SUMMARISING SKILLS
Slide 1
Objectives
• to improve summarising and outlining techniques,
essential first steps in the research and writing of policy
briefs
Slide 2
Summarising Skills
• What is the definition of “summary”?
• Brainstorm: What are some reasons why you
might need to summarise? What are some
situations where summarising is a useful skill to
have? What do you find challenging about
summarising?
Slide 3
Practise summarising…
(Sentence #1 on your handouts) Summarise in 2 sentences or less.
More than 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from the land-use,
land-use change and forestry sector, with 18-20% estimated to result from
deforestation and forest degradation, and between 10-12 % from
agriculture (Smith et. al 2007). About 70% of emissions from agriculture
could be mitigated through activities in developing countries but so far only
the forestry sector has featured in UNFCCC mitigation strategies and
mechanisms. Agriculture is inextricably connected to deforestation and
forest degradation in many countries, especially in Africa. Reducing
emissions from agriculture and storing carbon in agricultural lands can
increase the effectiveness of global efforts against climate change globally.
From http://www.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/publications/PDFS/BR09047.PDF
Slide 4
The three pillars of summarising:
1. Selecting main ideas, regrouping
and recombining them
2. Generalizing and categorising
ideas from your understanding of
the reading
3. Deleting unnecessary details that
are not important to the overall
meaning of the reading – always
the most difficult!
Slide 5
How to summarise
1.Skim article.
2.Read it in-depth,
(taking notes)
3.Plan
4.Write
Slide 6
Step 1: Skimming
When skimming, look for:
1.The title and subtitles
2.The abstract, if there is one
3.Captions to illustrations/diagrammes
4.Structural hints: layout, graphs, charts
5.Keywords: words in bold, italics,
highlighted, or just used frequently
6.Sequential markers: first, next, then, in
addition, in the section which follows,
after this, finally, lastly, moreover, in
conclusion, thus, accordingly…
Slide 7
Step 2: In-depth reading and taking notes
Slide 8
Step 3: Planning
• Different kinds of writing plans:
–
–
–
–
–
Outline/Bullet points
Mind map
Network/hierarchical diagram
Compare/contrast table
Flow chart
– NB. These planning strategies can be used to direct all kinds of writing.
Slide 9
How to plan your summary: outline/bullet points
HIV/AIDS IN AFRICA
Introduction
-Overview of topic
Science
-HIV virus
-Pathogenesis of AIDS
History
-Early reports of AIDS
-Evolution of HIV from SIV
Current Situation
-Prevalence
-by country
-high-risk groups
Treatment and Prevention Strategies
-Barrier methods- condoms- education
-Anti-retroviral
-Vaccine?
Conclusion
Slide 10
Try making your own
outline of one of the
following topics:
•Tourism in your
country
•The World Cup
•Or a subject of your
choice!
How to plan your summary: mind map
Try making your own mind map of one of the following topics:
•Climate change
•Popular Music
•Or a subject of your choice!
Slide 11
How to plan your summary: tree diagram
Try making your own tree diagram of one of the following topics:
•The organisation that you work in
•Animals
•Or a subject of your choice!
Slide 12
How to plan your summary: compare/contrast table
Beyonce
Shakira
Year born
1981
1977
Country of
origin
USA
Colombia
First
language
English
Spanish
Height
173cm
157cm
Eye colour
Brown
Brown
Slide 13
Try making your own
compare/contrast
table of one of the
following topics:
•Fossil fuel versus
nuclear energy
•You versus your
brother/sister
•Or a subject of your
choice!
How to plan your summary: flow charts
Try making your own flow
chart of one of the
following topics:
•The legislative process
•How to make a cup of tea
•Or a subject of your
choice!
Slide 14
Exercise
• Read paragraphs 2 and 3 on handout 1.
• Choose one to make a plan of using any of
the techniques we have tried:
–
–
–
–
–
Outline/Bullet points
Mind map
Network/hierarchical diagram
Compare/contrast table
Flow chart
Slide 15
Step 4: Writing
•
•
Now you can start
writing based on
your plan
Remember to
follow the five steps
of writing:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Slide 16
Planning
Drafting
Revising
Editing
Proofreading
What to do if the reading is very
long:
• Divide the reading into a number
of sections when you are first
skimming it and identify the main
ideas in each section. You will
then need to collect together all
the main ideas from each section
as a whole to make sure that you
represent the reading accurately
as a whole.
Slide 17
© Kris Anderson
Some tips to help you summarise
Some tips to help you summarise
What to do if the ideas are difficult to
understand
• The reading may contain ideas that you are
not yet familiar with. If so, you can consult a
more general reading (such as a textbook for
that subject or a specialized dictionary), or
talk to an expert.
Slide 18
Some tips to help you summarise
What to do if the reading is
poorly organised and/or written
•Problems may arise because
the source is unclear to begin
with. Talk with an expert or a
colleague – don’t just give up
on an important source!
Slide 19
Some tips to help you summarise
• This can happen when you work
through the reading sentence by
sentence. Refer to the steps
mentioned earlier and try to
abbreviate the reading.
• If your writing too closely
resembles the original
document, it may be plagiarism,
which has legal ramifications.
Slide 20
© Kris Anderson
What to do if your summary looks very close to the original
Review: how to summarise
• First, skim the article.
• Second, read it in-depth, taking notes on its key points.
• Third, plan your summary via:
• Spider diagram, tree/hierarchical diagram, flow chart,
bullet points, or outline
• Cross-check: does your plan match up with your expectations on
skimming the article? If not, re-read to make sure you’re not
missing something out?
• Write the summary based on your plan, making sure that it
adheres to your plan. Follow the “Five Steps of Effective
Writing”, and use all of the hints above to maintain brevity, clarity,
and structure.
Slide 21
•
•
•
•
This presentation was originally written by Kris Anderson
The presentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
Unported License.
You are free to modify and use this presentation for non-commercial purposes providing you retain the
attribution of all images and credit INASP.
For further information please contact inasp@inasp.info
Slide 22