Learn to SummarizeExample Summaries
Let’s look at two examples of summarized material. In each
of the summaries, you’ll notice that we’ve documented
by including the author/year at the end of the passage. Other documentation
styles may employ a different technique. Additionally, you’ll
probably want to vary how you incorporate source material into your
paper. The handout “Signal
the Use of a Source” can
give you some ideas on integrating source material.
Original Passage I:
Height connotes status in many parts of the world. Executive offices
are usually on the top floors; the underlings work below. Even being
tall can help a person succeed. Studies have shown that employers
are more willing to hire men over 6 feet tall than shorter men with
the same credentials. Studies of real-world executives and graduates
have shown that taller men make more money. In one study, every extra
inch of height brought in an extra $1,300 a year. But being too big
can be a disadvantage. A tall, brawny football player complained that
people found him intimidating off the field and assumed he "had
the brains of a Twinkie." (p. 301)
---Locker, K. O. (2003). Business and administrative communication (6th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.
Let’s first identify the main points in the original passage.
Topic sentence: “Height connotes status in many parts of the
world.”
Main point: “Even being tall can help a person succeed.”
Main point: “Executive offices are usually on the top”
Main point: “being too big can be a disadvantage”
For this example, we’ll look at multiple summaries. As you
read the sample summaries below determine if the main points were
included and if the unimportant points were discarded. Also check
to see if both wording and sentence structure do not follow those
of the original.
Summary A:
Throughout the world, being tall will lead to professional success.
In fact, research shows that employers are more likely to hire taller
men and to pay them more, as compared to shorter men with the same
qualifications (Locker, 2003).
[This summary is too brief. Further, it changes the meaning slightly,
giving the impression that being tall guarantees success.]
Summary B:
In most countries, height suggests status. For instance, higher executives
normally use top floors of office buildings. Further, research shows
that men over six feet tall are more likely to be hired than those
shorter than them but with the same qualifications. Taller men also
receive greater incomes, possibly as much as $1,300 a year more than
those only one inch shorter than them. However, as a tall and muscular
football player points out, a disadvantage to being tall is that some
individuals may perceive you as threatening or even dumb (Locker,
2003).
[This summary is too long. Instead of focusing on the main points,
it includes all of the details that are in the original passage.]
Summary C:
Though height may connote slowness to some people, in the business
world, it is almost universally associated with success. For example,
taller men are more likely to be hired and to have greater salaries.
Further, those in top positions within a company are more likely to
work on the top floors of office buildings (Locker, 2003).
[This summary is the most effective. In addition to including all
of the main points, it leaves out the unimportant details.]
Original Passage II:
. . . [Cleanthes, addressing himself to Demea] . . .Look round the
world: Contemplate the whole and every part of it: You will find it
to be nothing but one great machine, subdivided into an infinite number
of lesser machines, which again admit of subdivisions, to a degree
beyond what human senses and faculties can trace and explain. All
these various machines, and even their most minute parts, are adjusted
to each other with accuracy, which ravishes into admiration all men,
who have ever contemplated them. The curious adapting of means to
ends, throughout all nature, resembles exactly, though it much exceeds,
the productions of human contrivance; of human design, thought, wisdom,
and intelligence. Since therefore the effects resemble each other,
we are led to infer, by all the rules of analogy, that the causes
also resemble; and that the author of nature is somewhat similar to
the mind of man; though possessed of murch larger faculties, proportioned
to the grandeur of the work, which he has executed. By this argument
a posteriori, and by this argument alone, do we prove at once the
existence of a deity, and his similarity to human mind and intelligence.
(p53)
--Hume, D. (1990). Dialogues concerning natural religion. London:
Penguin Books.
This passage is a little more difficult than the previous passage.
The topic sentence in this passage is not the first sentence, where
you may often find the topic sentence of the paragraph or passage;
however, you’ll follow the same procedures for writing a summary
of this passage.
“Topic Sentence” (main point of paragraph): existence
of a deity proved by analogy
Main point: the analogy shows that by a cause-effect relationship
a deity is similar to human mind and intelligence
Summary
Through analogy, Cleanthes argues that a deity comparable to human
intellect exists (Hume, 1990).
You have quite a bit of flexibility with summary. In this example,
we’ve just summarized the main point of the passage; however,
you could also summarize the analogy that Cleanthes makes. What you
summarize depends largely on why you are summarizing the material.
The decision of “what to summarize” is a decision that
you have to make since you are familiar with your writing situation.
You can find some guidelines in the handout titled “
Decide
when to Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize.”
Next, you can test your understanding of summarizing by
completing
the exercises.
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