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Week 4 – Writing Materials 4 -

Summarizing Route 3 Fall Semester 2024-25
2023-2024 Spring Semester Route 3 RoRoute
2

Students’ Pack
(Prepared by Züleyha Tulay)

When and how to summarize

Task A. Complete the text below by using the words in the table below.

refer key include highlight

relevant background source short

When you summarize, you provide your readers with a condensed version of an author's _______ points. A summary
can be as ______ as a few sentences or much longer, depending on the complexity of the text and the level of detail you
wish to provide to your readers. You will need to summarize a source in your paper when you are going to ______ to
that source and you want your readers to understand the source's argument, and main ideas before you lay out your
own argument about it, analysis of it, or response to it.

Before you summarize a ________, you should decide what your reader needs to know about that source in order to
understand your argument. For example, if you are writing a paper about a journal article, you will need to ________the
most ________ parts of the argument for your reader, but you should not __________ all of the ________information
and examples.
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Figure 1 – What is a Summary?

G u id elin es fo r Su m m arizin g a So u rce

Identify the author and the Represent the original Present the source’s central
source source accurately claim clearly

Don’t summarize each point

in the same order as the
Use your own words through
original source; focus on
paraphrasing the original
giving your reader the most
source
important parts of the
source

Task B. Read the sample summary below and notice the language used.
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Milgram (1974) reports that ordinarily compassionate people will be cruel to each other if they are
commanded to be by an authority figure. In his experiment, a group of participants were asked to
administer electric shocks to people who made errors on a simple test. In spite of signs that those
receiving shock were experiencing great physical pain, 25 of 40 subjects continued to administer electric
shocks. These results held up for each group of people tested, no matter the demographic. The
transcripts of conversations from the experiment reveal that although many of the participants felt
increasingly uncomfortable, they continued to obey the experimenter, often showing great deference
for the experimenter. Milgram suggests that when people feel responsible for carrying out the wishes of
an authority figure, they do not feel responsible for the actual actions they are performing. He
concludes that the increasing division of labor in society encourages people to focus on a small task and
eschew responsibility for anything they do not directly control (pp. 725-737).

This summary of Stanley Milgram's 1974 essay, "The Perils of Obedience," provides a brief overview of
Milgram's 12-page essay, along with a citation. You would write this type of summary if you were
discussing Milgram's experiment in a paper in which you were not supposed to assume your reader's
knowledge of the sources. Depending on your assignment, your summary might be even shorter.
When you include a summary of a paper in your essay, you must cite the source as in the summary
above.
Milgram (1974)…. (pp. 725-737).

Steps in Summarizing a Text1

TASK C. Order the steps below in summarizing a text. Step 1 is given as an example below.

A) Include only the most important supporting points.

B) Highlight the most important points in the reading. – STEP 1

C) Use your own words to discuss the ideas.

D) Introduce the author’s points by using reporting verbs and expressions (e.g., the author points out, according to)

E) Mention the author in your first sentence when you start writing the summary.

F) State the topic of the reading and the main idea at the beginning of your summary.

G) Make a brief outline of the most important points.

H) Don’t include your personal opinions or experiences when you are writing summary articles.

I) Present the ideas in the order in which they were discussed in the reading section.

J) Include enough information so that a classmate who had not read the text could read your summary and
understand the main idea of the text

1
Adapted from Sate Kinsella, San Francisco State University, 6/2001)
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STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

STEP 4

STEP 5

STEP 6

STEP 7

STEP 8

STEP 9

STEP 10

Top tips to remember when

summarizing
The text is shortened
without losing the
Only the main points should be included
essence of the
material

The summary writer's own Reporting verbs are used to

Technical terms do not change discuss the text (i.e. suggests,
words are used
contends, argues)
An In-text citation is provided
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Evalu ati n g Y o u r Su m m ary

Like m o st skills, learn in g to w rite u sefu l su m m aries takes p racti ce. Th at’s w h y yo u sh ou ld evalu ate yo u r
su m m aries. A ft er yo u have w ritt en a su m m ary, take a few m in u tes to see if it m eets th e gu idelines fo r a
co rrect su m m ary:

• Is it accu rate an d co m p lete?

• D o es it in clu de all th e au tho r’s m ain p o in ts?

• A re th ey in th e righ t o rd er?

