all the subordinate actions to construct a superordinate action. If you already know what positive thinking is and what a positive thinker does because, for example, you have read about positive thinking, watched a documentary about it, or you have a friend who has talked to you about it, based on the actions given, you can think of other similar actions (examples 4-6 above) that are not mentioned in the source text but which you know match the actions explicitly mentioned. By combining what is given with what you know, you construct a summary sentence. Because the actions you add to the ones given it the text to construct a general statement for your summary are constitutive rather than further similar actions to the given ones, your additions do not distort the message of the source text. What you need is to recognise that those subordinate actions that are given do not constitute an exhaustive list and they can be taken together and replaced with one superordinate action. Background knowledge is needed in order to be able to notice the relationship between acts whose relatedness is not straightforward. As a result, the less you know about the topic on which you are writing a summary, the more difficult it is going to be to be for you to apply the construction rule.
Generalisation
This rule is similar to the construction rule because it allows you to substitute a series of items with one superordinate term. It draws on your ability to categorise, that is, your ability to group things together based on one organizing principle. Unlike in the case of construction, you are only allowed to generalize on the basis of what is explicitly given in the text that you are summarizing; you cannot add items to the list. Furhermore, your summary must represent each item of the original list equally well. Whereas construction combines explicit as well as summariser substituted events or actions that, taken together, form a superordinate action, generalisation is applied to a list of items which represent more of the same. Each item taken individually can be replaced with a superordinate item.
Take the following list: Superman, Spider-man, Batman, Catwoman, and Wonder Woman. We know that the items in the list share a lot of features. They all refer to such male or female stock characters who feature primarily in comic books and who have extraordinary powers and abilities, special costumes, secret identities, and a strong moral sense. They protect humans from criminals and their archenemies, the supervillains. The list of common features could be continued. However, what is important for you to note is that the stock characters in the list constitute specific instances of the same. As a result, they can be subsumed, both individually and taken together as a group, under the word superhero. In some cases, one core characteristic feature is enough to group items together: red, blue, black, green (an attribute of things related to the reflection, transmission, or emission of light-colours); Jamie Oliver, Alain Ducasse, Mario Batali (people who are experts of cooking – chefs); drums, violin, flute,banjo (devices used to make enjoyable noises – musical instruments); betting on horses, buying raffle tickets, playing blackjack in a casino (playing games of chance to win money – gambling).
Deletion
This rule allows you to delete trivial, redundant and irrelevant information. Trivial information is negligible information that does not add new content about the topic (e.g., raw statistical data based on which the writer formulates general statements). Redundant information is information that is either unnecessary (e.g., examples) or duplicated (e.g., the supporting ideas restated in the conclusion of a piece of writing). Irrelevant information is unrelated information that is basically of no value to the task. Even in the case of a guided summary, the parts of the text that contain information relevant for the summary will contain information that is trivial, redundant or irrelevant and that will have to be deleted after you have applied the construction and generalization rules. By waiting to apply the deletion rule until after you have applied the other two you make sure that you do not delete any details that might be needed to generate summative statements with the first two rules.
Construction and generalization are based on a type of logical deduction called abstraction. This is a process with the help of which you identify and extract common qualities from two or more specific examples or ideas. When you abstract information, you must make sure that the summary does not turn into an overgeneralisation disconnected from the source text (cf. Section 2.4). You must also avoid distorting the original content; this occurs when you include in the summary information that was not in the source text or where you misinterpret information from the source text.
Deletion, on the other hand, is governed by a general understanding of what it means for information to be trivial and redundant as well as by the purpose the summary serves. You can delete different pieces of information from the same text depending on the focus you have set for yourself. You have to choose carefully the information that you delete and apply deletion only after you have tried to extract information with the first two rules.
Paraphrase the summary
When you have extracted the main ideas needed for your summary, you can then paraphrase the extracts. Work with one idea at a time, and observe the guidelines given in the previous chapter for drafting the paraphrase (e.g., keep technical terms and expressions unchanged, make word- and sentence-level changes). Try to put aside the source text and work only from your notes. Once you have finished paraphrasing, organise the resulting sentences and connect them to form a piece of continuous text introduced by a signal phrase and containing all the information about the source text that the reader may need to locate it. You also have to write a corresponding entry with complete source information for the references section of your paper.
Revision
To revise your summary, you have to go through some of the same steps that are discussed in the case of paraphrasing in the previous chapter. In addition to these, your aim with a summary being to shorten a text, you should try to write the most concise version of the source text that you can while keeping all the relevant essential information. If you have chosen to reorder the ideas in the summary, you also have to make sure that you do not distort the original message and that your organization of the ideas is logical and allows you to fit the summary into your own writing.
