Chapter Seven
Note-taking and Summary
General introduction

“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready
man; writing an exact man.” (Bacon, 1561-1626)
Reading and writing are related to each other and
usually considered as reciprocal skills in man’s
language aptitude. As a student reader, especially
an advanced student reader, you may be often
expected to read to discuss someone’s argument
or to use it as expert evidence for a point you are
making in your own argumentative text or to
present an opposite point of view that you wish to
refute. On this occasion, what you need to do is to
take notes or write a summary of the text that you
have just read to meet the required demands.
Note-taking

Taking note is an important tool that reinforces the
book your read. It is also a process of critical
thinking. Stop at every chapter or even a couple of
times every chapter to take down some notes.
Write what happens in the book, what you like and
what you don’t like, how the writer made his point
and what you think inspires you.

You would probably disagree with the writer’s opinion; you may think
arguments in a book may be based on inaccurate, unreliable or
obsolete evidence, and may ignore any evidence against those
arguments; you have maybe read newspaper reports that seem biased
or lack supporting evidence. In this case, you can write down your
opinions in your notebook. This is a good way to improve your reading
skills as well as your writing skills.
Also, every time you come across a word you like, write down the
word, the definition and the sentence it is used in the book. This will
help you learn new words for use in your own writing.
So effective note taking can help you keep motivated and
concentrated while you study, improve your language skills, better your
understanding by making you read actively and critically, internalize
difficult ideas by putting them into your own words, and organize your
ideas in preparation for writing, leading to fuller, better connected
arguments in your essays.

But while taking notes remember not to take notes all the time and
don’t try to take remember everything you read. Of course don’t be
concerned about whether anyone else could make sense of your
handwriting; you’re the only one who needs to read them. You can try
different ways of taking notes. Try lists, colors, bullet points, underlining,
highlighting and mind mapping. Experimenting with various methods
helps you discover the technique that suits you.
How to take notes while reading
1. Read through the chapter you are
on, paying attention to what the
main focus is. Use a pencil to lightly
point out any areas you think might
be important. Make sure you do this
in pencil, as you will want to erase
it later.
2. Draw arrows or underline the
heading of the most important
points made with pencil as you
read through the first time. You will
want to pay particular attention to
dates, events and names of
important people in the area of
study.
3. Skim through the chapter a second time with your notebook and pen
handy. Write down information that you pointed out in pencil earlier. As
you go through the chapter, make sure you erase your pencil marks as
you take your notes in your notebook.
4. Organize your notes after you are finished writing down the information
you got from the book. It is a good idea to group like things together.
For instance if there are dates of events that you need to memorize,
organize them in your notebook by date.
If it is people and what they did, make a list of names followed by the
achievement made.
5. Turn to a blank page in your notebook after you have organized your
notes. Write down as much information as you can recall from the
notes you took. If you remember some of the facts that you took notes
on, you have done a good job taking notes and beginning the process
of studying from them.
Summary
What is a summary?
A summary is a brief restatement---in your own words--of the essential thought of a longer composition. It
captures all the most important parts of the original but
expresses them in a much shorter space. When one
writes a summary, one should not interpret or comment.
All one has to do is to give the gist of the author’s exact
and essential meaning.
How to summarize?
Reading
A. First read the passage through carefully
to get the gist of it. If reading it once is
not sufficient to give you a clear
understanding of it, read it over again.
The more you read it, the more familiar
to you will be its subject, and what is
said about the subject.
B. You should now be in a position to decide what parts of the passage
are essential and what parts are comparatively unimportant and can be
omitted without much loss.
C. Jot down in brief notes the main points – the subject, the title, and the
details which you consider essential or important.

