4
CHAPTER
Summary
An Overview of Academic Writing
Chapter 4
Summary
Lesson Plan
Learning objectives
By completing this chapter, you will be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Understand the definition and the characteristic of summaries.
Distinguish differences between a paraphrase and a summary.
Write a summary of an academic text.
Analyze ideas and main points from an academic text.
Practice doing the exercises.
Contents
1. What is a summary?
2. Considerations before writing a summary
3. When to summarize
4. Qualities of a summary
5. Steps of writing a summary
6. Guideline for writing a summary
7. Criteria for a good summary
8. Summarizing a research article
9. Techniques for identifying main ideas for a summary
10. Exercises
References
Bailey, S. (2011) Academic writing for international studies of business. (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Dollahite, N. E., & Haun, J. (2012). Sourcework: Academic writing from sources (2nd ed.).
Heinle.
Hunter College. (n.d.). The writing process: Guidelines for writing a summary.
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/rwc/handouts/the-writingprocess1/invention/Guidelines-for-Writing-a-Summary
Leki, I. (1989). Academic writing: Techniques and tasks. St. Martin’s Press.
McCombes, S. (2020). How to write a summary. https://www.scribbr.com/citingsources/how-to-summarize/
Oshima, A., & Hogue, A. (2007) Introduction to Academic Writing (3rd ed.). Pearson
Education.
Oshima, A., & Hogue, A. (2013). Longman academic writing series 3: Paragraphs to essays
(4th ed.). Pearson Education
Swales, J., & Feak, C. (2012). Academic Writing for Graduate Students (3rd ed.). The
University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.2173936
Chapter
4
Summary
Summary writing is a skill that all researchers and students need to master.
Summarizing, like paraphrasing, is your explanation of another person's ideas. One of your
jobs as a writer is to place your ideas within the context of other writers and thinkers on your
topic. Summarizing is a useful tool for this job. You can summarize an article of many pages
or even an entire book in just a few short sentences or paragraphs. We often use summaries in
both speaking and writing to tell listeners or readers our ideas quickly and clearly.
What is a summary?
Oshima and Hogue (2007, p. 57) states a summary as a short statement that gives the
main information about something without giving all the details. The ability to summarize
information is a useful writing skill. In your college classes, you will need to summarize
information from your textbooks on tests. In some classes, you will also write original papers
in which you summarize information from outside reading. You already know how to
summarize in Speaking. You summarize every day. For example, when you retell a story that
you have read or heard, you are summarizing. When you tell a friend the plot of a movie that
you have seen, you are summarizing.
Swales and Feak (2012, pp. 188-189) explained that summary writing may well be the
one you are most familiar with. We make summaries of many different things, including
meetings, lectures, and readings. Our summaries may be quite elaborate, or they may only
involve one or two key phrases, depending on our purpose for writing them. These summaries
of what others have written or said maybe for our own personal use. Most often we use this
material for future reference. In an academic setting especially, summaries can form an
essential part of our preparation for an exam, a class discussion, a research paper, a thesis, or a
dissertation. In these situations, we are free to concentrate on what we think is important or
interesting about the source.
Summary writing may be part of a more public communication (such as a published
research article) and an integral part of other work that you may do. For example, your advisor
may ask you to summarize some recent literature that could be useful for your research group.
Instructors may ask you to write a literature review or critique articles. You may need to write
a major research paper at key points in your degree program or write a proposal. At the very
least you will need to summarize some published work to support claims in your papers and to
build a foundation for your research. In each of these cases, you use the work of others to add
credibility to your claims and you have an opportunity to "display" your understanding of the
work in your field.
According to Oshima and Hogue (2013, p. 78), A summary is a short statement that
gives the main information without giving all the details. The ability to summarize is a useful
academic writing skill. For example, in your college classes, you will need to summarize
information from your textbooks. In some classes, you will also write original papers in which
you summarize information from outside readings.
The texts and the paraphrases were about the same length. When you summarize, you
condense a longer piece of writing into something much shorter. You include the author's
purpose and the most important ideas, but you leave out most of the supporting details unless
they are necessary for clarifying the author's purpose.
A summary, then, is a short retelling in your own words. In this section, you will learn
how to do it in writing.
Read the model paragraph, "A Hawaiian Wedding" And “Take a Break!”. Then read
the summaries. (Oshima & Hogue, 2007, p. 58)
Original Paragraph
A Hawaiian Wedding
The mix of cultures in Hawaii makes weddings there very special occasions. Certainly,
Hawaiian clothing, music, and other Hawaiian customs play a big role. For example, the bride
often wears a long white holoku (wedding dress), and the groom wears a long-sleeved white
shirt and pants with a red sash around his waist. Both the bride and the groom wear leis. The
