WRiTing A SummARy 163Arguably, reliance on blogging and posting on Twitter and
Facebook can foster some bad habits in writing. But at least
one major study demonstrates that the benefits of using
the new media outweigh the disadvantages. Students write
lengthy, complex pieces that contribute to creating signifi-
cant social networks and collaborations.Steps to Writing a Summary■^1 Describe the key claims of the text. To understand the shape and
direction of the argument, study how paragraphs begin and end,
and pay attention to the author’s point of view and use of transi-
tions. Then combine what you have learned into a few sentences
describing the key claims.■^2 select examples to illustrate the author’s argument. Find one or
two examples to support each key claim. you may need only one
example when you write your summary.■^3 present the gist of the author’s argument. Describe the author’s
central idea in your own language with an eye to where you expect
your argument to go.■^4 Contextualize what you summarize. Cue your readers into
the conversation. Who is the author? Where and when did
the text appear? Why did the author write? Who else is in the
conversation?A Practice Sequence: Writing a Summary■^1 Summarize a text that you have been studying for research or for one
of your other classes. you may want to limit yourself to an excerpt of
just a few paragraphs or a few pages. Follow the four steps we’ve
described, using a summary worksheet for notes, and write a sum-
mary of the text. Then share the excerpt and your summary of it with
two of your peers. Be prepared to justify your choices in composing
the summary. Do your peers agree that your summary captures what
is important in the original?
■^2 With a classmate, choose a brief text of about three pages. each of
you should use the method we describe above to write a summary
of the text. exchange your summaries and worksheets, and dis-
cuss the effectiveness of your summaries. each of you should be
prepared to discuss your choice of key claims and examples and
your wording of the gist. Did you set forth the context effectively?This concession helps
to balance enthusiasm
based on a single study.Thompson’s main point
with example.07_GRE_5344_Ch7_151_210.indd 163 11/19/14 1:59 PM