English for 1C: Summary

Hellos 1C!

So sorry for this very late update, i've been very busy these few days.

This week, we have been looking at how to write summaries. Just to repeat myself AGAIN, summary is incredibly IMPORTANT because at O levels, it takes up 25 out of 50 marks of your comprehension score! Alot of people don't do well for compre because of summary. That's why you all must must must must learn how to write summaries well since sec 1. It's for your own good!

So how do we write summaries?! What are summaries?!

Summaries are something new to all of you since you have never done it in primary school. Basically, what a summary does is, to provide a summary of the story! Summary meaning a shortened paragraph that states all the important points of the passage while not including the details and examples.

The following steps to take note:

1) Read the question carefully! Summary questions will tell you where to find the information you need. For example "Use information from paragraph 2 to paragraph 4". That will mean that you only use the information in para 2, 3 and 4. No other information out of these paragraphs! Those points will not count! Another thing is also what the summary should be about. The question will state things like "summarize the crucial events that led to today's coca-cola". That means that you only put in the important events, nothing else.

2) Highlight the points in the passage. Very very important step for summary! Make sure you highlight the points in the passage that are important to the summary. Keep in mind, only highlight the main points, DO NOT include details and examples!! When highlighting, number the points so that you know how many points you have for your summary. The number of points are normally at least 10 or 15 points. Please remember to count! Each point will give you 1 out of 15 marks for the content of the summary portion!

3) Use your own words. Although for now, i did not require you to put the summary in your own words, in future, you will have to change the important words and replace them with your own. This will guarantee you a better language mark, which is upon 10!

4) Write it in paragraph form. Summaries are always presented in 1 paragraph. Not point form, not more than 1 paragraph. The sentences must make sense and flow from one to another, not just random sentences copied from the passage. So please make sure you read through after you finish writing to check that the language flows well!

5) Last but not least, count the number of words you used! The word limit is very important for summaries! So make sure you count the number of words after you finish writing and if you have too many words, cancel unimportant points. Then, write the number of words you used!

Just to make my point clearer, this is how I would write the summary for the coca-cola article we did.

At the beginning, Coca-cola was just a caramel coloured syrup. It was invented in 1886 in America. It was named after the coca leaves and kola nuts used in its production. It was sold in the pharmacies as a brain tonic and a cure for headaches. Later, a man mixed the syrup with carbonated water instead of cold tap water, producing its carbonated form. It became sold at drugstore soda fountains. Coca-cola was then widely advertised. A candy store in Mississippi started bottling the drinks and they eventually became sold in cans which were originally used in the military. (99 words)

And that's all for writing summaries! I hope i have helped to make things a little bit clearer! I understand that it is not easy but you will learn with enough practice, so please take your work seriously! Learning how to write summaries is one of your tasks for the holiday okay? Remember it will be included in the common test in term 2 week 2! If you are still not sure of how to do a good summary, come and ask me! I'll be more than glad to help you out. =)

I will post the vocab for the last two newspaper articles by next week. Remember to do your corrections then! Thank you for your cooperation!