• D id yo u rem em b er n ot to in clu d e d etails, exam ples, yo u r o p in io ns, an d info rm ati o n th at isn ’t in the
o rigin al selecti on ?

• D id yo u w rite th e su m m ary in yo u r ow n w o rd s?

• D id yo u u se transiti o n s so th at it reads sm o oth ly?

Some Sample Effective Summaries

TASK D. Read the original paragraph and the summary below. What are some aspects that
make this summary an effective one?
A sample paragraph from an article:

Holidays were once typically days of actual common celebration, of parades, ceremonies, feasts, songs, speeches,
and marches. Today, most of this has been replaced by the public holiday’s private competitor, the vacation… The
vacation is a relatively recent innovation, the product of bourgeois prosperity. The idea that wage earners could
take paid vacation is an even more recent development; it only became widespread after World War I. It’s fair to
say that even in the 1930s and 1940s ordinary workers spent much more of their leisure time attending parades,
carnivals, funerals, executions, and other communal events than they do today, and a good deal less time checking
into motels. Today even solemn public holidays- holidays with as much contemporary meaning as Martin Luther
King’s birthday-are widely seen as simply more private leisure time, which is why we routinely fiddle with their
dates to create three-day weekends (Kaus, 1995, p.10).

Effective Summary:

Holidays, once actual common celebrations typified by public gatherings like parades, carnivals, or even funerals
and executions, have gradually been replaced by vacations, the private bourgeois enjoyment of leisure time,
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divorced from any sense of public commemoration (Kaus, 1995, p.10).

Figure 2 – Characteristics of an Effective Summary

TASK E. Read the original text and the summary below. What are some aspects that make
this summary an effective one?
Write a 40–50 word summary of the following text by Alvarez (2018), p. 30.

Researchers often believe they do not need to consider style when writing scientific papers. They consider style a
matter of ‘decorating’ their prose to make it more attractive to the reader. In our survey of 1,000 papers written by
Ph.D. students, we found that this is not the case. It is much more fundamental than that and involves such things as
point of view and sentence structure.

We tested six different approaches to writing papers. We found that the best way to instruct writers is as follows: As
you begin to organize your thoughts and your findings, decide who your reader is. It’s even useful to imagine a
particular person, in some cases a colleague, in others a student. What attitude should you assume? Are you trying to
instruct and explain or to inform and persuade? Specialists in the same field will be familiar with your subject and its
particular jargon and so won’t need a lot of “prompting.” You should ask yourself what essential information or
meaning you want to put across in your paper. We believe that writers should overcome the idea that they must
adopt a certain ‘official’ style when writing technical papers. There is no one corrector ‘official’ voice. It is a fallacy that
serious scientific journals do not accept papers written in the first person.
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Many researchers aspire to an objectivity they believe is obtained by using impersonal constructions or the passive
voice. They want to lay emphasis on the experiment or results and not on the observer. Scientific findings are no more
or less valid because they are expressed by an identifiable author.

Our survey of the literature of early scientific work highlighted that some of the greatest men of science, such as
Einstein, Darwin, and Louis Pasteur, were also gifted writers, unafraid to report their findings in the first person. Even
today their papers exude a degree of warmth and immediacy.

46-word summary

In a survey of 1,000 Ph.D. papers, researchers challenge the notion that style is a mere decoration in scientific
writing. They emphasize the importance of considering the reader, arguing against a rigid 'official' style, and
highlighting how influential scientists like Einstein wrote with a warm style (Alvarez, 2018, p. 30).

TASK F. Read an article on “Ecotourism” and write a summary of it.

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a. Read the definitions and, then, find the keywords in the article.

1. holidays arranged by a travel company for fixed prices that include costs for hotels and transport, and

sometimes meals and entertainment (two words) ___________________

2. a set of plans or actions agreed on by a business or other group _____________

3. not clearly or fully explained _______________________

4. to obey a rule or law, or to do what someone asks you to do (two words) ________________
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5. light winds ____________________

6. causing little or no harm to the environment _____________________

7. something that is produced using no artificial chemicals _____________________

8. the quality of being real, not false _____________________

9. used for describing the way that something appears or seems to be although it is really not like this ____________

10. an interesting or exciting quality that something has, especially because it is from a distant

foreign country ___________________

11. the careful use of energy, water and other resources so that they are not wasted or lost _______________

12. aware of how action and deeds can affect the world we live in (two words) ______________

a. Write a summary of the article (6-8 sentences).

b. Swap your summary with another student and compare two different versions of your summaries.

