Summarizing
Lesson
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To summarize is to take a long text and to rewrite it differently into a short version using paraphrasing to write the main ideas and important information of the original text in your own words, while reserving their original meanings. Summarizing is a powerful skill that can turn a full page into a couple of sentences and save you plenty of time. A good summary shouldn’t include ideas that don’t exist in the original text, but it has to exclude almost all irrelevant details, unimportant examples, or long explanations, and sometimes ignores quotes unless they are truly valuable. Remember, summarizing a text doesn’t mean interpreting or analyzing the text or giving your opinion about it.
To write a good summary, here are great tips:
1. Read the text several times to understand it clearly and completely. A dictionary helps in explaining difficult words.
2. Highlight relevant information and take notes.
3. Find the main important points of the passage and rephrase them in complete sentences.
4. If the passage is too long, divide it into small paragraphs to help you extract major ideas easily.
5. Change the structure of the text.
6. Use the tense that is used in the original text.
Check Your Understanding
Examples
Original Test
Summarized Text
1. About one million people live in India. Many people live on small farms. They live a quiet and simple life. The family takes care of the farm and the animals. The most important animal on the farm is the cow. The cow helps on the farm in two general ways. It gives milk to the family, and it does a difficult work on the farm.
1. India has one billion people. Many of them live a simple life on farms. The essential animal is the cow because it gives milk and works hard.
2. The farmers do not make a lot of money. They can't buy machines to help them do their work. Also, the weather is a problem in India. In June, July, August, and September, there's a lot of rain. The ground gets very wet. Then the ground gets soft. A machine cannot work on soft ground, but a cow can work. Cows also do not cost a lot of money. They don't need gasoline or repairs like machines
2. It rains heavily in India in June, July, August and September. The ground grows muddy, and farmers can’t buy machines. Cows are cheap and able to work on wet fields.
3. Farmers care about their cows very much. They want their cows to be happy. The farms aren't busy at certain times of the year. At these times, people wash and decorate their cows. Americans like to wash their cars, and Indians like to wash their cows! Two times a year, there are special celebrations for the cows. These celebrations are like Thanksgiving in the United States.
3. Cars are special for Americans and cows are special for Indians. Farmers look after their cows and organize celebrations for them twice a year when there’s no work to be done.
Summarizing Long Texts
Download an example of a summarized short story to learn how you can deal with long texts easily. Read the story slowly before checking its summary. This way, you will have a clear idea of how you are supposed to handle longer texts.
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