summary writing one of the hardest task

8/24/2017

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Summary Writing One of the HARDEST task

you’ll be asked to do in

school is to summarize what

you have read or seen.

It’s also one of the most

IMPORTANT skills you can

have to help you survive

school!

To summarize means to first read

something, then be able to:

• Condense the whole thing

• Retain the main points

• and Eliminate supporting details.

Sounds easy, but it’s trickier than you think,

because it’s easy to get distracted by

unnecessary stuff!

The reason writing a summary is HARD is

because you need to condense your whole

reading into four sentences.

To make this easier, we use

the Rhetorical Précis Method

of Summarizing

Credit: http://scriptoriumdaily.com

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Rhetorical Précis

Précis means:

The summary of a text

Rhetorical Précis means:

An analytical summary of a text that takes into account both the content and the style of the text.

A Rhetorical Précis is a brief

representation of what a text

says and does.

Credit: http://blog.farragut.org

A Rhetorical

Précis is like a miniature portrait

of the text. It retains the

absolute essential points combined

with the mood and the tone of the

author of the text.

Credit: s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com

And… There’s a template for

that!

tem

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A Rhetorical Précis is made up of

only four (4) sentence!

But, these are not your typical,

cheap, store-bought sentences!

First Sentence…IDENTIFIES:

• The author (or a phrase describing the author)

• The Title

• The Genre

• The article’s date (in parenthesis)

• A rhetorically accurate verb

• The essay’s thesis

Basic Example:In Dave Barry’s essay "The Ugly Truth about

Beauty" (1998), he satirizes the ways that

women unnecessarily obsess about their

physical appearances.

Barry, Dave. "The Ugly Truth about Beauty." Mirror on America: Short Essays and Images from Popular Culture. 2nd ed. Eds. Joan T. Mims and Elizabeth Nollen. NY: Bedford, 2003.

109-12.

Advanced Example:In the essay "The Ugly Truth about Beauty"

(1998), Dave Barry, nationally known

humorist, argues that "...women generally do

not think of their looks in the same way that

men do" (4) and in the process become

unnecessarily and unrealistically concerned

with their appearances.


109-12.

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Second Sentence…CONVEYS:

• The author’s support for the thesis (how the

author develops the essay).

Basic Example:Barry develops his ideas by juxtaposing

men's perceptions of their looks with

women's, contrasting male and female role

models, and comparing men's interests with

women's.


109-12.

Advanced Example:Barry illuminates this discrepancy by

juxtaposing men's perceptions of their looks

("average-looking") with women's ("not good

enough"), by contrasting male role models

(He-Man, Buzz-Off) with female role models

(Barbie, Cindy Crawford), and by comparing

men's interests (the Super Bowl, lawn care)

with women's (manicures).


109-12.

Third Sentence…ANALYZES:

• The author’s purpose using an “in order to”

statement.

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Basic Example:Using examples from popular culture, he

exaggerates and stereotypes these

differences in order to poke fun at a social

norm and encourage women to rethink their

acceptance of these social expectations.


109-12.

Advanced Example:Using examples from popular culture (the

Oprah show, Brad Pitt), he exaggerates and

stereotypes these differences in order to

prevent women from so eagerly accepting

society's expectation of them; in fact, Barry

claims that men who want women to "look

like Cindy Crawford" are "idiots" (10).


109-12.

Fourth Sentence…DESCRIBES:

• The essay’s target audience and characterizes

the author’s relationship with that audience –

and addresses the essay’s tone.

Basic Example:Barry opens and closes the essay by directly

addressing men ("If you're a man...”) and

offering to give them advice, but his actual

audience is both men and women, whom he

addresses with a warm but mocking tone.


109-12.

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Advanced Example:Barry’s ostensible audience is men because

he opens and closes the essay by directly

addressing men ( "If you're a man...”) and

offering to give them “advice” in a mockingly

conspiratorial tone; however, by using

humor to poke fun at both men and women’s

perceptions of themselves, Barry makes his

essay palatable to both genders and hopes

to convince women to stop obsessively "thinking they need to look like Barbie" (8).


109-12.