bride's lei is traditionally made of white flowers such as pikake (jasmine), and the groom's is
made of green maile leaves. Another Hawaiian custom is the blowing of a conch shell three
times to begin the ceremony. Hawaiian music is played both during the ceremony and during
the luau afterward. Other customs included in the festivities depend on the ethnic backgrounds
of the couple. For instance, there may be noisy firecrackers, a Chinese way of keeping bad
sprits away. There may be a display of Japanese origami, or there may be a pandango, a Filipino
custom. During a pandango, the wedding guests tape money together and wrap it around the
couple during their first dance together as husband and wife, All in all. a Hawaiian wedding is
truly a magical, multicultural event. (194 words)
Summary
Weddings in Hawaii combine customs from many cultures, Hawaiian customs may include the
clothing worn by the couple, the flowers, the music, and the type of party after the ceremony.
Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino customs may also play a part depending on the ethnicity' of the
bride and groom. (49 words)
Original Paragraph
Take a Break!
In today's busy world, it is easy to forget about the importance of taking time off.
Whether it lasts for a couple of hours or a few days, leisure time has specific benefits. First of
all, relaxation reduces stress that can lead to serious health problems. For example, some people
spend a restful day watching movies or reading. Others play sports. Whatever the activity, they
begin to feel physically and emotionally stronger. The next benefit is creativity. Individuals
with hobbies such as photography, travel, and music develop new talents and get ideas that
they can use at school or in the office. Finally, interests outside of work can lead to a positive
attitude. For instance, when volunteers help children learn to read, they feel wonderful about
what they have achieved. Then they feel like working harder when they return to their regular
responsibilities. All in all, leisure time helps people stay healthy and has the additional benefit
of allowing then to work more industriously and productively. (166 words)
Summary
It is a good idea to have free time to do whatever we want. Time off lowers stress and
helps us stay healthy. In addition, we can get new skills and a positive attitude from our hobbies
and special projects. All of this helps us when we return to school or work. (52 words)
(Oshima & Hogue, 2013, p. 52)
Notice that the summary gives the two main points (1) Hawaiian customs and (2)
customs of other ethnic groups- but no details. The summary does not describe the clothing,
tell what kind of lowers, or talk about pandango, origami, or firecrackers.
As you can see, the summary (49 words) is much shorter than the original (194 words).
When you write a summary, write the important ideas in as few words as possible.
Considerations before writing a summary
Swales & Feak (2012, p. 189) added that it is not likely that you will be assigned to
produce a simple summary of a published paper or book unless you are writing an annotated
bibliography. Instead, it is more likely that you will need to write a summary as part of some
other writing task. These summaries can be extremely challenging to write. A good summary
has three principal requirements.
1. It should be focused on the aspects of the source text or texts that are relevant for
your purpose.
2. It should represent the source material in an accurate fashion.
3. It should condense the source material and be presented in your own words.
Summaries that consist of directly copied portions of the original rarely succeed. Such a
summary may suggest that you can find potentially important information but will likely fail
to reveal the extent to which you have understood it. In addition, you may be plagiarizing.
Notice that we have not said anything about the length of a summary, which will often
be determined by your purpose. Sometimes instructors will ask for a one-page summary of an
article (or maybe a two-page summary of a book) as part of a critique assignment. They may
also ask for a paragraph-length abstract or even a mini-summary of one to two sentences (as is
typical of annotated bibliographies). Regardless of the type of text, to do a good job, you must
first thoroughly understand the source material you are working with.
Leki (1989, p. 167) mentioned that writing good summaries requires accurate reading
and the ability to find the main idea and most important supporting evidence in a piece of
writing. Summaries are always quite a bit shorter than the original texts, perhaps 75 percent
shorter. Sometimes, particularly for a book, the summary is much shorter than the original,
perhaps 99 percent shorter. When you write a summary, you give your readers an idea of the
content of an article or book and save them the time and trouble of reading the entire original.
To write a good summary, keep the following points in mind:
1. Read the original carefully.
2. Mention the source and the author at the beginning of the summary.
3. State the author's main idea without distorting those ideas or adding your own.
4. State the author's most important supporting evidence or subpoints without distorting
them. Do not include details.
5. Use your own wording. Occasionally, however, a phrase in the original may be
especially striking, interesting, or controversial. In that case, you may use the author's exact
words if you put quotation marks around them.
6. Don't include your own ideas or comments. The summary should include only the
author's ideas.
7. Periodically remind the reader that you are summarizing someone else's idea.
When to summarize
McCombes ( 2020) explains that there are many situations in which you might have to
summarize an article or other source:



