Subject Code: English 5: Effective Communication for Pre-University Students I

LG Code: 6.0 Preliminary Research Skills

Lesson Code: 6.5 Summarizing
Time Limit: 30 minutes

TARGET
By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. differentiate an effective summary from an ineffective one; and
(1 minute) 2. write a summary of an academic text following the guidelines.

HOOK

(5 minutes)

Good day scholars! Today, you will explore summarizing. Below is an original text with two summary
versions. Which do you think between Summary A and Summary B is an effective summary? Explain your
reasons in three sentences in your notebook.

Original Text:

“Before 1994, diabetes in children was generally caused by a genetic disorder – only about 5 percent
of childhood diabetes cases were obesity-related, or Type 2, diabetes. Today, according to the National
Institutes of Health, Type 2 diabetes accounts for at least 30 percent of all new childhood cases of
diabetes in this country. Not surprisingly, money spent to treat diabetes has skyrocketed, too. The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that diabetes accounted for $2.6 billion in health
care costs in 1969. Today’s number is an unbelievable $100 billion a year.”

“Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko1

Summary A:
The author says that only 5 percent of children had Type 2 diabetes before 1994. In addition, he
mentions that today at least 30 percent of new childhood diabetes cases in the USA are Type 2. He also
says that more money is being spent to treat diabetes now - $100 billion a year.

Summary B:
In the article “Don’t Blame the Eater,” the author, David Zinczenko, supports his position on the fast-
food industry by comparing today’s rates of Type 2 diabetes to those prior to 1994. Zinczenko makes it
clear that instances of Type 2 diabetes have increased dramatically, as has the cost of preventing the
spread of this disease.

1
From “They say/I say: The moves that matter in academic writing,” by Graff, G. & Birkenstein, C., Art of Summarizing
(pp.34-36), 2014. NewYork and London: W.W. Norton & Company .Copyright © W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
2020. Reprinted with permission.

ENG 5 | LG 6.0 | Lesson 6.5 | Page 1 of 5

 IGNITE
(10 minutes)

A summary is a restatement of someone else’s idea using your own word in a much shorter version.
Unlike paraphrase, a summary does not include all the details of the text but only the main ideas. Hence, if
paraphrasing is writing the same thing in another way using your own words, summarizing is shortening
the length of the text using your own words by only keeping the main points. However, both
summarizing and paraphrasing should be attributed to the original text and should be properly cited.

In order to write an effective summary, you must be able to understand the text very well. Others would
say it, “putting yourself in the shoes of the writer.” Then, apply your note-taking skill, the Cornell note-
taking method for instance, so that you may systematically record the important details from the text and
then knit them together for a smooth flow of ideas.

In a nutshell, remember these keywords when you summarize: Keep, Delete, Paraphrase, Connect

1. Keep the main ideas of the text.

2. Delete supporting and other unnecessary details.
3. Paraphrase the main ideas using your own words.
4. Connect all the important details using transitional devices like moreover, furthermore, however,
nevertheless and the like.

Here are other strategies for an effective summary:

1. Look for a short passage that may be used as support in your paper.
2. Read and reread to understand the passage well.
3. Jot down important points from the passage that may have relevant bearing to your paper.
4. Using your notes, write in your own words the original author’s main ideas and explain how
those ideas support or conflict with your own claim or argument.
5. If the text is long, try to summarize per paragraph then combine all the summaries of all the
paragraphs. Lastly, condense all these until you can write a one-sentence summary of the entire
text.
6. Reread the original source and see whether your summary is the same as the original source.
7. Properly cite by adding an in-text citation.

Now let’s go back to the two summaries you were asked to evaluate in the opening activity.
Summary A is not effective because it is just like listing the information found in the original text without
establishing a clear connection among these sources of information. Moreover, the use of the word “says”
as a reporting verb is too generic and repetitive. Summary B, on the other hand, is effective as it briefly
points out how the ideas link and why they matter. Moreover, the reporting verb used, “supports” is specific.
Furthermore, an in-text citation is used in Summary B, indicating that the writer is referring to someone
else’s work.

Is your answer correct? I hope it is.

ENG 5 | LG 6.0 | Lesson 6.5 | Page 2 of 5

 NAVIGATE

(13 minutes)

Directions: In a ½ crosswise intermediate paper, write a five to an eight-sentence summary of the article
below. Refer to the given rubric. (Graded and recorded; 15/15)
15-14 All key details are included. Original language is used. All the detail sentences are
logically linked. There are no spelling and grammar errors. APA Citation (7th ed.) is
properly used.

13-12 Most of the key details are included. Mostly the original language is used. Most of the
detail sentences are logically linked. There is/are one to two spelling and grammar errors.
APA Citation (7th ed.) is properly used.

11-10 Some important details are missing. Some phrases and sentences are copied. Detail
sentences lack logical organization. There are three to four spelling and grammar errors.
APA Citation (7th ed.) is not properly used.

9 and Details are sketchy and disorganized. Many copied phrases and sentences. More than four
below spelling and grammar errors. No citation is done

Cultural Evolution
by Jesus T. Peralta, PhD

Individual perspectives on things are always different from others. The reason for this is that everything
is received from the receiver’s point of view. Like the snowflakes of winter, each individual is unique
onto himself. Each is subject to his own orientations and associations. So it is not surprising that each
person has his own take on what culture is.

