SUMMARY MAKING.
ESSAY AND ABSTRACT WRITING
Post-graduate students sometimes need to write abstracts, essays and reports, make summaries of the texts they read. It is an important and regular part of their work. Research has shown that students, learners of English, find writing to be the most difficult thing they’ve got to do. To avoid possible errors, the learner is to follow certain rules and patterns. Below are recommendations for all types of formal writing.
SUMMARY WRITING
A summary is a restatement, in shortened form and in your own words, of the main ideas contained in a reading selection. It is best to prepare the summary from an outline. It will help you distinguish between generalizations and their supporting details, and make it easier for you to memorize main points in readings and to state them more easily.
In writing the summary it’s a good idea to begin with a reference to (if there is any) the following: the author and his or her qualifications, the publication and the date, the central idea and its importance, the author’s attitude and purpose in writing the selection. Keep а sense of proportion, write more about main points than about minor ones.
Be sure that the entire summary has а form of its own, with full sentences and with transitions (connections) between each point. Usually you do not need to include examples given in the selection unless they are important to the point being made.
Avoid quoting too much, use your own words as much as possible.
Don’t overload your sentences in order to pack in as much information as possible. Be sure you are clear in presenting opinions. Distinguish between the author’s point of view and that of аnу other person to whom hе or she refers. For the author’s development of ideas, you might use words like begins, continues, goes on to, concludes. If you refer to the author’s actual statements, you might use verbs like says, states, discusses, mentions, argues. The verbs, however, should bе in the same tense, either all present or all past. (The present tense is more usual.)
Do not introduce your ideas or your attitudes or interpretation, into а summary. Your ideas will bе added later only if you are asked to comment on, or to react to, what the author has said.
List of Expressions Used for Summary Writing
1. The article (text) is headlined ...
The title of the text (article) under consideration ...
The headline of the article (text) (I have read) is ...
2. The author of the article (text) is ...
The article (text) is written by ..
3. It is (was) published in ...
It is (was) printed in ...
4. The article is intended for …
5. The main idea of the article (text) is ...
The article (text) is about...
As the title implies the text (article) describes ...
The article (text) is devoted to ...
The article (text) deals with ...
The article (text) touches upon ...
The article (text) presents some results which illustrate ...
6. The purpose (subject) of the article (text) is to give the reader some information on ...; ...is to compare (to determine)...
The aim of the article (text) is to provide the reader with some material (data) on ...
The text (article) is concerned with ...
7. Тhе author starts by telling the reader(s) about, that...
The article (text) opens with ...
The author writes (states, stresses, thinks, points out) that...
The article (text) describes ...
The description is based on ...
According to the article (text)...
Further the author reports (says) that...
Then the author passes on to ...
The article (author) goes on to say that...
The author gives a detailed (thorough) description of...
8. The article (book, text) can be divided into 4 (5–7) parts (chapters).
The first part deals with ...
The second part is about...
The third part touches upon ...
The fourth part of the article includes the fact on ...
9. In conclusion the article (text) reads ...
The text (article) ends with ...
The author comes to the conclusion that...
To finish with the author describes...
10. I find (found) the article (text) interesting (important, dull, of no value, easy, (too) hard to understand ...
The problem(s) touched upon in the text is (are) of great importance (interest).
The discussed problem is of great value.
Now read the texts “Science: The Endless Resource” and “What’s Special About Teaching Adults?”; study their sample summaries.
Science: The Endless Resource
Our future demands investment in our people, institutions and ideas. Science is an essential part of that investment, an endless and sustainable resource with extraordinary dividends. The Government should accept new responsibilities for promoting the flow of new scientific knowledge and the development of scientific talent in the youth. These responsibilities are the proper concern of the Government, for they vitally affect health, jobs and national security.
The bedrock wisdom of this statement has been demonstrated time and again. The return from public investments in fundamental science has been enormous, both through the knowledge generated and through the education of scientific and technical workforce. Discoveries in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and other fundamental sciences have been driven by important advances in engineering, technology, and medicine.