As a stand-alone assignment to show you’ve understood the material.
To keep notes that will help you remember what you’ve read.
To give an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review.
When you’re writing an academic text like an essay, research paper, or dissertation,
you’ll engage with other researchers’ work in a variety of ways. Sometimes you might use a
brief quote to support your point; sometimes you might paraphrase a few sentences or
paragraphs.
But it’s often appropriate to summarize a whole article or chapter if it is especially
relevant to your own research or to provide an overview of a source before you analyze or
critique it.
Original passage
America has changed dramatically during recent years. Not only has the number of
graduates in traditional engineering disciplines such as mechanical, civil, electrical, chemical,
and aeronautical engineering declined, but in most of the premier American universities
engineering curricula now concentrate on and encourage largely the study of engineering
science. As a result, there are declining offerings in engineering subjects dealing with
infrastructure, the environment, and related issues, and greater concentration on high
technology subjects, largely supporting increasingly complex scientific developments. While
the latter is important, it should not be at the expense of more traditional engineering.
Rapidly developing economies such as China and India, as well as other industrial
countries in Europe and Asia, continue to encourage and advance the teaching of engineering.
Both China and India, respectively, graduate six and eight times as many traditional engineers
as does the United States. Other industrial countries at minimum maintain their output, while
America suffers an increasingly serious decline in the number of engineering graduates and a
lack of well-educated engineers. (169 words)
(Source: Excerpted from Frankel, E.G. (2008, May/June) Change in education: The
cost of sacrificing fundamentals. MIT Faculty Newsletter, 5.)
One-paragraph summary
In a 2008 Faculty Newsletter article, “Change in Education: The cost of sacrificing
fundamentals,” MIT Professor Emeritus Ernst G. Frankel expresses his concerns regarding the
current state of American engineering education. He notes that the number of students focusing
on traditional areas of engineering has decreased while the number interested in the hightechnology end of the field has increased. Frankel points out that other industrial nations
produce far more traditionally-trained engineers than we do, and believes we have fallen
seriously behind. (81 words)
One-line summary
MIT Professor Emeritus Ernst G. Frankel (2008) has called for a return to a course of
study that emphasizes the traditional skills of engineering, noting that the number of American
engineering graduates with these skills has fallen sharply when compared to the number
coming from other countries. (47 words)
Qualities of a summary
A good summary should be comprehensive, concise, coherent, and independent.
These qualities are explained below:

A summary must be comprehensive: You should isolate all the important points in
the original passage and note them down in a list. Review all the ideas on your list, and include
in your summary all the ones that are indispensable to the author's development of her/his thesis
or main idea.

A summary must be concise: Eliminate repetitions in your list, even if the author
restates the same points. Your summary should be considerably shorter than the source. You
are hoping to create an overview; therefore, you need not include every repetition of a point or
every supporting detail.

A summary must be coherent: It should make sense as a piece of writing in its own
right; it should not merely be taken directly from your list of notes or sound like a disjointed
collection of points.

A summary must be independent: You are not being asked to imitate the author of
the text you are writing about. On the contrary, you are expected to maintain your own voice
throughout the summary. Don't simply quote the author; instead, use your own words to express
your understanding of what you have read. After all, your summary is based on your
interpretation of the writer's points or ideas. However, you should be careful not to create any
misrepresentation or distortion by introducing comments or criticisms of your own. (Hunter
College, n.d.)
Steps of writing a summary
Swales & Feak (2012, pp. 189-190) mentioned some preliminary steps in writing a
summary.
1. Skim the text, noticing and noting the subheadings. If there are no subheadings, try
to divide the text into sections.
2. If you have been assigned the text, consider why. Determine what type of text you
are dealing with that is, the genre of the source text (e.g., a research paper) or perhaps the
organization (problem-solution or general-specific). This can help you identify important
information and focus your reading strategies.
3. Read the text, highlighting important information or taking notes.
4. In your own words, list the points of each relevant section. Try to write a onesentence summary of each.
5. List the key support points for the main topic, and include minor details if necessary.
6. Make sure your notes reflect the strength of the claims or conclusions.
7. Write your reactions or thoughts about the sections you have identified as important.
(Keep in mind that information from sources should support, but not become or be offered
instead of, your own interpretation and explanation.)
8. Go through the process again. Read the text several times if necessary, making
changes to your notes as appropriate.
After you know the preliminary steps in writing a summary, McCombes (2020) added
that goal of summarizing is to give your reader a clear understanding of the original source.
Follow the 4 steps outline below to write a good summary.
Step 1: Read the text
You should read the article more than once to make sure you’ve thoroughly understood
it. It’s often effective to read in three stages:
1. Scan the article quickly to get a sense of its topic and overall shape.
2. Read the article carefully, highlighting important points and taking notes as you
read.
3. Skim the article again to confirm you’ve understood the key points, and re-read
any particularly important or difficult passages.
There are some easy tricks you can use to identify the key points as you read:



Start by reading the abstract—this already contains the author’s own summary
of their work, and it tells you what to expect from the article.
Pay attention to headings and subheadings—these should give you a good sense
of what each part is about.
Read the introduction and the conclusion together and compare them: what did
the author set out to do, and what was the outcome?
Step 2: Break the text down into sections
To make the text more manageable and understand its sub-points, break it down into
smaller parts.
If the text is a scientific paper that follows a standard empirical structure, it is probably
already organized into clearly marked sections, usually including an introduction, methods,
results, and discussion.
Other types of articles may not be explicitly divided into sections. But most articles and
essays will be structured around a series of sub-points or themes.
Try writing a word or phrase in the margin next to each paragraph that describes the
paragraph’s content. Then you can see at a glance what each part of the article focuses on.
If several paragraphs cover similar or related topics, you may group them together in sections.
Step 3: Identify the key points in each section
Now it’s time to go through each part and pick out its most important points. What does
your reader need to know to understand the overall argument or conclusion of the article?
Keep in mind that a summary does not involve paraphrasing every single paragraph of
the article. Your goal is to extract the essential points, leaving out anything that can be
considered background information or supplementary detail.
In a scientific article, there are some easy questions you can ask to identify the key
points in each part:

Introduction

What research question or problem was
addressed?
Are there any hypotheses formulated?
Methods


What type of research was done?
How was data collected and analyzed?
Results



What were the most important findings?
Were the hypotheses supported?
What is the overall answer to the research
question?
How does the author explain these results?
What are the implications of the results?
Are there any important limitations?
Are there any key recommendations?
Discussion/conclusion




If the article takes a different form, you might have to think more carefully about what
points are most important for the reader to understand its argument.
In this case, pay particular attention to the thesis statement—the central claim that the
author wants us to accept, which usually appears in the introduction—and the topic sentences
that signal the main idea of each paragraph.
Step 4: Write the summary
Now that you know the key points that the article aims to communicate, you need to
put them in your own words.
To avoid plagiarism and show you’ve understood the article, it’s essential to properly
paraphrase the author’s ideas. Do not copy and paste parts of the article, not even just a sentence
or two. The best way to do this is to put the article aside and write out your own understanding
of the author’s key points.
You can choose how you want to arrange the information in your introduction. Below
are two possible formats.
Format 1: One Sentence

In (title of article), (author's name) writes/discusses (article thesis).
In "Mind Over Mass Media,” Pinker (2010) writes that both lab research and actual
experience show that people are incapable of doing several things at once; as an example of
this fact, he mentions the frequent sight of a person driving dangerously while using a cell
phone.
Format 2: Two Sentences