Summary revision checklist
Use this checklist when you draft your summary. Answer these questions as you go through each step of the summary writing process. Do not move on to the next stage until you have done everything the questions remind you to do.
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1. Source text selection |
Is the source text you selected relevant for your purpose? |
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2.Understanding the passage |
Have you read the text carefully? Have you reread the relevant parts several times to understand them? Have you checked in a dictionary every word that you do not know or of whose meaning you are not sure? Do you understand how the ideas in the part of the source text that you selected are connected with the ideas that precede and follow it? Have you underlined the explicitly made main points? |
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3.Summarising the text |
Have you replaced all the information that you could wish superordinate terms or statements? Have you deleted all trivial, redundant and/ or irrelevant information? Have you compared the summary to make sure you have only included information from the source text? |
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4. Introducing the summary and providing source information |
Have you introduced your summary with a signal phrase? Have you provided accurate and sufficient information about the origin of the text? |
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5.Paraphrasing the summarized content |
Have you made both word- and sentence level changes? Have you compared your paraphrase with the original passage to check how accurate (e.g., the use of technical terms) and how different yours is from the original wording? |
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6.Revision |
Have you checked that you have included in your summary all the relevant main ideas from the source text in the most concise way possible? Have you checked whether your summary is too far away from the source text (e.g., insufficient information extracted; too short) or far too close to it (e.g., too much detail extracted; too long)? Have you connected the ideas into a coherent text? Does the style of the summary match your own writing style? |
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7.Editing |
Have you reread the paraphrase to check for any grammar, spelling, capitalization, or punctuation errors? |
Summary writing tasks
Task 1. Read the following texts. Quote all or a part of them, paraphrase them, and summarise them, as shown in the example below.
Source text 1
There are two main currents in the poetry written in English in Australia since 1788 when Australia was first settled by the British as a penal colony. One is popular, based on the songs, ballads and sea shanties and simple narratives brought here by convicts and settlers. This is vernacular verse which develops in diverse ways as the century progresses. The other stream is learned and literary, drawing on the whole European cultural heritage, using language that is consciously heightened or refined. (Smith, 2009, p.73)
Quote
Smith (2009) distinguishes two trends in English language poetry since the settlement of Australia. She characterises the first as “popular, based on the songs, ballads and sea shanties and simple narratives brought here by convicts and settlers. This is vernacular verse which develops in diverse ways as the century progresses” (p.73).
Paraphrase
According to Smith (2009, p.73), the first type of poetry originates from Australian settlers and convicts and was inspired by widely known ballads, sea shanties, and uncomplicated narratives. It constitutes vernacular poetry that evolved in various directions throughout the century.
Summary
The first type of poetry was inspired by genres popular among settlers and convicts and it later diversified (Smith, 2009, p.73).
Source text 2
Since the birth of commercial aviation in the United States, every airline and every aircraft manufacturer has understood that the main route was the transcontinental one, connecting the two coasts of the country. Using Ford Trimotors an Curtiss Condors, the major airlines raced to fly from New York to Los Angeles, Chicago to San Francisco, or Boston to Seattle, with as few refueling stops as possible. The average times to complete the twenty-six hundred miles from coast to coast varied, from an American Airlines DC-3 in 1937 (sixteen to twenty hours) to a Trans World Airlines Boeing 307 Stratoliner in 1940 (fourteen hours). (Pigott, 2002, p.111)
Quote
________________________________________________________
Paraphrase
________________________________________________________
Summary
________________________________________________________
Source text 3
Caravaggio lived much of his life as a fugitive, and that is how he is preserved in history – a man on the run, heading for the hills, keeping to the shadows. But he is caught, now and again, by the sweeping beam of a searchlight. Each glimpse is different. He appears in many guises, moods and predicaments. Caravaggio throws stones at the house of his landlady and sings ribald songs outside her window. He has a fight with a waiter about the dressing on a plate of artichokes. He taunts a rival with graphic sexual insults. He attacks a man in the street. He kills a man in a swordfight. He and a gang of other men inflict grievous bodily harm on a Knight of Justice on the island of Malta. He is himself attacked by four armed men in the street outside a low-life tavern in Naples. His life is a series of intriguing and vivid tableaux-scenes that abruptly switch, as in the plays of his English contemporary William Shakespeare, from comedy to tragedy, from low farce to high drama. (Graham-Dixon, 2011,pp.3-4)
Quote
________________________________________________________
Paraphrase
________________________________________________________
Summary
________________________________________________________
Task 2. Read the following text and its summary, answer the questions, and do the do the summary rewriting.