The principal sponsors and beneficiaries of scientific enterprise are people. Their continued support, rooted in the recognition of science as the foundation of a modern knowledge-based technological society, is essential. Scientific strength is a treasure which we must sustain and build on for the future.
To fulfill our responsibility to future generations by ensuring that our children can compete in the global economy, we must invest in the scientific enterprise. That means we must provide physical infrastructure that facilitates world class research, including access to cutting-edge scientific instrumentation and to world-class information and communication systems. We must provide the necessary educational opportunities for each of our citizens. Failure to exercise our responsibility will place our children’s future at risk.
Science is an endless resource: our knowledge of the physical and living world constantly expands. The unfolding secrets of nature provide new knowledge to address crucial challenges, often in unpredictable ways. These include improving human health, creating breakthrough technologies that lead to new industries and high quality jobs, enhancing productivity with information technologies and improved understanding of human interactions, meeting our national security needs, protecting and restoring the global environment, and feeding and providing energy for a growing population.
The challenges of the twenty-first century will place a high premium on sustained excellence in scientific research and education.
Sample Summary
The text under discussion is entitled Science: The Endless Resource. It deals with the role of science in modern life. First, it is stressed the Government should accept new responsibilities for promoting the flow of new scientific knowledge. Attention is drawn to the fact that fundamental science discoveries have seeded important advances in the society, scientific knowledge being an endless resource affecting health, jobs and national security. It is reported that unfolding secrets of nature provides new knowledge to address crucial challenges. The text goes on to say that we must provide physical infrastructure and educational opportunities that facilitate world class research. The author concludes that challenges of the twenty-first century will place a high premium on excellence in scientific research and education. In my opinion, the main idea of the text is to show that science is the foundation of a modern knowledge-based technological society.
What’s Special About Teaching Adults?
Perhaps the greatest difference between adults and younger ages is that the former соmе to lessons with а long history of learning experience. Тhey will usually have gone through at least ten years of schooling and mау then have gone on to study at а higher level. Тhоsе learning experiences – both bad and good – will have helped them to form strong opinions about how teaching and learning should bе carried out. They a1so соmе with their own record of success оr failure. Those who underachieved at school mау subconsciously assume that they аrе going to fail again; those who were school successes mау believe that learning English will be easy.
Adolescents (and to а lesser extent children) have their own histories too. Each failure predisposes them to more failure, each success provokes the hope of more success. But the younger the student the less likely it is that these educational histories аrе fixed.
Adults аге frequently more nervous of learning than younger pupils are. The potential for losing face becomes greater the older you get. Adolescents dislike being made to look foolish in front of their classmates too, but there аrе probably other things which make them vulnerable in this way rather than аn inability to learn (English). Older students, on the other hand, who аrе coming back to the classroom after а long absence, mау have а high degree of anxiety about the process of learning itself.
Оnе of the recurring nightmares for teachers of adolescents is losing control: the lesson that slips away from them, that they can’t control because the students don’t like the subject, each other, the teacher оr the school – оr sometimes just because they feel like it.
They may well have a view of the importance of learning which makes them stick to a course of study in a specially adult way.
Whereas in primary schools much learning takes place through play and knowledge gathering is done through games, songs and puzzles, adults, оn the other hand, do not necessarily need their learning to bе camouf1aged, dressed up in quite the same way. If they cаn see the point of learning – and if we are able to explain the reason why we аге asking them to do things to their satisfaction – we do not have to play games or sing songs to get their cooperation.
It is, of course, possible for adults to suffer from boredom in class, especially when they are studying on а full-time course and/or have studied in the same kind of class for а long time. Such people mау respond well to lessons that are entertaining and which use enjoyable activities to facilitate language learning. We won’t want to treat them like children, but some of them might, nevertheless, respond well to а lighter style of learning which does, indeed, involve quizzes, puzzles and the study of contemporary songs.
Good teachers are able to balance the serious study of English with the more entertaining activities that they think their students sometimes need. By watching their classes and asking their students what they think and feel, they сап select a judicious blend of activity and style.
