Write a Summary

You need this skill for:

• paragraph P/S/D detail sentences
• the RR summary section
• TOEFL iBT integrated tasks
• Many other places later (e.g. your research paper).

What is good summary sentence?

• It answers the question “What was it about” (not “What do you think”)
• It gives enough detail:
  • It gives the topic (e.g. “plastic bags” / “Harry Potter” / “giant pandas”)
  • It gives the main idea (e.g. “described” / “argued” / “compared”)
  • It gives keywords from the source
    • Don’t just say “described some people”, give an example!
    • Don’t just say “gives two reasons” - list them!
• It starts with a good link
  • First summary sentence: “In summary” / “In this book/talk” / “An article in”
  • Second summary sentence: “In fact” / “In addition” / “For example, an article by”
• It is not copy pasted!

Practice: Recognizing a good summary sentence

Task1

Here are four summaries of a book (“World Wonders”, level 2)

1. In summary, this book described some world wonders.
2. In summary, the author described some places from around the world - including Iguazu Falls in South America and the city Petra in Jordan - and said why he thinks they are “world wonders”.
3. In summary, reading this book made me want to visit Brazil, because I want to see Iguazu Falls, it looks amazing!
4. In summary, this book describes one person’s choice of eleven wonders - some of them are made by people, and others are natural - to help readers discover new places.

• Read the four summaries above: a, b, c, d.
• Three are bad. One is good.
• Discuss: Is the summary bad or good? Why?
  • “I think A is a bad summary, because …”
    • … it isn’t really a summary
    • … it doesn’t give enough detail
    • … it doesn’t start with a link.
    • … it uses copy paste.
  • Use discussion language to agree or disagree
    • (“Me too. Mainly because it’s… How about B”)
    • (“No, I think A is OK, because …”)
    • (“What do you think, Hiroko?”)

Task 2

RR summaries (TOEFL integrated style). These need

• TWO summaries
• of TWO sources
• minimum TWO summary sentences
• Linked with “However” or “In addition” etc.
• RR also names the sources and gives APA. TOEFL doesn’t.

Below are two good summaries, two not so good. Discuss: Can you see why?

1. In this TED talk, the speaker argued that we have to change the world into a safe and comfortable place for people with disabilities by changing schools, work, and transport (Bender, 2011, March). For example, Takahashi (2020, September 13) described two projects in train stations in Kansai - ticket gates that recognise wheelchairs, and a new smartphone app for helping blind people find their train.
2. Writer said photo is iconic (Gabriner, n.d.). However, TED speaker said that photo effect is not only iconic but also trigger of people (Klein, 2020, February).
3. In this talk, the speaker argued that workers telling each other how much money they make will increase fairness, and so companies should promote doing it (Burkus, 2016, January). In fact, an article in the New York Times described a research project that showed this action reduced discrimination problems in work (Herrera, 2018, August 31).
4. An article in Pet Guide said that “facility dogs” are working animals that help people in the legal system and other institutional settings (Barrington, 2017, February 21). However, in a TED talk, Morita (2015, March) argued that there are very few facility dogs working in Japan, and this is for several reasons.

Type 3 - conclusion types (for arguments/debates)

• In conclusion, X should
• To conclude, X needs to
• The conclusion to be drawn is that X needs to be done immediately.
• The principle conclusion is that X have to
• For these reasons, the most likely next step is to X
• All in all, this suggests that X is the most appropriate choice.
• What this means is that, X is the most important.
• As a consequence, the following steps are suggested: 1,2,3
• As such, the evidence suggests that it is likely that X will happen
• This implies that if we do nothing, X will happen.
• All this lends support to the notion that
• For these three reason,
• Because of this,
• Because of these issues,
• This data indicates that,
• In light of the above,