Chapter 5: Understanding,
Outlining and Summarizing Longer
Readings
From this chapter, you’ll learn how
• longer readings differ from paragraphs.
• to make outlines of longer readings.
• how to write brief but complete summaries of
multi-paragraph readings.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
Paragraphs and Longer Readings: The Similarities
Single and multi-paragraph readings both
1. usually focus on one stated main idea.
2. move back and forth between general and specific levels of
language and thought.
3. make use of introductions that pave the way for the main idea.
4. sometimes restate the main idea at the end.
5. employ transitional devices that help readers follow the author’s
train of thought.
6. occasionally imply rather than state the overall main idea.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
What are the Differences?
1. Thesis statements govern longer readings in much the
same way topic sentences unify paragraphs, but thesis
statements can extend beyond a single sentence.
2. Because a writer can tackle more complex material with
more space, major details in longer readings are entire
paragraphs rather than single sentences.
3. Sometimes even minor details get a whole paragraph to
themselves.
4. Longer readings usually have titles, and the titles
frequently introduce the topic under discussion.
Sometimes the titles even announce the main idea.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
The Key Difference: The Importance of
Developing Double Vision
• With multi-paragraph readings, you have to keep
an eye on how the overall main idea is developed
paragraph by paragraph. However, you also have
to understand each individual paragraph in its
own right.
• Put another way, you have to figure out how the
overall main idea controls the individual
paragraphs and how the individual paragraphs
develop the main idea of the entire reading.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
What the Reader’s Double Vision Looks Like in a Diagram
Thesis Statement
Good instructors have three key
characteristics.
The have a good grasp
of their subject matter.
They aren’t afraid of
questions or
disagreements.
They have a sense of
humor.
With longer selections, readers need to (1) consider how the supporting paragraphs
answer questions raised by the thesis statement (2) understand the point of each
paragraph and (3) understand what each point contributes to the main idea expressed in
the thesis statement.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
Outlining as a Method of Taking Notes
When using an outline to take notes, keep in mind:
• For purposes of review, it helps to give your outline a title.
• Your outlines don’t have to be formally correct; mix up the
symbols any way you want, as long as you understand them.
• Indenting is crucial for showing relationships; for instance,
items that line up underneath one another are equal in
importance.
• Abbreviate wherever you can but not so much you don’t
know what you meant after a few weeks have passed.
• Outlines usually work best with very detailed material that
has a clear underlying structure.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
Outlining: Example
This is a passage that seems right for outlining:
• A study conducted between 2002 and 2007 in hospitals in
North Carolina found that patients were frequently the
victims of medical errors. The most common problems cited
were errors in how procedures were performed,
inappropriate drug dosage, and the spread of hospitalacquired infections. The lead author of the study Dr. Christian
Landrigan also emphasized that he did not believe hospitals in
other regions of the country would fare better in such a study.
The results of the study appeared in 2010 in The New England
Journal of Medicine.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
Outline Example
North Carolina Study of Hospitals Finds Errors
1. Study conducted between 2002-2007 shows patients victims
of medical errors.
– poorly performed procedures
– wrong drug dosage
– hospital acquired infections
2. Lead researcher says other hospitals wouldn’t
do better.
--published in 2010 New England Journal of Medicine
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
3 Tips on Using Outlines for Taking Notes
1. Indent to show relationships. Note how even a quick look at
the previous outline gives you the two key points of
information (1) The study found errors in North Carolina
hospitals (2) Hospitals in other regions are unlikely to do
better.
2. Paraphrase, don’t copy. Outlining can help you absorb the
information but only if you translate the author’s words into
your own. Copying doesn’t make your brain do enough
work.
3. Be selective about every word. Pick out only the words you
absolutely need in order to call up the meaning when it
comes time to review.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
Learning to Summarize
A Word to the Wise
Paraphrasing and summarizing go hand in hand. In
fact, writing a summary depends heavily on
paraphrasing but requires more attention to
selection of detail. Both, however, are utterly
essential to any form of serious academic work. To
remember what you read or store it in any form--in
your brain, on your computer or in a page of notes,
you need to be able to paraphrase and summarize.
As writer Joshua Foer, expressed it in Slate, “Lots of
people claim to have a photographic memory, but
nobody does. Nobody.” Paraphrasing and
summarizing-- not any mythical photographic
memory-- are the twin keys to remembering what
you read.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
Pointers on Writing a Summary
1. A summary should generally reduce a text to about onequarter of its original length.
2. Whether you are summarizing for yourself or for someone
else, your goal is to paraphrase the author’s main idea or
point.
3. You need include only those details essential to making the
main idea clear to the reader. If the writer uses three
examples to make the same point, your summary probably
needs only one of the examples.