Summary
The text under consideration is head-lined: “What’s Special About Teaching Adults?”. The author of the text is Jeremy Harmer. It is devoted to the description of differences between teaching adults and students or pupils of younger ages. The author stresses the fact that histories of learning experience form strong opinions about how teaching and learning should be carried out. The younger the student the less likely it is that these educational histories are fixed. The author points out that both groups of learners – adolescents and adults – may have a high degree of anxiety about the process of learning itself, both can be disruptive and exhausting.
Further on the author underlines that adults as a group have much to recommend younger learners. They bring life experience into the classroom which younger learners do not have. Adults do not necessarily need their learning to be camouflaged. They may respond well to lessons that are entertaining and which use enjoyable activities to facilitate language learning. The author concludes that good teachers are able to select a judicious blend of activity and style.
Try to produce the summary of the text “Science” making use of the instructions given above. For reference consult the Academic Vocabulary provided in the Supplement.
Science
Science [from Latin scientia from scire to know] is systemized knowledge derived through experimentation, observation, and study. In its widest sense it is formulated knowledge, a knowledge of structure, laws, and operations. The unity of human knowledge may be artificially divided into religion, philosophy, and science. Sometimes it is considered as a method of reaming about the world by applying the principles of the scientific method, which includes making empirical observations, proposing hypotheses to explain those observations, and testing those hypotheses in valid and reliable ways.
Science and philosophy, as presently understood, have in common the quality of being speculative. The present distinction between science and philosophy lies largely in their respective fields of speculation. What is known as modern science investigates the phenomena of physical nature and by inferential reasoning formulates general laws there from. Its method is called inductive and its data are so-called facts – i.e., sensory observations; whereas deductive philosophy starts from axioms. Yet a scientist, in order to reason from his data at all, must necessarily use both induction and deduction.
Fundamental science is the part of science that describes the most basic objects, forces, relations between them and laws governing them. Fundamental science includes biology, chemistry, earth science and geology, physics, resource sciences, space and astronomy, biotechnology, engineering, computer and information technology.
The humanities are a group of academic subjects united by a commitment to studying aspects of the human condition and a qualitative approach that generally prevents a single paradigm from coming to define any discipline. Art, Communications, Counseling, Education, English, Foreign Languages, Literature, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Speech, Theatre are subjects distinguished from fundamental sciences.
Scientific theories simplify reality to allow us to understand basic forces and laws of the nature and society. We can observe actions and their consequences. Observation and description are not sufficient for understanding and ultimately predicting actions. Theory establishes relationships between cause and effect. We use it to interpret actions and outcomes so we can explain the process by which the actions were undertaken and the outcomes achieved. The purpose of theory in all scientific analyses is to explain the causes of phenomena we observe. To conduct analyses we frequently need to engage in abstraction. This involves making assumptions about the environment that simplify the real world enough to allow us to isolate forces of cause and effect. Any theory is a simplification of actual relationships.
Now try to translate a summary of a scientific paper from
Russian into English.
Данное издание является первой попыткой систематизации и обобщения (generalization) всего опыта белорусской философской, религиозной и культурной мысли XX столетия. Его контекст и критерий отбора фактографического (factual) материала определила проблема Беларуси как эпицентра (epicenter) культурно-цивилизационного взаимодействия Востока и Запада.
В антологии представлены концепции, точки зрения и суждения видных белорусских мыслителей, православных и католических деятелей, писателей, ученых, публицистов и политиков, затрагивающие комплекс (range) проблем и вопросов геокультурологического характера.
Особое внимание в публикации отведено проблеме определения культурно-цивилизационных основ белорусского этноса и народа, рассмотрению ключевых факторов формирования и этапов развития национального самосознания (self-consciousness).
Книга знакомит с белорусским видением и глубиной понимания сущности, форм и последствий влияния и взаимодействия исторических, религиозных и культурных традиций Востока и Запада в белорусском прошлом и настоящем.
Abstract Writing
Ten Steps to Writing an Effective Abstract
http://www.sfedit.net
An abstract is a condensed version of the manuscript, which highlights the major points covered, concisely describes its content and scope, and reviews its material in abbreviated form. It is usually the first section read and sets the tone of the paper for the reviewer. It must be concise and easy to read and must cover the important points of the paper.