Writing
A. A summary should usually be about one-third to one-fourth as long as
the original passage. So count the number of words in the passage and
divide it by three. You may use fewer words than the number
prescribed, but in no case may you exceed the limit.
B. The summary should be all in your own words. It must not be a
patchwork made up of phrases and sentences quoted from the original
passage.
C. You should follow the logical order of the original passage, if possible
(and desirable). Ideas and facts need not be rearranged.
D. The summary should be self-contained, that is, it must
convey the message of the original fully and clearly, so that
your readers need no reference to the original to
understand what its main ideas are.
E. Summary writing is an exercise in compression. In writing
a summary, you may:
-- Omit the details. Only the important points should be
included in the summary; all the details that explain the
main points can be left out.
-- Reduce the examples. Out of five or six examples given
in the original passage one or two may be chosen for the
summary; the rest are to be omitted.
-- Simplify the descriptions. If in the
passage there are ten sentences
describing a person or an object, it
will be enough to keep one or two
in the summary.
-- Eliminate all repetitions. Sometimes
a statement is repeated for
emphasis. This is not necessary in
a summary. Sometimes an idea is
repeated in different words. Such a
veiled repetition should also be
avoided.
-- Compress long sentences and
change phrases to words.
e.g.
1. His courage in battle might without exaggeration
be called lion-like.
He was very brave in battle.
2. The account the witness gave of the incident
made everyone that heard
it laugh.
The witness’s story was absurd.
3. John fell into the river and, before help could
reach him, he sank.
John was drowned in the river.
4. He was hard up for money and was being
pressed by his creditor.
He was in financial difficulties.
You may also make phrases do the work of
clauses or sentences.
e.g. Beautiful mountains like Mount Tai, Lushan Mountain,
and Yellow Mountain, were visited by only a few people in
the past. Today, better wages, holidays with pay, new
hotels on those mountains, and better train and bus
services, have brought them within reach of many who
never thought of visiting them ten years ago.
Those two sentences may be abridged in this way:
Beautiful mountains like Mount Tai, once visited by only a
few people, are today accessible to many, thanks to better
wages, paid holidays, new hotels and better
communication.
-- Use general words instead of specific words.
e.g. She brought home several Chinese and English novels, a
few copied of Time and Newsweek, and some textbooks.
She intended to read all of them during the winter vacation.
This may be turned into:
She brought home a lot of books and magazines to read
during the vacation.
-- Use the shortest possible transitions. For example, but,
then, thus, yet, and for, can be used in place of longer
transitions like at the same time, on the other hand, etc.
Often the semi-colon can take the place of a transitional
word or phrase.
-- Put the main points of a dialogue in indirect speech. This is advisable
because indirect speech can be made very brief while it is difficult to
abridge dialogues. Here is an example:
Kate looked at Paul disapprovingly: “You use too much salt on your
food, Paul—it’s not at all good for you!” Paul put down his knife and
frowned: “Why on earth not! If you didn’t have salt on your food it would
taste awful…like eating cardboard or sand…just imagine bread without
salt in it, or potatoes or pasta cooked without salt!” Kate was patient.
She didn’t want to quarrel with Paul. She wanted to persuade him. She
said firmly: “But too much salt is bad for you. It causes high blood
pressure and later on, heart-attacks. It also disguises the tastes of food,
the real tastes, which are much more subtle than salt, and which we
have lost the sensitivity to appreciate any more.”
Kate suggested to Paul that he should eat less salt. She thought that
eating too much salt would do harm to Paul’s health and that it could
reduce the real tastes of food. But Paul disagreed. He said that food
without salt would be tasteless.

Revision
Revise your draft. Compare it carefully with the original to
see that you have included all the important points. If it is
too long, further compress it by omitting unnecessary
words and phrases or by remodeling sentences. Correct all
mistakes in spelling, grammar and idiom, and see that it is
properly punctuated. Make the language simple and direct.
Unit 7
The Oval Portrait
Background information to the author
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 –1849) was an
American author, poet, editor, and literary
critic, considered part of the American
Romantic Movement. Best known for his
tales of mystery and the macabre
([mə'kɑːbr(ə)] adj. strange and horrible or
upsetting, usually involving death or
injury) , Poe was one of the earliest
American practitioners of the short story
and is generally considered the inventor of
the detective fiction genre. He is further
credited with contributing to the emerging
genre of science fiction. He was the first
well-known American writer to try to earn a
living through writing alone, resulting in a
financially difficult life and career.
LITERARY STYLE AND THEMES