TASK G. Read an article on “Exposure to Sun” and write a summary of it.

Should I worry about how much sun I get?

1) In pairs, answer these questions.

 What do you like to do on a sunny day?

 How do you protect your skin from the sun?
 How worried are you about the effects of the sun on your skin?

Is slapping on the factor 50 enough to protect us from skin cancer? Are we safe indoors or on a
cloudy day? Here’s what the experts say
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Joel Snape

11 June, 2023

‘I can’t help myself; I’m in love with the summertime,” Divine Comedy lead singer Neil Hannon once sang – and though
that feeling is shared by everyone who is enjoying a bank holiday, it’s probably fair to say that sunny afternoons come
with a bit of concern these days. We’re all aware that we probably should be re-applying SPF 50 more often than we do,
especially after swimming, but does the state of the ozone layer make things worse? Is the sun somehow … hotter now?

“The most fundamental thing to understand is that sun exposure without the use of high-factor sunscreen or protective
clothing is a health hazard,” says Dr Derrick Phillips, consultant dermatologist and spokesperson for the British Skin
Foundation. “Cumulative sun exposure over a lifetime damages skin proteins and cellular DNA, causing mutations and
increasing the risk of developing skin cancers. Also, the skin becomes less effective at repairing damaged DNA over time.
There is currently no way of reversing cumulative DNA damage, and so past sun exposure determines your present risk
of skin cancer.”

We’re exposed to two forms of ultraviolet radiation from the sun: UVA and UVB. UVA can go through clouds and
window glass, so it’s still a concern if you’re in the office or there’s a brief break in the direct sun on a hot day. UVB
peaks during the summer months and is especially dangerous when the sun is high in the sky around midday or in areas
where the ozone layer is thin, like Australia. It can directly damage the DNA of skin cells, causing mutations and leading
to cell death and inflammation.

UVA is present all year round, goes deeper into the skin and damages the proteins that keep it looking youthful. “UVA is
responsible for 80% of the signs of skin ageing,” says Phillips. That includes fine lines, wrinkles and colour changes. Both
can cause cancer, but UVB is worse. Short exposure can cause mutations that lead to the development of melanoma,
while long-term cumulative exposure is associated with other skin cancers that tend to occur later on in life.
Oh, and it’s not just the cancerous effects you need to worry about. Scientists are starting to understand that too much
UV exposure can lead to many other negative effects, including a weaker immune system.

So far, so depressing – and it’s also worth noting that fair skin, red hair and freckles do increase how much you may be
harmed by the sun’s radiation, as does a family history of skin cancer. So what’s the solution? “Sunscreen protects the
skin from the harmful effects of UV radiation,” says Phillips. “It should really be applied to exposed sites all year round,
but particularly during the summer months and on sunny holidays. Studies have shown that most people do not apply
enough sunscreen to get the level of protection on the label. To keep your family safe, we recommend using sunscreen
with at least SPF30 and five-star UVA protection. It should be applied every two hours and more frequently if you are
swimming or doing any activities that will cause you to sweat.” In other words, follow the instructions on the bottle, and
do it before you go out, as it can take 15 minutes to be absorbed into the skin.
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If you’re relying on your clothes to protect you, consider what you’re wearing: tight weaves offer much better protection
than loose weaves do. An average cotton shirt actually provides poor protection – with an ultraviolet protection factor
(UPF) level of about 5 – as compared with sun-protective clothing that can offer more protection, from UPF 30 to 50+.
Long-sleeved, loose-fitting clothes with a high neck are a good idea, as are a broad-brimmed UPF-rated hat and
sunglasses. The Skin Cancer Foundation advises that brighter and darker-coloured clothes offer better protection as they
prevent more rays from getting to you. If you’re caught without your factor 50 in the beer garden, consider having a
fruity drink instead: one small study suggests that alcohol increases the risk of sunburn while vitamins C and E together
seem to offer slight protection from it.
Finally, there really is one good reason to pack a good old-fashioned book in your suitcase, rather than bringing a tablet
to read on holiday: the latter can reflect the sun’s UV rays back into you, giving you a higher dose than normal. Oh, and
you probably shouldn’t be going to tanning salons under any circumstances. But the Divine Comedy never wrote a song
about those anyway.
© Guardian News and Media 2023

First published in The Guardian, 11/06/2023

2. Write a summary of the article (6-8 sentences).

b. Swap your summary with another student and compare two different versions of your summaries.
TASK H. Read an article on “Exposure to Sun” and write a summary of it.

