Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
NORTHERN SAMAR COLLEGES
Catarman, Northern Samar

Name: Grade:
Date: Teacher: Mark Cesar R. Villanueva

English for Academic and Professional Purposes

Module 4 – Quarter 1

LESSON 4: READING ACADEMIC TEXTS

Effective Note-Taking: Summarizing & Paraphrasing

Reference: Valdez, P. (2016) English for the Globalized Classroom Series: English for
Academic and Professional Purposes. The Phoenix Publishing House Inc.
English for Academic and Professional Purposes Teaching Guide

I. OBJECTIVES
1. Summarizing the content of an academic text
2. Paraphrasing/explaining a text using one’s own words

II. TOPIC
1. Summarizing
2. Paraphrasing

III. CONCEPT NOTES

In the previous module, you have learned how plagiarism happens in one’s
writing. To address plagiarism, effective note-taking techniques should be used.
There are three types of note-taking techniques:
 Direct quotations
 Summarizing
 Paraphrasing

Direct Quotation
This is employed for statements that are so
closely associated that altering the words may
lose its rhetorical impact. For instance, the
statement of Ninoy Aquino, “The Filipino is
worth dying for” is too short to be summarized
and the rhetorical impact is lessened if the
statement is paraphrased.

1. Using direct quotation means to lift and

enclose them in quotation marks. In addition to the author’s name, the
page numbers are included.
 Example:
“Globalization is just a covert term for colonization.” (Reyes, 1994, p. 2).

2. If the text is too long, you may omit certain parts and replace them with an ellipsis
(three dots). If the words omitted are at the end of the statement, another dot is added,
making it four.
Example:
“Smartphones resulted from global innovations in technology…and therefore,
consumers need to be updated on the latest trends if they want to maximize
opportunities….” (De Claro, 2010, p. 7).

3. Interpolation may be done to insert notes within the directly quoted passage to help
readers understand the context of the statement. Interpolation is marked by open and
closed brackets.
Example:
“De Quiros, Zabala, Uy, and Lee believe that the education sector should address the
material conditions of schools to improve teaching and learning.” (Danao, 2011, p. 7).

“[Educators] believe that the education sector should address the material conditions of
schools to improve teaching and learning.” (Danao, 2011, p. 7).

4. Twenty percent of the total length of a work may employ direct quotations. For
instance, if the essay needs to be at least 1,000 words, only a total of 200 words is
allotted for direct quotation.

Summarizing
It is a short statement of the main idea of a text. Ideally, it is a
third of the original text of your paper:

1. Make sure to read the text thoroughly and highlight the

important details in the text. Bear in mind that certain
details have relationships (cause and effect for example)
and these need to be noted as well.
2. After getting the main idea/s, use your own words in your
summary. Make sure to check if the relationships between ideas are established.
3. When done with your summary, recheck your output with the original to see if your
output does not stray from the original text. You may seek your teacher or peer’s
feedback to be sure.

Here are 3 easy techniques for summarizing:

Somebody Wanted SAAC 5W’s, 1H

But So Then (State, Assign,
Action, Complete)
This is an excellent This method useful for This strategy relies on six
summarizing strategy for summarizing any kind of text crucial questions (who, what,
stories. Each word represents (story, article, speech, etc.) when, where, why and how).
a key question related to the These questions make it easy
story’s elements. to identify the main
character, important details
and main idea.
 Somebody: Who is the story
about?
Wanted: What does the main
character want?
But: Identify a problem that
the main character
encountered.
So: How does the main
character solve the problem?
Then: Tell how the story
ends.
Somebody: Little Red Riding
Hood
Wanted: She wanted to take
cookies to her sick
grandmother.
But: She encountered a wolf
pretending to be her
grandmother.
So: She ran away, crying for
help.
Then: A woodsman heard her
and saved her from the wolf.
Little Red Riding Hood wanted
to take cookies to her sick
grandmother, but she
encountered a wolf. He got to
her grandmother’s house first
and pretended to be the old
woman. He was going to eat
Little Red Riding Hood, but she
realized what he was doing and
ran away, crying for help. A
woodsman heard the girl’s cries
and saved her from the wolf.
State: name of the article,
book or story
Assign: name of the author
Action: what the author is
doing (example: tells,
explains, argues, proves)
Complete: complete the
sentence or summary with
keywords and important
details
State: The Boy Who Cried
Wolf
Assign: Aesop (a Greek
storyteller)
Action: tells
Complete: what happens
when a shepherd boy
repeatedly tell lies to the
villagers about seeing a wolf
The Boy Who Cried Wolf, by
Aesop (a Greek storyteller),
tells what happens when a
shepherd boy repeatedly lies to
the villagers about seeing a
wolf. After a while, they ignore
his false cries. Then, when a
wolf really does attack, they
don’t come to help him.
Who is the story about?
What did they do?
When did the action take
place?
Where did the story happen?
Why did the main character
do what s/he did?
How did the main character
do what s/he did?
Who: The tortoise
What: He raced a quick,
boastful hare and won.
When: When is not specified
in the story.
Where: An old country road
Why: The tortoise was tired
of hearing the hare boast
about his speed.
How: The tortoise kept up his
slow but steady pace.
Tortoise got tired of listening to
Hare boast about how fast he
was, so he challenged Hare to a
race. Even though he was
slower than Hare, Tortoise won
by keeping up his slow and
steady pace when Hare stopped
to take a nap.

Paraphrasing
This is a restatement in your own words of the main idea and
supporting details of a text. A paraphrase may match the length of
the original work. Consider the following tips in crafting your
paraphrases:

1. Read the text thoroughly, noting both main ideas and

supporting details. If confronted with a long text, you may
outline these ideas to distinguish the major points from the
minor ones.
2. After identifying these, carefully state the major and minor points in your own words,
making sure that the relationships between and among these ideas are observed.
3. Finally, when the paraphrase is done, compare your work with the original to make sure
that the original intentions of the author are not changed.

The following are also several ways in paraphrasing:

1. Literal paraphrasing—This type only replaces vocabulary terms from the original text.
 2. Structural paraphrasing—This type changes the sentence structure as well as the word
class of key words of the original text.
3. Alternative paraphrasing—In this type, the writer first poses questions about the text
such as what the text is about, how the main idea is supported, and the stand of the
author about the topic. Then, the writer answers these questions using his/her own
words after reading the text; making sure that all ideas are connected.

Mobile and computer technology may also affect children’s sociability.

The use of this technology may take away hours from children’s social and
playing time. Yet from another perspective, it can help cultivate their
communicative and social skills through using different social media platforms
and sharing apps with friends. (Subia and Tatel, 2014).

Consider the following text and the corresponding paraphrase and summary:

Summary Paraphrase

Subia and Tatel (2014) view technology
as something that may affect the social
lives of children in a negative and
positive way.
Subia and Tatel (2014) points out that
through technology may have a
negative impact in children's ability to
socialize since it minimizes chances of
real life interaction with others, they
believe that through interactive features
of technology such as sharing apps and
varying platforms for exchange,
technology can enhance social skills
among its oung users.

Prepared by:

MARK CESAR R. VILLANUEVA

Subject Teacher

Reviewed by:

SOCORRO V. DELA ROSA, Ed.D.

Principal
 Noted by:

LEAH-MOORE MANGADA
` School President