Writing a Summary
By: D. McManaman
The literacy test will require you to write a short
summary. But if you have learned how to write a basic 5
and 8 sentence paragraph, then this will be a piece of
cake.
Consider the following point:
You may be required to summarize an article in less
than 100 words. How would we do that? Easy.
A good 5 sentence paragraph is about 60-70 words.
A good 8 sentence paragraph is around 100 words. So, you
simply write a paragraph on what you read. Let’s begin
with the 5 sentence paragraph.
To do that, keep in mind the basic structure:
opening sentence
supporting detail
supporting detail
supporting detail
closing sentence
1. For an opening sentence, tell us what the article is about.
2. Your job after that is to pick out three supporting details
from the article. Make sure that they are three important
points.
3. Then write your concluding sentence.
Let’s say you are required to write a summary of 100-130
words.
Easy. Simply plan for a complete 8 sentence paragraph.
All you do is add a sentence that elaborates on each
supporting detail. Let’s call it a “back up” sentence.
back up sentence (elaborates on the supporting detail)
back up sentence (elaborates on the supporting detail)
back up sentence (elaborates on the supporting detail)
Let’s say you are required to write a summary of about 300
words.
All you do is plan for a three paragraph summary. Begin with
your visual structure:
Next Slide
Here is your plan!
First, you must decide what
each paragraph is going to
focus on.
Let’s read the following
article on Pot and Porn
Pot and Porn: Not a Good Idea
I've always told pot smokers that they are in for a very difficult future. They are setting
themselves up for a life of suffering. This is true also for the student who clicks onto Internet
pornography. A priest friend of mine recently told me that 90% of the confessions he
receives have to do with Internet pornography. Pornography is highly addictive.
First, marijuana. It is true that marijuana is not physically addictive. It is addictive
nevertheless. The addiction is of a psychological kind. Now the physical effects of this drug
are well documented. I would like to focus instead on the effects that this drug has on one's
character and personality development.
The first thing to consider is the addiction process. One takes a drug in order to induce a
high. But what goes up, must come down, and so it is only a matter of time before one
comes down from the drug induced high. This drop is referred to as being "stoned". Note the
diagram below:
Now the horizontal line represents the state of normalcy, that is, the state of feeling normal.
The high is not one's normal way of feeling. When a person continues to use the drug, what
happens eventually is that he soon comes down from the high, but drops lower than the line
of normalcy. In other words, he becomes very stoned. What that means is that he has to use
more of the drug to induce the same high he had previously. But in coming down from that
high, he drops even further below the line of normalcy. At this point we have a problem. For
in order to get the same high as he previously had, the drug user must smoke literally twice
as much. Moreover, in order to feel normal, he must smoke as much marijuana as he used to
smoke at first when trying to get high. The addict must drink or smoke pot simply in order to
feel normal, that is, in order to cope with life's problems and difficulties.
This is the case with pornography as well. Serial killer Ted Bundy speaks very poignantly of
the addiction process as it occurred in his life with respect to pornography. He started off
reading the soft-core pornography, the kind we find in drugstores. He said that he began to
crave it more and more, until he eventually moved on pornography of a harder nature (hardcore), that is, violent pornography. Eventually he began to wonder whether actually
physically raping someone would give him the same high that he was no longer able to get
by just reading about it. When he was old enough to drink, it was alcohol that destroyed his
inhibitions and opened the door to the violent and tragic life that ensued. He ended up raping
and killing 36 women, one of whom was a twelve-year-old girl.
The psychological effects of marijuana are well documented, and all of them without
exception have been validated by former students of mine who were (and possibly are still)
heavily addicted to pot.
Erodes logical thinking.
Hallucination
Loss of Ambition
Personality Arrest
Marijuana erodes one's ability to think logically and deductively. The pot smoker becomes
irrational, that is, a "pot-head". He has a very difficult time drawing logically valid
conclusions. He no longer reasons with ease. Now it is 'rationality' that distinguishes us from
brute animals. What this means is that the chronic drug user becomes more and more
beastly.
The drug user also begins to hallucinate. He may begin to hear voices, such as people calling
his name. The students I know who used pot have all admitted to hallucinating. Now, when
you begin to hallucinate, you are on your way to mental illness. It is the mentally ill that
hallucinate. You are at the first stages of mental illness. The drug user is altering the
biochemistry of his brain. This is not a good sign.
Loss of ambition is a very serious effect of marijuana use. The drug user does not readily see
this effect in his life, but he eventually becomes disenchanted with life. That is, he becomes
bored with life. It is ambition that gives us the energy to act and move forward in order to
achieve something in life. It is through genuine achievement that we feel naturally high on
life. Without ambition, we're stuck, like a car without fuel. We're not going anywhere. The
drug user does not want to achieve anything. What he wants is the feeling that he was
achieved something without the actual achievement. He wants the feeling that his problems
are all behind him and that his life is all together (integrity) without actually solving his
problems and without actually being all together. The drug user does not accomplish
anything of real significance. Instead of living for and promoting the common good, he
becomes a parasite and will choose to benefit from the common good without actually
contributing to it.
The most grievous effect of drug use (and addiction in general) is Personality Arrest.
Personality development stops. One continues to grow physically, but one does not grow and
develop psychologically. The drug user remains the age at which he first began to use the
drug. If he started smoking pot at 15, he will remain 15 years old psychologically, even
when he celebrates his 25th or 30th birthday. Now the pot smoker does not see this, but
everyone around him does (provided they too are not addicts). Consider the diagram below:
The green line represents those who continue to develop psychologically and personally. The
black line represents the pot smoker. At the grade 9 level, the gap between the two is not as
noticeable. But as time passes, the maturity gap between the pot smoker and the non-user
gets wider and more noticeable. By the time the drug user is in OAC, any teacher with just a
semblance of intuition can pick him out in a minute. They look like they are in OAC, but
they are still back in grade 9 or grade 8. They are just not with the rest of the class
psychologically. They laugh at jokes that are not funny, they suffer from an identity crisis,
that is, they do not know who they are, and so they take on a role in order to provide
themselves with some sort of identity.
Now, life will only get increasingly more difficult. A 15 year old boy cannot deal with the
problems of a 25 or 30 year old man. He cannot even deal with the problems of an 18 year
old. But the drug user is psychologically 15 years old, and so when he is an adult, he finds
life very difficult to handle. He cannot hold down his marriage, he cannot hold down a job
(he becomes disenchanted with his work).
We really only grow when we tackle life's problems and difficulties head on. But this is just
what the drug user will not do. He will induce a high in order to achieve the feeling that his
problems are behind him. But in fact, they are not. They are still in front of him, and he has
not overcome them. And so he never develops. It is similar to someone in Phys Ed class who
refuses to jog with the rest of the class, and instead ducks out behind some bushes and sits
there for half an hour while the rest of the class presses onwards. The rest of the class
eventually gets in shape, while the slacker never develops physically and aerobically.
The addiction process
The effects of smoking
pot
personality arrest
We’ve just read an article on
marijuana, addiction, and the
effects of smoking pot.
Decide what point each
paragraph in your summary
will address.
1
What’s the article about?
What’s a “high”?
What is meant by “stoned”?
The addiction process
Why the drug user gradually needs more.
leave open
2
opening sentence
Destroys logical thinking and hallucination
Loss of ambition
The effects of smoking pot
Personality Arrest
leave open
3
opening sentence on how we are going to
focus on personality arrest in more detail
how personality arrest is more noticeable
as time goes on.
personality arrest
why life will become more difficult
analogy with phys ed.
Concluding Sentence