ENGL101

What is a Summary? Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s)

into your own words, including only the main point(s).

Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source.

Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.

Why Summarize? Provide support for claims or add credibility to your

writing Refer to work that leads up to the work you are now

doing Give examples of several points of view on a subject Call attention to a position that you wish to agree or

disagree with Highlight a particularly striking phrase, sentence, or

passage by quoting the original Distance yourself from the original by quoting it in

order to cue readers that the words are not your own Expand the breadth or depth of your writing

Chapter 2: The Art of Summarizing Peter Elbow’s “believing game”

Your belief on an issue, and play devil’s advocate. When a writer fails

to play the believing game, he or she often falls prey to what we call “the closest cliché syndrome.”

Summaries may come across as bias. Let’s take a look at an example.

Chapter 2: The Art of Summarizing In his article “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko accuses the fast-food industry of an evil conspiracy to make people fat. I disagree because these companies have to make money.

What has this student done that makes this a poor summary?On a very basic level, this student simply wants to add a source to his essay. He wrongly summarizes Zinczenko’s argument, uses loaded language, and does not cover all of the main points within Zinczenko’s essay, namely the lack of options and ambiguous or absent nutritional information.

For example: A perfunctory reading of Dr. King’s “Letter

from Birmingham Jail” can easily be summarized not as the defense of political protest that it actually is, but as a plea for everyone to “just get along.”

When reading, but especially when summarizing and citing within the text, it is imperative to understand exactly what the writer is saying.

That said, a good summary has a focus or spin that allows the summary to fit with your own overall agenda while still being true to the text you are summarizing.

In his article “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko argues that today’s fast food chains fill the nutritional void in children’s lives left by their overtaxed working parents. With many parents working long hours and unable to supervise what their children eat, Zinczenko claims, children today regularly turn to low-cost, calorie-laden foods that the fast-food chains are all to eager to supply. When he himself was a young boy, for instance, and his single mother was away at work, he ate at Taco Bell, McDonald’s, and other chains on a regular basis, and ended up overweight. Zinczenko’s hope is that with the new spate of lawsuits against the food industry, other children with working parents will have healthier choices available to them, and that they will not, like him, become obese.

In my view, however, it is the parents, and not the food chains, who are responsible for their children’s obesity. While it is true that many of today’s parents work long hours, there are still several things that parents can do to guarantee that their children eat healthy foods.

Practice Excerpt to SummarizeStudents frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.

Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47. Print.

Side by Side Comparison

Original AcceptableStudents frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while Taking notes.

Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).

Side by Side Comparison

Original Plagiarized Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.

Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.

Why Quote? Provide support for claims or add credibility to your

writing Refer to work that leads up to the work you are now

doing Give examples of several points of view on a subject Call attention to a position that you wish to agree or

disagree with Highlight a particularly striking phrase, sentence, or

passage by quoting the original Distance yourself from the original by quoting it in

order to cue readers that the words are not your own Expand the breadth or depth of your writing

When to Quote… to emphasize a point you've made. to provide an example. to show an author's intention. to show how historical figures spoke or

thought.

Short Quotations use quotation marks. make sentences smoothly flow from your words to those quoted, as in these examples

that follow MLA format:

As Coach Clark explained, "We lost the game because we were overconfident and failed to take

the other team's defense seriously enough" (32).The coach notes that "most of the guys on State's team have much less experience than

our players, but they certainly have talent and a desire to win" (33).Mark breaks in short quotations of verse with a slash, /, at the end of each line of verse: (a space should precede and follow the slash)

Cullen concludes, "Of all the things that happened there / That's all I remember" (11-12).

Note how the writer sets up the quotations with "explained,” "notes that,” and “concludes”

For song lyrics, consider, “writes,” “sings,” “expresses,” “rhymes,” “delivers,” etc. before the quote.

Long Quotations: Lyrics Quotes that are four lines or longer are not

incorporated in the body of your text. These quotes should be set off from the rest

of the text in a block of lines that is indented an inch on both sides from your default margins. (Tab is fine)

The parenthetical citation follows the same format as for the short quote, and should appear after the closing punctuation of the long quote.