To many, it is the refinements in society—music, painting, sculpture, theater, architecture, cuisine, table
setting, the dryness of wine, the beso, even the upturned little finger. The same goes with the way freedom
is perceived, and the manner by which culture and freedom inter-relates. To a student of culture, it is
more complicated—everything that is learned and transmitted, other than in a genetic manner. Here,
“transmission” takes on an essential role. Without it, culture is not culture. Cultural genesis is indeed
very complex considering the vast number of agents of change. If we visualize society as a three-
dimensional spherical domain with a core, nested layers around it, and periphery, how culture is generated
may be understood even in an over-simplified approach. Adjacent societal spheres sometimes touch, even
overlap in the peripheries.

The relationship between freedom and culture can be comprehended in the same manner. Changes take
place in areas of instability. The overlapping along the peripheries are ecotonal areas that are unstable
and marked by more intense activities as it is with ecotones in nature like the edge of the forest and the

ENG 5 | LG 6.0 | Lesson 6.5 | Page 3 of 5

grasslands, which are marked by more activities than the forest and the grassland individually. In this
unstable area, changes take place in both nature and societies. There are more species of plants and
animals that interact in ecotones. Similarly, people of different cultural persuasions are also in such
analogous areas, engaging in interchanges with systemic feedback and creation of new values.

Persons on the edges of society are individual agents of change who create, invent, and innovate because
they are not restricted to normative acts. Because unrestrained, they can break free. This is where the
development of culture starts, from these unrestrained individuals who push against the limits like—
Rizal, Manansala, the Avellanas, Nick Joaquin, Letty Jimenez Magsanoc, Lisa Macuja, Cecile
Licad, or the Yakan Manlilikha ng bayan, uwang Ahadas, or anyone who has not been afraid to
challenge the status quo, to innovate. This is also where disruptions take place like the aberrant cases of
Marcial Ama of the Sige-Sige gang, Ruben Ecleo, Jr., Asiong Salonga, Leonardo Menecio, and others
of notoriety.

The positive aspects of cultural development—when transmitted toward the core of society thru the
nested layers and adopted and supported—eventually become part of the norm. There is freedom for the
people only within the core areas where the populace is bound by the normative culture. Still, another
view would, on the contrary, say there is no freedom since cultural norms restrict them only to the
established patterns of behavior.

The less positive aspects do not penetrate deep into the core but penetrate only some of the outer nested
layers, because these are usually not adopted as part of the norm. These remain as aberrant cases.

Political freedom has no separate bearing on cultural genesis since it is only a conceptual distinction.
Expressed in people power, it is one of the social aberrances in the societal ecotone that do not filter down
into the core of society such that it becomes part of the normal social behavior. While freedom is essential
to the nurturing and development of culture, it is the freedom of single individuals that break free from
the social norms that does this, and not political freedom. Man is free even from the different concepts
that he builds around him like politics, government, institutions. The lack of political freedom may
perhaps pressure but not curtail the growth of culture because it develops due to individual persuasions.
Where did Abstract Expressionism come from, or Dada, or the melting watches of Dali, or Conceptual
Art? The pangalay of Fernando flourished without government. It may die as others did because cultural
practices come and go, and the truth that changes, wherever, is inevitable. But man’s creativity is limited
only by the infinity of his genius.

Peralta J. T. (2015). Cultural evolution. National Commision for Culture and the Arts. https://ncca.
gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/articles-on-culture-and-arts/

ENG 5 | LG 6.0 | Lesson 6.5 | Page 4 of 5

 KNOT

(1 minute)

Summarizing, sure, takes a lot of reading comprehension, right? But it’s okay. Reading is always part of
researching. If you always engage yourself in scholarly works, such as reading critically and summarizing,
you would soon find your place in the academe--a place where you may be able to unleash more of your
potential.

That would be all for your lesson today. Next meeting, you will have more on summarizing, specifically
writing a precis.

References:

Graff, G. & Birkenstein, C. (2014). They say/I say: The moves that matter in academic writing. New
York and London: W.W. Norton & Company.

Harold S. Koplewicz, M. (2020, January 21). LGBT teens, bullying, and suicide.
https://childmind.org/article/lgbt-teens-bullying-and-suicide/

Janko, S. (2014, April 03). Summarizing PowerPoint. https://www.slideshare.net/stefaniejanko/

summarizing-powerpoint

Lane, J. (2020, March 24). Library. https://www.lib.sfu.ca/about/branches-depts /slc/writing/

sources/summarizing

Noveno, J., Altis, A., Garcia, K., & Lanohan, J. (2016). English 5 Learning Resource Package. Philippine
Science High School System
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Prepared by: Dandie C. Somoson Reviewed by: Kornellie L. Raquitico

Position: Special Science Teacher (SST) II Position: Special Science Teacher IV
Campus: Central Mindanao Campus Campus: Main

ENG 5 | LG 6.0 | Lesson 6.5 | Page 5 of 5

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