Put It All Together (Basic):In Dave Barry’s essay "The Ugly Truth about Beauty" (1998), he satirizes the ways that women unnecessarily obsess about their physical appearances. Barry develops his ideas by juxtaposing men's perceptions of their looks with women's, contrasting male and female role models, and comparing men's interests with women's. Using examples from popular culture, he exaggerates and stereotypes these differences in order to poke fun at a social norm and encourage women to rethink their acceptance of these social expectations. Barry opens and closes the essay by directly addressing men ("If you're a man...”) and offering to give them advice, but his actual audience is both men and women, whom he addresses with a warm but mocking tone.

Word Count: 116 Barry, Dave. "The Ugly Truth about Beauty." Mirror on America: Short Essays and Images from Popular Culture. 2nd ed. Eds. Joan T. Mims and Elizabeth Nollen. NY: Bedford, 2003.

109-12.

Put It All Together (Advanced):

In the essay "The Ugly Truth about Beauty" (1998), Dave Barry, nationally known humorist, argues that "...women generally do not think of their looks in the same way that men do" (4) and in the process become unnecessarily and unrealistically concerned with their appearances. Barry illuminates this discrepancy by juxtaposing men's perceptions of their looks ("average-looking") with women's ("not good enough"), by contrasting male role models (He-Man, Buzz-Off) with female role models (Barbie, Cindy Crawford), and by comparing men's interests (the Super Bowl, lawn care) with women's (manicures). Using examples from popular culture (the Oprah show, Brad Pitt), he exaggerates and stereotypes these differences in order to prevent women from so eagerly accepting society's expectation of them; in fact, Barry claims that men who want women to "look like Cindy Crawford" are "idiots" (10). Barry’s ostensible audience is men because he opens and closes the essay by directly addressing men ("If you're a man...”) and offering to give them “advice” in a mockingly conspiratorial tone; however, by using humor to poke fun at both men and women’s perceptions of themselves, Barry makes his essay palatable to both genders and hopes to convince women to stop obsessively "thinking they need to look like Barbie" (8).

Word count: 205 Barry, Dave. "The Ugly Truth about Beauty." Mirror on America: Short Essays and Images from Popular Culture. 2nd ed. Eds. Joan T. Mims and Elizabeth Nollen. NY: Bedford, 2003.

109-12.

Key Points:A Rhetorical Précis:

• Should make sense and be logical in its

presentation

• Should be written in your own words

• Must follow the order of the ideas of the

original text

• Must have a title

• Must not contain any details not found in

the original text

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Let’s Try and Survive This!

What Happened to Phineas Gage?

Credit: upload.wikimedia.org & cowhampshireblog.com

A First Read of

the Entire Text (please follow along).

Due to an accident while he was working, Phineas Gage made a contribution to the understanding of how the brain works. In 1848, 25-year-old Phineas Gage worked for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad Company laying railroad tracks across Vermont. Before railroad track could be laid, however, the uneven ground needed to be leveled. Gage and coworkers had to drill holes in the stone, put explosive in the holes, cover the explosive with sand, and then use a fuse and tamping iron to trigger an explosion. One day, an accident occurred that changed Gage’s life forever. The explosive went off early, sending the tamping iron, which was 1.25 inches in diameter and 43 inches long, shooting into Gage’s face, through his skull and brain, and out the top of his head. The tamping iron landed about 25 yards away. Gage regained consciousness within a few minutes. Amazingly, he not only survived the blast, but he was able to talk and to walk! His coworkers took him to the doctor, who cleaned and bandaged the wounds, the standard medical treatment at the time.

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Although Gage survived the physical injuries from the blast, he was a changed man. He appeared to be just as intelligent as before the accident, and he did not have any impairment in movement, speech, or memory. But, something was different. Before the accident, he was a responsible, intelligent, and likeable person. After the accident, he was irresponsible, used profanity extensively, and demonstrated no respect for social customs. His friends commented that “Gage was no longer Gage.” He could not hold the responsible jobs that he had before the accident and apparently wandered for the next several years. Phineas Gage ended up in San Francisco in the custody of his family, where he died approximately 12 years after the accident.

