Extra Credit CNN summary for Gretchen Himes’ ESL 251:
This summary is worth 50 extra credit summary points. This calculates to 10% of your summary
grade and 2.5% of your total grade for the class.
Due Date: Monday 6/22
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Go to CNN.com/videos.You can go there directly or follow a link on our 251 Course
Studio or go to my website at and select CNN from the side bar.
http://faculty.deanza.edu/himesgretchen/
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You may also find video or radio from other news sources, but I must be able to
easily find and view or listen to the original source. Any summary based on an
unavailable source will not be graded.
 Al Jazeera America http://america.aljazeera.com/watch.html
 NPR http://www.npr.org/
 NBC Learn http://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn
 BBC News http://www.bbc.com/news
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Find an interesting video that is 2 minutes or longer. If you do not find one on this page,
scroll to the bottom of the page or go to the menu tab on the right and select “Latest
News,” “Must Watch Videos,” or “Digital Studio” to see more videos. You may look under
any other area on the CNN website. Look for an arrow with a circle around it indicating
that the story is a video.
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Find a video with people talking. Some videos are just that, videos with little speaking,
but they are not suitable for summarizing in this class.
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Listen to the story and take notes - focus on understanding the main idea.

If a story is too hard:
o Try another story.
o Try to find written articles or other videos about the same story even if they are in
your own language.
o Ask another person to discuss the story with you. This does not mean having the
other person translate the whole story for you. Instead, tell the person what you
think it means first and then ask for his or her opinions. Discuss the meanings of
words and phrases with the other person.
o Talk with your teacher about the story.

Pick out the main ideas of the story. Decide which information is just details and can be
left out.

Shorten the story to just a few sentences. Most CNN stories can easily be summarized
in three to ten sentences.

Do not change the meaning, bring in information from other stories, or give your opinion.

Organize the information in a logical order (chronological, compare & contrast, order of
importance)
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
Write the summary in paragraph form. Don’t just make a list or an outline.

Start the summary with the title of the report, the reporter’s name and the link to
the story. Sometimes a reporter’s name is not given. In that case, give credit to the
station that originated the story. (In “Cat Saves Life, Thwarts Dog Attack”, CNN repeats
a KHOU story about Cherry Woods, who was mauled by pit bulls….)
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Use phrases such as first, second, ‘then,’ ‘next,’ ‘after that,’ ‘therefore,’ and ‘due to’ to tie
the ideas together. Avoid just sticking sentences together without such transitional
devices.

Retell the story in your own words. Do not copy words or phrases if you can avoid doing
so. You will need to use some specialized words from the stories that cannot easily be
restated another way. (‘Cat,’ ‘bake sale,’ ‘rappel,’ and ‘sticky notes’ are examples of
words that you cannot easily change.) But most words and phrases you must say your
own way using your own words, no matter how much better you think the original words
are. (Woods’ husband said that the dogs “hit her high in the left thigh and took her
down.” Yes this shows vividly what happened, but you don’t need so much detail. You
need to change it to something like, “the dogs bit her in the leg and knocked her down.”)

Remember, you must include a valid and specific link to the story and the original title. I
will only grade summaries for videos that I can find and watch.

Here some examples of an acceptable news stories from varying sources:
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“Discovering Deep Sea ‘Aliens’” http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/05/13/newexplorers-deep-sea-edd-brooks-cape-eleuthera-institute-isopods-sharks-origcfb.cnn
“A Case of Foul Play at FIFA” http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/insidestory/2015/6/a-case-of-foul-play-at-fifa.html
“Anxious About China, Asian Nations Buy More U.S. Military Hardware”
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/06/09/413121259/anxious-aboutchina-asian-nations-buy-more-u-s-military-hardware
“Human Rights Watch calls on Bangladesh to end 'epidemic' of child marriage”
http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/live-news/2015/6/human-rights-watchcalls-on-bangladesh-to-end-epidemic-of-child-marriage.html
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