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SUM2015 Summarising Skills |
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Writing from notes
From notes to summary writing
By the time you are ready to write, you should have a firm grasp on the text you are summarising and you have checked that your notes accurately reflect your understanding of the key ideas.
When writing from notes, consider the following:
- Language: Write complete sentences, inserting missing verbs, articles, and other essential grammatical items.
- Structure: Follow the basic principles of good paragraph construction. Create a clear thesis statement that clearly communicates what the text is trying to achieve, support it with key ideas, and include an appropriate conclusion.
- Coherence: Ensure that your ideas have a logical flow by using appropriate linking devices and sign-posting language (e.g. in addition, therefore, this).
Do not overuse these expressions in a summary, as your writing will appear too stilted and mechanical. In addition, they will add to the length of the summary unnecessarily. - Style:
- Use an academic writing style that reflects the nature of the orignal text (that is, if it is descriptive, expository, or argumentative). For example, if it is an argumentative text, you might use appropriate sign-posting devices to introduce contrasting views (e.g. On the other hand; By contrast; ... claims/argues that).
- Use attributive tags to refer to or acknowlege the source of the ideas. Click HERE to access the academic phrasebank compiled by the University of Manchester. Here you will find useful expressions for comparing and contrasting ideas, describing and clarifying, and many more.
Again, as for cohesive devices, unless they clarify meaning, do not overuse unnecessarily.
Example:
| Notes | Summary |
| heart-vital organ-supplies oxygen to difft parts of body | The heart is a vital organ which supplies oxygen to different parts of the body. (Expository text) |
1) autistic traits - same everywhere 2) early detection difficult
causes Asperger: developmental, nherent in child Kanner: poor upbringing-puts responsibility on parents-->guilt feelings
| In his book, An Anthropologist on Mars, Sacks (2012) points out that while autistic traits are the same across cultures, early detection is not easy. This is because it is not always clear what causes autism. According to Asperger, autism is a developmental condition. Kanner, on the other hand, attributes it to the way the child is raised, which, Sacks suggests, could make parents feel responsible and guilty.
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The underlined words are attributive tags which allow the summary writer to acknowledge the source of the ideas and also to reflect the argumentative nature of the original text.