Meat, dairy and rice production will bust 1.5C climate target, shows study
1. Would you change your diet to help the planet? What would you change? Why? Give reasons for
your answer.

Emissions from food system alone will drive the world past target, unless high-methane foods are tackled

Damian Carrington 06 March, 2023 – The Guardian

Emissions from the food system alone will drive the world past 1.5C of global heating, unless high-methane foods are
tackled.
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Climate-heating emissions from food production, dominated by meat, dairy and rice, will by themselves break the key
international target of 1.5C if it is not controlled, a detailed study has shown.

The analysis estimated that if today’s level of food emissions continued, they would result in at least 0.7C of global
heating by the end of the century, on top of the 1C rise already seen. This means emissions from food alone, ignoring
the huge impact of fossil fuels, would push the world past the 1.5C limit.

The study showed that 75 per cent of this food-related heating was driven by foods that are high sources of methane,
i.e. those coming from livestock such as cattle, and rice paddy fields. However, the scientists said the temperature rise
could be cut by 55 per cent by cutting meat consumption in rich countries to medically recommended levels, reducing
emissions from livestock and their manure, and using renewable energy in the food system.

Previous studies have shown the huge impact of food production on the environment, particularly meat and dairy, but
the new study provides estimates of the temperature rises their emissions could cause. These could be a significant
underestimate, however, as the study assumed animal product consumption would remain level in the future but it was
projected to rise by 70 per cent by 2050.

“Methane has this really dominant role in driving the warming associated with the food systems,” said Catherine
Ivanovich, at Columbia University in the US, who led the research. “Sustaining the pattern of food production we have
today is not consistent with keeping the 1.5C temperature threshold. That places a lot of urgency on reducing the
emissions, especially from the high-methane food groups.”
“We have to make the goal of sustaining our global population consistent with a climate-safe future,” she said.

The contribution of global food production to the climate crisis is complex because it involves several important
greenhouse gases, all of which have different abilities to trap heat and stay in the atmosphere for different amounts of
time. Previous studies have converted the impact of methane and other gases into an equivalent amount of carbon
dioxide (CO2) over 100 years, but this underplayed the high potency of methane over shorter timescales.

The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, treated each greenhouse gas separately for 94 key types
of food, enabling their impact on climate over time to be better understood. Feeding this emissions data into a widely
used climate model showed that the continuation of today’s food production would lead to a rise of 0.7C by 2100 if
global population growth was low, and a 0.9C rise if population growth was high.

“As we had already reached more than 1C warming above pre-industrial levels by 2021, this additional warming from
food production alone is enough to surpass the 1.5C global warming target,” the scientists concluded. “Our analysis
clearly demonstrates that current dietary production and consumption patterns are incompatible with sustaining a
growing population while pursuing a secure climate future.”
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Food-related temperature rise could be curbed, the researchers said. If people adopted the healthy diet recommended
by Harvard Medical School, which allows a single serving of red meat a week, the rise could be cut by 0.2C. Such a diet
would mean a big cut in meat eating in rich nations but could mean an increase in some poorer countries.

Cutting methane emissions from cattle using certain types of feed and better management of manure could avoid
another 0.2C, the researchers said, while switching to green energy in the food system would cut 0.15C. Ivanovich said
the emissions-reductions options included in the study were those possible today but that future technological advances
might be able to reduce emissions further.

2. Write a summary of the article (6-8 sentences).

b. Swap your summary with another student and compare two different versions of your summaries.

References

https://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/summarizing-paraphrasing-and-quoting

https://www.hunter.cuny.edu/rwc/handouts/the-writing-process-1/invention/Guidelines-for-Writing-a-
Summary#:~:text=QUALITIES%20OF%20A%20SUMMARY,them%20down%20in%20a%20list.

https://www.onestopenglish.com/ (Texts)