VARIOUS TECHNIQUES IN

SUMMARIZING A VARIETY OF
ACADEMIC TEXT
English for Academic and Professional Academic Purposes
  It is how we take larger
selections of text and reduce
What is them to their bare essentials:
Summarizin the gist, the key ideas, the
g? main points that are worth
noting and remembering.
  It is a brief and concise
What is a statement that outlines
Summary? the main points of a
text.
 1. Erase things that don’t
matter.
Basic Rules in
Summarizing 2. Erase things that repeat.
Academic 3. Trade, general terms for
Texts specific names.
4. Use your own words to write
the summary.
 OTHER TECHNIQUES IN
SUMMARIZING ACADEMIC
TEXTS
 The strategy helps students
TECHNIQUE 1: generalize, recognize cause
Somebody and effect relationships, and
Wanted But So
Then find main ideas.
  SOMEBODY: Who is the text about?
 WANTED: What did the main character
TECHNIQUE 1: want?
Somebody  BUT: What was the problem
Wanted But So encountered?
Then
 SO: How was the problem solved?
 THEN: Tell how the story ends.
SOMEBODY WANTED BUT SO THEN

Little Red She wanted to She She ran away, A woodsman

Riding Hood take cookies to encountered a crying for help. heard her and
her sick wolf pretending saved her from
grandmother. to be her the wolf.
grandmother.
  This method is particularly
helpful in summarizing any kind
TECHNIQUE of text. SAAC is an acronym for
2: “State, Assign, Action,
SAAC Complete.” Each word in the
METHOD acronym refers to a specific
element that should be included
in the summary.
  STATE: the name of article,
book, or story
 ASSIGN: the name of the author
TECHNIQUE
2:  ACTION: what the author is
SAAC doing (example: tells, explains)
METHOD  COMPLETE: complete the
sentence or summary with
keywords and important details
 STATE ASSIGN ACTION COMPLETE

The Boy Who Aesop (a Greek tells What happens

Cried Wolf storyteller) when a
shepherd boy
repeatedly 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
SUMMARY 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.
  This technique relies on six
crucial questions: who, what,
when where, why, and how.
TECHNIQUE
3: These questions make it easy to
5 W's, 1 H. identify the main character,
important details, and main idea.
  WHO
 WHAT
TECHNIQUE  WHEN
3:  WHERE
5 W's, 1 H.
 WHY
 HOW
Who is the Where did Why did the How did
What did When did main the main
story they do? the action the story
about? happen? character do character
take place? what s/he do what
did? s/he did?
The He raced a When isn’t An old The tortoise The tortoise
tortoise quick, specified in country road was tired of kept up his
boastful this story, so hearing the slow
hare and it’s not hare boast but steady
won. important in about his pace.
this case. speed.
  This technique helps students
summarize events in
chronological order.
 First: What happened first?
TECHNIQUE
4: Include the main character and
First Then main event/action.
Finally  Then: What key details took
place during the event/action?
Finally: What were the results
of the event/action?
 "Goldilocks and the Three Bears“

First, Goldilocks entered the

bears' home while they were gone.
Then, she ate their food, sat in their
SUMMARY chairs, and slept in their beds. Finally,
she woke up to find the bears
watching her, so she jumped up and
ran away.
  This type of techniques is like
giving a friend the gist of a story.
TECHNIQUE
5: In other words, they want a
Give Me the summary – not a retelling of
Gist every detail.
Thank you!