Summary Analysis - WEEK 5 - Day 2 - 09/26
Below are two summaries of the TED Talk by Marina Meijer. Read through both summaries carefully before answering
the questions that follow.
Summary #1
In a TED talk, “Why Study Abroad?” Marina Meijer describes the value of studying abroad. She says she is the person
that she is today because of her experiences living abroad. Meijer was born in the Netherlands but has also lived
in the U.S., Korea, Tunisia, and the Netherlands. She studied at the University of Texas and met cowboys and
street musicians. In Korea, she lived with a Korean family. She fell in love with a Yemeni man and married him,
then they moved to the Netherlands and raised their three children. Studying abroad, she says, “means also
loving abroad.” She says that studying abroad is about experiencing new things and meeting new people. She
encourages everyone to study abroad today.
Summary #2
In her TED talk titled “Why Study Abroad?” Marina Meijer argues that everyone should study abroad today and that the
real benefit of studying abroad is learning more about others and yourself through new experiences. She
encourages people who study abroad to make new friends who are different from them and who will expose
them to new ways of thinking. Through study abroad, Meijer notes, people can follow their hearts, follow
adventures, and develop new life skills. Meijer explains that it is now relatively easy to study abroad, and that it
is important for students to use the opportunity to meet new friends and develop new ways of understanding
themselves and the world.
Questions
1. What are some differences between Summary #1 and Summary #2?
2. Imagine that a professor asked you to write a summary of the TED talk. The professors says that the summary
should be written for an academic audience and should give an overview of the most important ideas from the
talk. Which summary do you think the instructor would prefer? Explain your answer.
3. Look back at Summary #2. Underline all of the verbs and list them here:
4. What is the most common verb ​tense​ used in Summary #2? Why do you think this tense is used?
5. Look back at your verb list in #3. Now look only for the verbs in which “Marina Meijer” (or “she” or “Meijer”) is
the subject (e.g., “Marina Meijer ​argues​). These are called r​ eporting verbs​, and they are very common in
academic summaries.​. ​List the reporting verbs from Summary #2 here:
6. What differences do you notice in the use of reporting verbs in Summary #1 and Summary #2? Which verbs,
overall, sound more academic? Why?
7. Look at the first sentence of Summary #2. Why do you think the student included details about the author and
title of the TED talk in this first sentence?
8. Describe, as best you can, how Summary #2 is organized. Why do you think it does not follow exactly the order
of ideas in the original TED talk?
9. Drawing on your analysis of the summaries here, complete the following sentence: “A good academic
summary…”