Writing Academic English 4th Edition

138 Partn I WritinganEssay

PRACTICE 5

Writing

Summaries

SummaryA

Peoplewho speakSwahiliwhowanttocommunicateusinga "compyuta,"

whichistheSwahiliwordforcomputer,areunabletodosointheirownlanguage.

It makesnodifference thatcomputershavehugeharddrivesandsophisticated

software.TheycannotoperateinSwahiliorotherAfricanlanguages,ofwhich

therearehundreds.Soon,however,theymaybeableto.LinguistsinAfricaare

workingwithinformationtechnologyspecialiststomakecomputersoperableto

AfricanswhodonotknowanyofthelanguagescurrentlyusedontheInternet.

Economicsis bringingaboutthischange.Microsoftseesa marketforitssoftware

amongSwahilispeakersinEastAfrica.Googlenowhasa searchenginefor

speakersofSwahiliinKenya.Othersoftwarecompanieswillprobablysoon

developproductsforAfricanconsumers.Inadditiontoeconomics,thereis

anotherreasonformakingthecomputeraccessibletoAfricans.Hundredsof

Africanlanguagesaredyingout,andlinguistsviewthecomputerasa wayto

savethem.AccordingtoUNESCOestimates, 90 percentoftheworld's6,000

languagesarenotontheInternet,andonelanguagebecomesextincteveryday

somewhereintheworld.Thehopeisthatcomputerscanhelpsavethem(Lacey).

Summary 8

ManyAfricanswhodonotspeakanyofthemajorlanguagesontheInternet

havebeenunabletousecomputersintheirnativelanguages.Computerscannot

yetaccommodatelanguagessuchasSwahili.However,thatsituationmaysoon

change.Linguistsandcomputerexpertsareworkingtodevelopcomputersthat

workinSwahiliandotherAfricanlanguages.Economicsis onereasonfordoing

so.ComputercompaniessuchasMicrosoftandGoogleseea potentiallyhuge

marketforitsproductsinAfrica.Anotherimportantreasonistosavelanguages

thatareindangerofbecomingextinct(Lacey).

Thestepsforwritinga summaryaresimilartothoseforwritinga paraphrase.

Step 1 Readtheoriginalpassageseveraltimesuntilyouunderstandit fully.

Lookupanywordsthatyoudon'tunderstand.

Step 2 Decidewhattheimportantideasare.It helpstounderlineimportant

ideas.Italsohelpstotakenotes.Writedownonlya fewwordsfor

eachidea-notcompletesentences.

Step 3 Writeyoursummaryfromyournotes.Don'tlookattheOliginalwhile

youarewriting.

Step 4 Checkyoursummaryagainsttheoriginaltomake sureyouhavenot

changedthemeaning.

Step 5 Addanin-textcitationattheendofthesummary.

Writea one-paragraphsummaryofeachofthefollowingpassages.

Step 1 Readtheoriginalpassageseveraltimesuntilyouunderstandit well.

Youmayfindit helpfultounderlinethemainpoints.

Step 2 Makenotesinthespaceprovided,changingvocabularywords

whereverpossible.

Step 3 Writea summaryofeachpassageinyourownwords.

Step 4 Addanin-textcitationattheendofeachsummary.