英语专业写作王星主编 section 2 summary-writing

1、section two,summary writing,objectives,after studying the unit, the students should be able to: understand the structure of a summary write a summary,summary writing,i. definition a summary is a brief restatement of essential thought of a longer composition. p107,brief: a summary cant cover everythi

2、ng and must be shorter than original writing; usually it includes the thesis and the main supporting points. restatement: it reproduces faithfully the theme of the original in our own words; one should not interpret or comment; all one has to do is to give the gist of the authors exact and essential

3、 meaning. essential: it gives the main information about a piece of writing or speech; usually it includes the thesis and the main supporting points.,ii. characteristics of a summary 1. length a summary should usually be about one-fourth to one-third as long as the original passage. you may use fewe

4、r words than the number prescribed, but in no case may you exceed the limit. 2. point of view use the third person point of view 3. tone : objective and impersonal dont express our own ideas, but faithfully represents the ideas of the original writing. 4. cover all the main information your reader n

5、eed no reference to the original to understand what its main ideas are. 5. follow the logical order of the original passage, if possible (and desirable). ideas and facts need not be rearranged.,6. use complete sentences 7. use our own words use different words with the original one. dont copy the la

6、nguage. 8. use quotation if you cite some important words of the original article 9. use present tense to report the general ideas and use past tense to refer to past experiences. 10. summary writing is an exercise in compression. in writing a summary, we should: - omit the details. - reduce the exa

7、mples. - simplify the descriptions. - eliminate all repetitions.,(continuing) - compress wordy sentences and change phrases to words. e.g. his courage in battle might without exaggeration be called lion-like. he was very brave in battle. e.g. they acted in a manner that rendered them liable to prose

8、cution. they acted illegally. - use general words instead of specific words e.g. she brought home several chinese and english novels, and some textbooks. she intended to read all of them during the winter vacation. she brought home a lot of books to read during the vacation.,- use the shortest possi

9、ble transitions. e.g. but, then, thus, yet, and for - put the main points of a dialogue in indirect speech. john said, “i am very tired.” the teacher asked me, “have you finished your exercises?” he cried out, “oh, what a big house it is!” she said to him, do not talk nonsense!“ he asked tylor, why

10、dont you go home?“ attentions: the changes of pronouns the changes of time: yesterday, tomorrow, last year, next year the changes of venues,iii. how to write a summary 1. read and understand the source 2. underline the thesis statement and the main supporting points we should decide what parts are e

11、ssential and what parts are comparatively unimportant and can be omitted without much loss. 3. write the summary begin the summary by mentioning the author, the articles title and the authors thesis; state the supporting points one by one; revise. dos and donts for summary writing p108,iv. some usef

12、ul expressions and structures - refer to p109 v. analyze sample 3 (p111),vi. exercise 1 on p117. this article talks about the reasons why students cheat in exams. students cheat in exams by many ways even though they will have to face severe punishment if they are caught. the author thinks there are

13、 three main reasons. the most important reason is the fear of failure. those students are greatly worried that if they fail not only their relationship with their parents and friends will be affected but also their “educational future.” the second reason is that some students are not confident and dont think they can pass the exam. the last reason is that some students just want to challenge the school rules to “show off to their friends”. t