Writing an abstract involves summarizing a whole manuscript and providing as much new information as possible. The best way to write an effective abstract is to start with a draft of the complete manuscript and follow these 10 steps:
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Identify the major objectives and conclusions.
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Identify phrases with keywords.
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Identify the major results.
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Assemble the information into a single paragraph.
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State your hypothesis or method used.
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Omit background information, literature review, and detailed description of methods.
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Remove extra words and phrases.
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Convey only the essential information.
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Check to see if it meets the guidelines of the targeted journal.
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Give the abstract to a colleague (preferably one who is not familiar with your work) and ask him/her whether it makes sense.
Writing an effective abstract will encourage people to read it, and increase its impact.
Many publications have a required style for abstracts. The “Guidelines for Authors” provided by the publisher will provide specific instructions. Stay within the publisher’s guidelines, or your manuscript might be rejected.
Study examples of abstracts published in scientific journals.
Optimal Minimum Wage Policy in Competitive Labor Markets
David Lee, Princeton University; Emmanuel Saez, UC Berkeley
Abstract
This paper provides a theoretical analysis of optimal minimum wage policy in a perfectly competitive labor market and obtains two key results. First, we show that a binding minimum wage is nevertheless desirable if the government values redistribution toward low wage workers and if unemployment induced by the minimum wage hits the lowest surplus workers first. Importantly, this result remains true in the presence of optimal nonlinear taxes and transfers. In that context, a binding minimum wage enhances the effectiveness of transfers to low-skilled workers as it prevents low-skilled wages from falling through incidence effects. Second, when labor supply responses are along the extensive margin only, the co-existence of a minimum wage with a positive tax rate on low-skilled work is always Pareto inefficient. Overall, our results imply that the minimum wage and subsidies for low-skilled workers are complementary policies.
Right to education – a challenge for the world?
Jelena Dzankic
Abstract
This paper examines the right to education in the international legal system, claiming that the fulfillment of this human right should be guaranteed both by international and state mechanisms. First, the paper positions the right to education within the major documents of the UN legal framework. As such, it explores the pillars of the legal standards related to education: a) non-discrimination and equality; and b) the freedom of choice of the kind and contents of the process of education. Second, the paper views the importance of the right to education in the contexts of globalization and MDGs, liaising its realization with the projects and activities of international organizations.
Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine
William Ruth Spencer
Abstract
Currently, more than a quarter of the adult population smoke. This article considers the consequences both for associated disease and for perioperative complications. It also discusses the risks and benefits of stopping smoking immediately before surgery.
Cancer risks related to different energy sources
P. Boffetta, E. Cardis, H. Vainio
International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon
Abstract
CANCER RISKS RELATED TO DIFFERENT ENERGY SOURCES.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer has previously evaluated the cancer risks associated with fossil fuel based industrial processes such as coal gasification and coke production, substances and mixtures such as coal tars, coal tar pitch and mineral oils, and a number of substances emitted from fossil fuelled plants such as benzo[a]pyrene and other poly-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. On the basis of these evaluations and other evidence from the literature, the carcinogenic risks to the general population and occupational groups from the fossil fuel cycle, the nuclear fuel cycle and renewable cycles are reviewed. Cancer risks from waste disposal, accidents and misuses, and electricity distribution are also considered. No cycle appears to be totally free from cancer risk, but quantification of the effects of such exposures (in particular of those involving potential exposure to large amounts of carcinogens such as coal, oil and nuclear) requires the application of methods which are subject to considerable margins of error. Uncertainties due to inadequate data and unconfirmed assumptions are discussed. Cancer risks related to the operation of renewable energy sources are negligible, although there may be some risks from the construction of such installations. The elements of knowledge at our disposal do not encourage any attempt towards a quantitative comparative risk assessment. However, even in the absence of an accurate quantification of risk, a qualitative indication of carcinogenic hazards should lead to preventive measures.
Produce an abstract of your own. Make use of the prompts given below.
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