Long Quotations: Lyrics Quote song lyrics as you would poetry, keeping the punctuation,

spelling, and line breaks of the original.

In “Second Chance,” Rickie Lee Jones describes two different classes:

but it's alright, it's OK i was going to move out of here anyway don't look at me,I've got nothing to say

countdown to ecstasythey are very rich, those boys uptown they got so much now they wannalet it trickle down

How to Alter Quotations or Use Parts of Quotations Indicate alterations with [square brackets]. For example, if you need to supply a character's name

where a quotation has a personal pronoun, or a pronoun for a noun.

Here's an example using the MLA system:"Rome had several 'mad emperors.' [Nero] was the maddest of them all" (Smith 32).

The original might have read, "He was the maddest of them all,” but you need to specify Nero since you're not using more lines from your source.

Also note that for quotations within quotations, we go from double to single quotation marks ('mad emperors' above).

Indicate breaks in quoting with ellipsis points "Rome had several mad emperors. [Nero] was the

maddest of them all. . . . Legend has it… he played his harp while the city went up in flames" (Smith 32).

"What, then, was the origin of the Nero's legendary concert?... Historians have provided several interpretations of the genesis of this event" (Smith 33).

Note that the four ellipsis points after the second sentence show that we've skipped to a different part of the same passage, whereas the three ellipsis points show that the sentence beginning "Legend" has been abbreviated.

Notes on Fairness: You should not abbreviate quotations so they

misrepresent their author's original meaning. For example, if you cited the quotation above

as a fact rather than a legend about Nero, you'd be misrepresenting the original author's intention.

Check the context! Double-check the original. A direct quotation must exactly follow the

wording of the original, except where you use ellipsis points or square brackets (see above).

Chapter 3: The Art of Quoting•Quote relevant passages• Don’t quote just to fulfill the requirement• Understand why you are selecting the quote• Understand that it is not always easy

•Frame every quotation• Avoid dangling quotations• Avoid leaving your reader confused

•The following example shows when a writer FAILS to introduce the quotation adequately or explain why he finds it worth quoting.

Don’t be a Hit-and-Run QuoterSusan Bordo writes about women and dieting. “Fiji is just one example. Until television was introduced in 1995, the islands had no reported cases of eating disorders. In 1998, three years after programs from the United States and Britain began broadcasting there, 62 percent of the girls surveyed reported dieting.”

I think Bordo is right. Another point Bordo makes is that…

Properly Framing a QuoteThe feminist philosopher Susan Bordo deplores the hold that the Western obsession with dieting has on women. Her basic argument is that increasing numbers of women across the globe are being led to see themselves as fat and in a need of a diet. Citing the islands of Fiji as a case in point, Bordo notes that “until television was introduced in 1995, the islands had no reported cases of eating disorders. In 1998, three years after programs from the United States and Britain began broadcasting there, 62 percent of the girls surveyed reported dieting” (149-50). Bordo’s point is that the West’s obsession with dieting is spreading even to remote places across the globe. Ultimately, Bordo complains, the culture of dieting will find you, regardless of where you live.

Bordo’s observations ring true to me because a friend of mine from a remote part of China speaks of the cult of dieting among young women there…

Templates for Quotations

Introducing (pg. 43) Explaining (pg. 44) X states, “. . .” According to X, “. . .” In X’s view, “. . .” X himself writes, “…” X agrees when she

writes, “…” X complicates

matters further when she writes, “…”

Basically, X is saying…

In other words, X believes

X is insisting that… X’s point is that… In making this

comment, X argues… The essence of X’s

argument is that…

In-class work: Frame a Quote and SummarizeWith the handout, select and correctly frame one quotation. Make sure you have an introductory phrase setting up the quote. Carefully consider and ask yourself, “Why I am quoting this?” Make sure you understand Sipher’s argument. For example,

According to Roger Sipher, a solution to the perceived crisis of American education is to "Abolish compulsory-attendance laws and allow only those who are

committed to getting an education to attend" (1).

“… a solution to the perceived crisis of American education” sets up what will follow, namely the direct quoted material.

Lastly, summarize the entire article. If you are successful, this should not exceed one paragraph. Again, make sure you understand his argument.