(Name of author) writes about (article topic) in (his/her/their) article, (name of
article).
The second sentence of the summary introduction describes the thesis.
Pinker (2010) writes about the fallacy of multitasking in his article "Mind Over Mass
Media.” He says that both lab research and actual experience show that people are incapable
of doing several things at once; as an example, he mentions the frequent sight of a person
driving dangerously while using a cell phone. (Dollahite & Haun, 2012, pp. 25-26)
Let’s take a look at an example. Below, we summarize this article, which scientifically
investigates the old saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
Original Passage
Davis et al. (2015) set out to empirically test the popular saying “an apple a day keeps
the doctor away.” Apples are often used to represent a healthy lifestyle, and research has shown
their nutritional properties could be beneficial for various aspects of health. The authors’
unique approach is to take the saying literally and ask: do people who eat apples use healthcare
services less frequently? If there is indeed such a relationship, they suggest, promoting apple
consumption could help reduce healthcare costs.
The study used publicly available cross-sectional data from the National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants were categorized as either apple eaters or nonapple eaters based on their self-reported apple consumption in an average 24-hour period. They
were also categorized as either avoiding or not avoiding the use of healthcare services in the
past year. The data was statistically analyzed to test whether there was an association between
apple consumption and several dependent variables: physician visits, hospital stays, use of
mental health services, and use of prescription medication.
Although apple eaters were slightly more likely to have avoided physician visits, this
relationship was not statistically significant after adjusting for various relevant factors. No
association was found between apple consumption and hospital stays or mental health service
use. However, apple eaters were found to be slightly more likely to have avoided using
prescription medication. Based on these results, the authors conclude that an apple a day does
not keep the doctor away, but it may keep the pharmacist away. They suggest that this finding
could have implications for reducing healthcare costs, considering the high annual costs of
prescription medication and the inexpensiveness of apples.
However, the authors also note several limitations of the study: most importantly, that
apple eaters are likely to differ from non-apple eaters in ways that may have confounded the
results (for example, apple eaters may be more likely to be health-conscious). To establish any
causal relationship between apple consumption and avoidance of medication, they recommend
experimental research.
An article summary like the above would be appropriate for a stand-alone summary
assignment. However, oftentimes, you’ll want to give an even more concise summary of an
article.
For example, in a literature review or research paper, you may want to briefly
summarize this study as part of a wider discussion of various sources. In this case, we can boil
our summary down even further to include only the most relevant information.
Summary
Using national survey data, Davis et al. (2015) tested the assertion that “an apple a day
keeps the doctor away” and did not find statistically significant evidence in support of this
hypothesis. While people who consumed apples were slightly less likely to use prescription
medications, the study was unable to demonstrate a causal relationship between these variables.
When summarizing as part of a larger text, it’s essential to properly cite the source of
the summary. The exact format for citing depends on your citation style, but it usually includes
an in-text citation and a full reference at the end of your paper.
Step 5: Check the summary against the article
Finally, read through the article once more to ensure that:



You’ve accurately represented the author’s work
You haven’t missed any essential information
The phrasing is not too similar to any sentences in the original.
If you’re summarizing lots of articles as part of your own work, it’s often a good idea
to use a plagiarism checker to double-check that your text is completely original and properly
cited. Just be sure to use one that’s safe and reliable.
Guidelines for writing a summary
When you write a formal summary of someone else's ideas, you should keep in mind
the following guidelines.
1. Always try to use your own words.
2. Include enough support and detail so that your message is clear.
3. Do not try to paraphrase specialized vocabulary or technical terms.
4. Make sure the summary reads smoothly. Focus on old-to-new information flow; use
transition devices where necessary, and provide supporting detail. You do not want a collection
of sentences that do not flow.
5. If it is impossible to use your own words, then quote the material. Information from
sources should support, but not replace your own ideas, interpretations, and explanations.
(Swales & Feak, 2012, p. 208)
Oshima and Hogue (2013, p. 101) suggest guidelines to writing a summary:
1. Include the topic sentence and the main points. Leave out unimportant details.
2. Use your own words as much as possible. Do not copy sentences from the original.
3. Do not add any ideas that are not in the original. Do not give your opinion.
Criteria for a good summary
Dollahite and Haun (2012, p. 20) discussed four criteria for a good summary.
1. A good summary acknowledges the original author.
• It refers to the writer and/ or the title of the work in a formal way.
• It presents the writer's ideas objectively, without your interpretation or opinion.
2. A good summary contains only the most important information.
• The topic (the general subject of the article)
• The main point that the author makes about that topic (the thesis)
• The key ideas that support or explain the thesis
3. A good summary is much shorter than the original writing.
• A one-sentence summary describes only the author's thesis or the main idea.
• A fuller summary explains both the thesis and the main supporting points.
4. A good summary paraphrases any information taken from the original writing.
• Paraphrasing shows that you understand what the author is saying.
Leki (1989, p. 172) added that a good summary should do the following
• Include a mention of the source.
• Correctly interpret the original.
• Include no editorial comments.
• Include only the most important points, without details.
• Use the summarizer's own words, not those of the original author (unless in
quotation marks).
Techniques for identifying main ideas for a summary
Dollahite and Haun (2012, pp. 23-24) explained that one of the challenges of
summarizing is that we must choose which information to include, keeping in mind the
principles of being complete and objective. You can choose one of the three techniques that
follow to help you identify the main ideas in an article.
Technique 1: Underlining key ideas
1. Read the article completely several times to develop a basic understanding of the
ideas presented.
2. With a highlighting pen, mark each idea in the article that you believe is important.
• Often, although not always, you will find that each paragraph has a key
sentence. It is often the first or last sentence in a paragraph.
• Look for keywords that are repeated throughout the article. These repeated
words and phrases will help you identify the main ideas.
• If you find that you have highlighted most or all of the sentences in a
paragraph, you may be highlighting supporting details rather than main ideas.
• If so, go back and underline only the main ideas in the sentences that you
highlighted.
3. When you finish highlighting, read each sentence again to ensure you understand it.
4. Use either the tell-a-friend or chunking method to paraphrase each sentence you
highlighted.
5. You can use these paraphrased ideas in your summary.
Technique 2: Dividing and describing
1. With a pen in hand, each time you sense that the topic is shifting, draw a vertical line
where you think the shift begins.
• Don't analyze how the topic is changing. Let your intuition do the work.
• Throughout the article, draw a line each time you feel the topic shifts.
2. By drawing these lines you have created sections. In a longer article, you will
discover that paragraphs are grouped together according to common topics.
• Analyze the topic of each section you have created.
• Write a phrase or short sentence that explains the topic of each section.
3. The topics of these groups of paragraphs are usually the author's main supporting
points. Examining how many paragraphs an author uses to discuss a single idea can help you
decide which information is most important and should be included in your summary.
4. Use your list of phrases describing the sections to write your summary.
Technique 3: Summary grid
Sometimes it is helpful to lay out your notes in a visual way. Using a grid is one way
to help organize the information in an article.
1. Use a grid to take notes on each paragraph or section of several paragraphs.
• Writing main ideas and supporting details in separate columns is a good way
to help distinguish between the two.
2. Use your notes to create a summary of your article.
• Remember, a summary focuses on main ideas. Details are usually not included
in summaries. In some cases, a specific example from the article might be
included.
3. Here is an example of a summary grid created by a student after reading an article on
the negative aspects of drinking bottled water.
Paragraphs
1
2-3
4
5
Main Idea
• Bottled water may not be any safer
than tap water
• Bottled water manufacturers don't
have to disclose the source of their
water
• The EPA requires fewer
contamination tests for bottled water
than city water.
• Plastic bottles are a source of water
contamination.
Some Supporting Details
• Yosemite brand comes from a
Los Angeles suburb.
• The FDA only tests once a
year, or if there is a complaint.
• Bacteria develop in bottles.
• Chemicals leach from plastic
material.
Conclusion
A summary is a brief summarization of a larger work that gives readers comprehensive
and concise understanding. The summary should be written in your own words. This means
that copying exact phrases from the original text is not permitted. A summary explains the most
important parts of the original passage.
Exercises
Summary Writing
Practice A
Read the following text and the summaries (a)–(c) of this text. Rate them 1 (best) – 3
and give strong features and weaknesses of each summary.
(Bailey, 2011, pp. 57-58)
MECHANICAL PICKERS
