Summary: "Action Writing"

First, remember what a summary is.

A summary repeats the main message of a reading in a shorter way. 

  • Summaries should be in your own words, but ...
  • A summary is not a paraphrase: do not use synonyms unless they make your sentence shorter.
  • Do NOT change the meaning! Do NOT add meaning!
  • Leave out less important ideas only
  • You may change the order of ideas - no need to put the 1st idea in the reading 1st, the 2d idea 2d, etc.  Short, clear writing is the best.

Stage 1: Understand the Reading

In our class, we have read a lot of "action writing."  By that, I mean writing that focuses on telling us what actions people did.  For example, the Lewis and Clark journals and "Women on the Lone Prarie" told us the different things that people did.

When we summarize action writing, we focus on the question: "What happened?"   Here are 3 steps to help you start.  They should remind you of our steps for paraphrasing!

  1. Verbs.  What are the important verbs - the main verbs of each paragraph? Sometimes the verbs "be" and "seem" are not actions; they may be description.  For a summary, they are usually not important. 
  2. Nouns.  Focus on the subject of each sentence (who did the action?) and the object (what thing or person was affected?) 
  3. Dates, times, places.  This is always important information.

You may want to highlight or circle these important words. This will help your understanding.

Stage 2: Creating a Summary

Long Articles: First write an outline.

  • Are any paragraphs completely made up of description?  You may leave these out.
  • Do any paragraphs repeat each other?  Often, the Introduction and Conclusion repeat a lot of information.  No need to put the same information twice.
  • Choose the most important paragraphs -
  • choose the most important actions in those paragraphs -
  • Write a summary in your own sentences, using the same vocabulary as the article.

Short Articles: No need to write an outline.

  • Look at the circled verbs, nouns, dates and places.
  • Choose the most important of the circled words.
  • Write a summary in your own sentences, using the same vocabulary as the article.