Source text
Summary
The essence of Italian cities and towns becomes visible during festivals, which are popular, much cherished, and diverse events. They involve locals of all ages, who can display their special skills and creativity during the numerous arresting festivities (ENIT-Agenzia Nazionale del turismo, 2006, p.25).
Questions:
________________________________________________________
Essence_______________________________________________________visible__________________________________________________
Popular__________________________________________________
Much cherished_________________________________________________
diverse__________________________________________________
display__________________________________________________
Task 3. Read the following extract from a book on cinema and the three summaries written on it. Which of the summaries is better and why? (Refer to the Summary revision checklist in this chapter).
Source text
Some of the films by the latest generation of Italian directors combine great technical ability with deep concentration on themes of personal reality in particular in coming of age stories that have constituted a current in turn-of-the-millennium Italian cinema. Coming of age stories, even for adults, have been a steady theme in the Italian cinema from Risi’s Il sorpasso/The Easy Life (1962), Fellini’s La dolce vita (1960), or I vitelloni/The young and the Passionate (1953) and many, many others. But given the statistical data regarding Italy’s extremely low birth rate and the continuing trend for Italians to delay parenthood, the coming of age stories in the tradition of the commedia all’italiana so frequent among the works of the latest generation of Italian directors take on added importance as a reflection for a country whose inhabitants struggle to match emotional with physical maturity. (Celli/CottinoJones, 2007, p.152)
Summary A
Some younger generation Italian directors tell coming of age stories in several technically accomplished and profound films made in Italy in the early 2000s. The theme also features in numerous other films dating back to 1953 in which even grown-ups come of age. However, commedia all’italiana type of films about personal growth are even more important now because by watching them, Italians, who persistently marry late and have few children, can realize just how physically mature and yet emotionally immature they are. (Celli/CottinoJones, 2007, p.152)
Write your comments here:
Summary B
Coming of age stories, in which even grown-ups develop, feature in numerous films made since the mid-50s. Those made in the early 2000s by some younger generation. Italian directors deal with this theme in commedia all’italiana style and are even more important because they make Italians, who persistently marry late and have few children, realize just how physically mature and yet emotionally immature they are. (Celli/Cottino-Jones, 2007, p.152)
Write your comments here:
Summary C
Coming of age stories in which even adults come of age feature in numerous films made since Risi’s Il sorpasso/The Easy Life (1962). More recent ones made by some young Italian directors deal with commedia all’italiana and are even more important: they make Italians, who have a continuing trend to delay parenthood and so have few children, realise just how physically mature and yet emotionally immature they are. (Celli/Cottino-Jones, 2007, p.152)
Write your comments here:
Task 4. Read the following texts and match them with the summary sentences provided. There are more summary sentences given than you need. Use each summary sentence only once. Only one summary sentence matches each text. When you are finished, answer the question following the task.
Text A
George and Liz walked into the building. They deposited their coats in the attended cloakroom and set down at the table reserved for them. George caught the waiter’s eye and asked for the menu. After some deliberation they were ready to order.
Text B
Steve was busy reading Sam’s essay and trying to find her thesis. Sam just finished underlining two sentences in Kate’s introduction and wrote This you should delete because it does not make sense here on the margin. Kate circled five ands in Steve’s last sentence. She was not impressed at all.
Text C
The change-over of crew went smoothly. Riley started at the top left-hand corner of the overhead panel, as soon as Victoria started reading. He moved down the left hand-side of the panel, and then proceeded to the top of the middle panel and worked his way down. Victoria continued patiently and at a steady pace. He was now checking the glareshield panel from left to right.
Text D
Jane told her husband, John, that she works on Wall Street and handles computer problems for major companies. In fact, she is a world-class assassin with perilous missions. John made his wife believe that he runs a successful construction company, but he happens to be another professional executioner.
Summary sentences:
1) They had dinner in a restaurant.
2) They went out.
3) They were doing the cockpit preparation
4) They were reading some texts for fun as they were approaching London.
5) They were sitting and enjoying one another’s company over some food and a couple of glasses of fine beverages.
6) They lied to one another.
7) They were sitting on a commercial aircraft.
8) They were well-paid assassins.
9) They were doing peer-revision.
Which text (s) and summary sentences did you find difficult to match and why?
Task 5. Replace each of the lists given below with one or two words.
List 1 dusting, mopping floors, cleaning bathroom and kitchen, dusting, vacuuming, changing bed linen, ironing, window cleaning, emptying rubbish bins
________________________________________________________
List 2 xylophone, crash cymbals, marimba, triangle, bongos, conga, bass drum
________________________________________________________
List 3 Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jidaism
________________________________________________________
Task 6. Replace each of the sets given below with one short sentence.