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


GENRES
Poe's best known fiction works are Gothic, a genre he followed to
appease the public taste. His most recurring themes deal with
questions of death, including its physical signs, the effects of
decomposition, concerns of premature burial, the reanimation of
the dead, and mourning. Many of his works are generally
considered part of the dark romanticism genre.
Beyond horror, Poe also wrote satires, humor tales, and hoaxes
（恶作剧，骗局）.
LITERARY THEORY
Poe‘s writing reflects his literary theories, which he presented in
his criticism and also in essays such as “The Poetic Principle”. He
disliked didacticism ([daɪ’dæktɪsɪzəm]说教） and allegory, though
he believed that meaning in literature should be an undercurrent
just beneath the surface. Works with obvious meanings, he wrote,
cease to be art.
Major Works
While-reading activity
Read the short story to
summarize the main idea.
 It is a short story in which
the narrator ventured into
an abondoned chateur
one night and was
startled and spellbound
by the true life-likeness
of a portrait of a young
lady.

Finish the questions in exercises I & II.

Analysis
The central idea of the story resides in the confusing
relationship between art and life. In "The Oval Portrait", art
and the addiction to it are ultimately depicted as killers,
responsible for the young bride's death. In this context, one
can synonymously equate art with death, whereas the
relationship between art and life is consequently
considered as a rivalry. It takes Poe's theory that poetry as
art is the rhythmical creation of beauty, and that the most
poetical topic in the world is the death of a beautiful woman
(see The Philosophy of Composition). "The Oval Portrait"
suggests that the woman's beauty condemns her to death.
Poe suggests in the tale that art can reveal the artist's guilt
or evil and that the artist feeds on and may even destroy
the life he has modeled into art.
Post-reading activity

Write a brief summary of the short story,
“The Oval Portrait”.
Plot summary of “The Oval Portrait”

The tale begins with an injured narrator
and his valet seeking refuge in an
abandoned mansion in the Apennines,
with no explanation for his wound. He
spends his time admiring the works of
art decorating the strangely-shaped
room and perusing a volume which
"purported to criticize and describe" the
paintings. He eventually discovers a
painting which shocks him with its
extreme realism, which he refers to as
"absolute life-likeliness of expression".
He spends a moment ("for an hour,
perhaps", the reader is told) in silent
awe of it until he cannot bear to look any
more, then consults the book for an
explanation.

The remainder of the story is a
selection from this book discussing
how the painting was created — a
story within a story. The book explains
that the picture was painted by an
eccentric artist depicting his young
wife, but that he grew obsessed with
his painting to the point that he payed
no attention to the woman he was
painting. When he finishes the
painting he is appalled at his own
work, and exclaims, "This is indeed
Life itself!" Then he turns to see his
bride, and discovers that she has died
and her spirit was transferred into the
lifelike painting.
Summary of “The Oval Portrait”
The narrator, who is in a "desperately wounded condition", and his
valet break into an abandoned castle to spend there the night. Though
abandoned, the castle is still lavishly furnished and full of exquisite
paintings that capture the narrator’s attention. He is sitting on his bed
reading a volume describing the paintings with the candelabrum in his
hands and suddenly the light falls into a niche of the room where he
discovers another painting he has not yet laid his eyes upon. He is at
once startled by the "absolute life-likeliness" of this picture. It is a "mere
head and shoulders" and shows a beautiful young girl in an oval frame.
He spends a moment in silent awe of it until he cannot bear to look any
more, then consults the book for an explanation. There the narrator
finds the story of a wild artist who wanted to make a painting of his
young and beautiful wife, but became so obsessed with it that he didn't
realize his wife falling ill in the process. Eventually, when the picture
was finished, he cried out "This is indeed life itself" but, his wife was
dead.