4. Let the main idea be your guide. If the main idea refers to
four reasons why social networking is a professional tool,
your summary needs to state all four reasons.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
Final Wrap: Understanding, Outlining and Summarizing Longer
Readings
Read the following passage. Then pick the best summary:
Nineteenth-century poet Emily Dickinson has been hailed as an innovative
artistic genius. But a recent study suggests that the source of Emily
Dickinson’s creativity may have been mental illness. Psychiatrist John
McDermott argues that she suffered from several psychological disorders.
For example, her work exhibits signs of bipolar disorder. Her most creative
period spanned the four years between 1862 and 1865, when she wrote
more than half of her 1800 poems. During this time, she also experienced
manic shifts in mood, swinging from fear to euphoria to deep melancholy.
She also might have been afflicted with a seasonal form of depression.
Her productivity declined sharply during colder, darker months,. Her
references to winter are also accompanied by thoughts of death. She
appears, too, to have suffered from agoraphobia, the fear of open, public
spaces. When she was still in her twenties, she exhibited reclusive
tendencies. Eventually, she never left her house at all.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
Choose the Best Summary and Be Prepared to Explain
Why It’s the Best. Here are the First Three Choices:
1. The nineteenth century poet Emily Dickinson was considered
by many to be a genius, but psychiatrist John McDermott
argues that her art was fueled by mental illness. As proof of
his claim, he cites her most creative years, 1862-1865 as the
time when she also suffered from manic depression. He
also mentions her fear of open, public spaces, which
eventually kept her house bound but may also have kept her
writing poems.
2. For the psychiatrist John McDermott, Emily Dickinson’s art
was less a reflection of her genius and more a result of her
disturbed state of mind.
3. Emily Dickinson’s art was the product of a disturbed mind.
Always fearful of open spaces, by the end of her life, she
never left home.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
4. Emily Dickinson has often been called a genius, but psychiatrist
John McDermott suggests the origin of her genius may well have
been a collection of psychiatric disorders. Between 1862 and 1865,
Dickinson was at her most creative. During this period, she wrote
more than half of her 1800 poems. But at the same time, she was
also experiencing severe mood swings. McDermott also notes that
she was most productive during months where there was more sun.
This suggests that she may have suffered from seasonal depression.
Dickinson also suffered from fear of open and public places, and by
the end of life, she never left her house at all.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
A Word to the Wise
Charles Bazerman, a writer, researcher and teacher I particularly admire,
suggests in his book The Informed Writer that readers prepare for
writing a summary by going through a passage and crossing out every piece
of information they think is non-essential. If you are summarizing for an
assignment, I highly recommend this strategy.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
Final Wrap: Understanding, Outlining and
Summarizing Longer Readings
1. True or False. A thesis statement is a single
sentence that sums up the main idea of a
multi-paragraph reading.
2. True or False. Titles of longer readings are
meant to catch the reader’s attention, but
they don’t provide much real information.
3. True or False. In a longer, multi-paragraph
reading, one major detail could take up an
entire paragraph.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
Final Wrap: Understanding, Outlining and
Summarizing Longer Readings
4. Indenting in an outline is important because
________________.
5. Read each sentence in the following paragraph. The
sentences are numbered so you can write down the
numbers on a piece of paper. After each number, put
an S to indicate that the information needs to go in
the summary or an N to indicate it is not necessary.
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
Final Wrap: Understanding, Outlining, and Summarizing Longer
Readings
•
1The
geography of the area around New Orleans, the failure of the levees, and the
elimination of wetlands all contributed to the devastating destruction caused by
Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 2Built in a natural bowl that is in some places five feet
below sea level, New Orleans is actually lower than the three major bodies of
water—the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain, and the Gulf of Mexico—near it.
3Man-made levees had been built to protect the city from these waters if they
overflowed; however, constructing these levees also destroyed natural marshes
that had once acted as a buffer, absorbing much of the energy of hurricanes
roaring in from the Gulf. 4Consequently, when Hurricane Katrina hit the coast near
New Orleans on August 29, 2005, there was nothing to slow the enormous waves
generated by the storm’s 125-mile-per-hour winds. 5A storm surge in Lake
Pontchartrain slammed into one levee and broke it, allowing water to pour into
the city. 6For weeks afterward, floodwater soaked New Orleans, ruining what the
hurricane’s high winds hadn’t already demolished. 7In the end, over 1,300 people
were killed, hundreds of thousands lost their homes, and $75 billion in property
was destroyed. (Source of information: Katherine Mieszkowski, “Why New Orleans Is Sunk,” Salon,
September 3, 2005, )
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012