Set 1
Joan had to get cream, butter, full-fat cottage cheese, and ricotta; lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, garlic, aubergines; plums, apples, bananas, fresh dates; chicken and turkey breast, and some rabbit meat.
Set 2
Tom wrapped his fingers around the handle of the racket and spaced them slightly apart. He was thinking whether to use the forehand or the backhand stroke. Angela was trying to exhale under the water as she slowly swam towards the shady end of the pool. As he was dribbling, Jack was trying to spot a teammate who became open. Jogging at a steady pace next to the sandy beach, Tina could almost feel as she was burning one calorie after the other.
Set 3
June arrived with a lot of sun after a rainy May. Nature went crazy. They knew it because they could feel it worse than ever before. Lorenzo could hardly stop sneezing and wasn’t sure which bothered him more, that his nose was itchy or runny? Sophie was doing even worse. Her itchy and red eyes wouldn’t stop watering. And she also lost her sense of smell. So much for cooking.
Task 7. Read the following text and answer the questions. (Task based on Anderson et al., 1977).
Source text
Every Saturday night, four good friends got together. When Jerry, Mike, and Pat arrived, Karen was sitting in her living room writing some notes. She quickly gathered the cards and stood up to greet her friends at the door. They followed her into the living room but as usual they couldn’t agree on exactly what to play. Jerry eventually took a stand and set things up. Finally, they began to play. Karen’s recorder filled the room with soft and pleasant music. Early in the evening, Mike noticed Pat’s hand and the many diamonds. As the night progressed the tempo of play increased. Finally, a lull in the activities occurred. Taking advantage of this, Jerry pondered the arrangement in front of him. Mike interrupted Jerry’s reverie and said, “Let’s hear the score.” They listened carefully and commented on their performance. When the comments were all heard, exhausted but happy, Karen’s friends went home. (Anderson et al., 1977, pp.10-11)
1) Which statement best describes what the four people comment on?
The four people comment on:
2) Which answer do you think a woman with an interest in music would select? Why do you think that?
3) Which answer do you think a man interested in gambling would select? Why do you think that?
4) What would have helped any reader to give the correct answer to Question I above? (Have a look at the ‘Understanding the passage’ section of the Summary revision checklist.)
Task 8. Read the following text and do the tasks.
Source text
Pere-Lachaise Cemetery is the most famous cemetery in the entire world. Certainly there are well-known grave sites across the globe, but they tend to be secular, identified with a particular battle or moment in time or in remembrance of an individual (hello, the Pyramids!), so I don’t think of those places as «cemeteries», I think of them as graves or monuments. Pere-Lachaise, on the other hand, is a cemetery that has been populated by people from all walks of life for over two hundred years. It is the most visited cemetery in the world. But it didn’t start out that way.
Pere-Lachaise was named for King Louis XIV’s confessor, Francois de la Chaise. It was built in 1804 in an effort to end random unhealthful burials throughout Paris. Originally named Cimetiere de l’Est (Eastern Cemetery), the location of Pere-Lachaise was much less convenient than the time honored practice of digging a hole in the yard and placing a coffin in it. No one wanted to travel out of the denser populated areas of Paris for burial rites. But after the remains of famous playwright/actor Moliere, and more intriguingly the remains of the famous lovers Abelard and Heoise arrived at the new cemetery, it became the afterlife destination for residents who wanted to spend eternity with the departed “Who’s Who” of European culture.
Now at roughly 70,000 + residents and 105 acres, this is a city in its own right. It has even had its own battle. On may 28, 1871, the remaining 147 supporters of the short-lived Paris Commune retreated within the twisting lanes of Pere-Lachaise.
Roughly 20,000 of them had been killed during Le Semaine Saglante or «the bloody week». These final Communards were rounded up and shot against the eastern corner of the cemetery. Each of them was buried unmarked where they fell not where their memorial marker is on the rear eastern wall that reads «Mur des Federes». … An ironic twist is that Adolphe Theirs, the man who ordered their deaths, is buried here, too.
Many societies claim you can know their culture through sitting back and taking in the daily comings and goings on their streets. I would argue that you can get a deeper understanding of a culture through their cemeteries. (Eriksson/Bendewald, 2010, p.13)
1) Which of the ideas given below would you include in a global summary of the text and in what order?
2) Which of the ideas would you include in a guided summary if the instruction was Read the passage below and summarise the reasons for the unpopularity and popularity of the Pere-Lachaise cemetery for burials?
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Global summary ideas |
Guided summary ideas |
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. |
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. |
3) Write the global summary of the text in about ninety words. _______________________________________________________
4) Write the guided summary of the text in a maximum of sixty words. You find the instruction in “ii” above.
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