Twenty years after the accident, the physician

who treated Gage correlated the behavioral

changes with damage to the frontal region of

the brain. At the time, the brain was thought to

control language and movement, but the

suggestion that the brain functioned to process

emotions and social behavior was new. In

addition, scientists at the time believed the

brain lacked localized functions. Unknowingly,

Phineas Gage contributed to our understanding

of how the brain processes information.

In the 1990s, scientists used their improved

understanding of brain function, computer

modeling techniques, and new data from

Gage’s skull. On the basis of this information,

they found that the accident damaged both

hemispheres of the frontal lobe, which is the

part of the brain that influences social behavior.

Today, physicians see patients with damage to

the frontal lobe that has occurred through

motor vehicle accidents, gun accidents, or

major falls. These individuals, like Phineas

Gage, often have dramatic changes in their

emotional and decision-making abilities.

WHO? _________________

WHAT? _________________

WHERE? _______________

WHEN? ________________

WHY? __________________

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Credit: blog.lib.umn.edu & c2.staticflickr.com

Second Read-

Through(focus on details).

Due to an accident while he was working, Phineas Gage made a contribution to the understanding of how the brain works. In 1848, 25-year-old Phineas Gage worked for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad Company laying railroad tracks across Vermont. Before railroad track could be laid, however, the uneven ground needed to be leveled. Gage and coworkers had to drill holes in the stone, put explosive in the holes, cover the explosive with sand, and then use a fuse and tamping iron to trigger an explosion. One day, an accident occurred that changed Gage’s life forever. The explosive went off early, sending the tamping iron, which was 1.25 inches in diameter and 43 inches long, shooting into Gage’s face, through his skull and brain, and out the top of his head. The tamping iron landed about 25 yards away. Gage regained consciousness within a few minutes. Amazingly, he not only survived the blast, but he was able to talk and to walk! His coworkers took him to the doctor, who cleaned and bandaged the wounds, the standard medical treatment at the time.

Although Gage survived the physical injuries from the blast, he was a changed man. He appeared to be just as intelligent as before the accident, and he did not have any impairment in movement, speech, or memory. But, something was different. Before the accident, he was a responsible, intelligent, and likeable person. After the accident, he was irresponsible, used profanity extensively, and demonstrated no respect for social customs. His friends commented that “Gage was no longer Gage.” He could not hold the responsible jobs that he had before the accident and apparently wandered for the next several years. Phineas Gage ended up in San Francisco in the custody of his family, where he died approximately 12 years after the accident.

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Twenty years after the accident, the physician

who treated Gage correlated the behavioral

changes with damage to the frontal region of

the brain. At the time, the brain was thought to

control language and movement, but the

suggestion that the brain functioned to process

emotions and social behavior was new. In

addition, scientists at the time believed the

brain lacked localized functions. Unknowingly,

Phineas Gage contributed to our understanding

of how the brain processes information.

In the 1990s, scientists used their improved

understanding of brain function, computer

modeling techniques, and new data from

Gage’s skull. On the basis of this information,

they found that the accident damaged both

hemispheres of the frontal lobe, which is the

part of the brain that influences social behavior.

Today, physicians see patients with damage to

the frontal lobe that has occurred through

motor vehicle accidents, gun accidents, or

major falls. These individuals, like Phineas

Gage, often have dramatic changes in their

emotional and decision-making abilities.

Key Points:A Rhetorical Précis:

• Should make sense and be logical in its

presentation

• Should be written in your own words

• Must follow the order of the ideas of the

original text

• Must have a title

• Must not contain any details not found in

the original text

My ExampleThe author of the article, What Happened to Phineas Gage relates how Phineas Gage’s remarkable and macabre accident significantly contributed to our current understanding of how the brain functions and processes information. The author supports his or her assertion that brain damage can create unusual emotional and cognitive changes by recounting how Gage received a severe head injury by a tamping iron from a premature explosion; yet, miracously surviving the accident but at great expense to his personality. The author’s purpose is to relate Gage’s story in order to demonstrate that the brain not only controls motor and behavioral functions but also to demonstrate that a damaged brain can change a person’s personality. The author writes in an informative and serious tone for a general audience. Word Count: 126

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