Although harvesting cereal crops such as wheat and barley has long been done by large
machines known as combine harvesters, mechanizing the picking of fruit crops such as
tomatoes or apples has proved more difficult. Farmers have generally relied on human labor to
harvest these, but in wealthy countries it has become increasingly difficult to find pickers
willing to work for the farmers are able to pay. This is partly because the demand for labor is
seasonal, usually in the autumn, and also because the work is hard and demanding. As a result,
in areas such as California part of the fruit harvest is often unpicked and left to rot. There are
several obvious reasons why developing mechanical pickers is challenging. Fruit such as
grapes or strawberries comes in a variety of shapes and does not always ripen at the same time.
Outdoors, the ground conditions can vary from dry to muddy, and winds may move branches
around. Clearly each crop requires its own solution: machines may be towed through orchards
by tractors or move around by themselves using sensors to detect the ripest fruit. This new
generation of fruit harvesters is possible due to advances in computing power and sensing
ability. Such devices will inevitably be expensive, but will save farmers from the complexities
of managing a labor force. In addition, the more intelligent pickers should be able to develop a
database of information on the health of each individual plant, enabling the grower to provide
it with fertilizer and water to maintain its maximum productivity.
Summary A
Fruit crops have usually been picked by hand, as it is difficult to mechanize the process.
But in rich countries it has become hard to find affordable pickers at the right time so fruit is
often wasted. Therefore, intelligent machines have been developed that can overcome the
technical problems involved, and also provide the farmer with useful data about the plants.
Summary B
Developing machines that can pick fruit such as tomatoes or apples is a challenging
task, due to the complexity of locating ripe fruit in an unpredictable outdoor environment,
where difficult conditions can be produced by wind or water. But recent developments in
computing ability mean that growers can now automate this process, which should save them
money and increase their profits.
Summary C
Strawberries and grapes are the kind of crops that have always been hand-picked. But
many farmers, for example in California, now find it increasingly difficult to attract enough
pickers when the fruit is ripe. However, computing advances have produced a solution to this
problem, which will save farmers from worrying about the pickers, and also collect vital data.
Summary A
Strong features
Weak features
____________________
___________________
____________________
___________________
____________________
___________________
Summary B
Strong features
Weak features
____________________
___________________
____________________
___________________
____________________
___________________
Summary C
Strong features
Weak features
____________________
___________________
____________________
___________________
____________________
___________________
Now summarize the text by your own ideas
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Practice B
Read the following text, underline the key points and summarize the text.
(Bailey, 2011, p. 59)
WEALTH AND FERTILITY
For most of the past century an inverse correlation between human fertility and
economic development has been found. This means that as a country got richer, the average
number of children born to each woman got smaller. While in the poorest countries women
often have eight children, the rate fell as low as 1.3 in some European countries such as Italy,
which is below the replacement rate. Such a low rate has two likely negative consequences: the
population will fall in the long term, and a growing number of old people will have to be
supported by a shrinking number of young. But a recent study by researchers from
Pennsylvania University suggests that this pattern may be changing. They related countries’
fertility rates to their human development index (HDI), a figure with a maximum value of 1.0,
which assesses life expectancy, average income and education level. Over 20 countries now
have an HDI of more than 0.9, and in a majority of these the fertility rate has started to increase,
and in some is approaching two children per woman. Although there are exceptions such as
Japan, it appears that ever higher levels of wealth and education eventually translate into a
desire for more children.
Summarize the summary in no more than 20 words.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Practice C
Summaries the following text in about 50 words. (Bailey, 2011, p. 61)
THE LAST WORD IN LAVATORIES?
Toto is a leading Japanese manufacturer of bathroom ceramic ware, with annual
worldwide sales of around $5 bn. One of its best-selling ranges is the Washlet lavatory, priced
at up to $5,000 and used in most Japanese homes. This has features such as a heated seat, and
can play a range of sounds. This type of toilet is successful in its home market since many flats
are small and crowded, and bathrooms provide valued privacy. Now Toto hopes to increase its
sales in Europe and America, where it faces a variety of difficulties. European countries tend
to have their own rules about lavatory design, so that different models have to be made for each
market. Although Toto claims that its Washlet toilet uses less water than the average model,
one factor that may delay its penetration into Europe is its need for an electrical socket for
installation, as these are prohibited in bathrooms by most European building regulations.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Practice D
Summaries the following text in about 50 words.
Black, Mather, and Sanders (2007) attributed the higher percentage of home ownership
in Appalachia to lower housing prices, which in many areas was less than 50% of the national
average and to the large percentage of mobile homes purchased. In 2000, 14% of all homes
owned in Appalachia were mobile homes compared with only 6% in the nation. In the central
Appalachian region, 25% of homeowners were living in mobile homes in 2000. The researchers
stated that the high number of mobile homes in the region could be both positive and negative
in terms of living standards. The positive aspect is that mobile homes allow poor families to
move out of housing conditions that were threatening to their health and safety. However, the
negative aspect is that mobile homes carry a stigma of poverty that reinforces many stereotypes
about rural Appalachian families.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________