Summarizing

What is Summarizing?

In Unit 1 and Unit 3 you learned that “Summarizing is showing an understanding of what you have listened to or read by explaining the main ideas in your own words".

Summarizing Strategies:

• Annotate the text

• Delete unimportant details, examples and repetition

• Reduce the number of words (to approximately 1/3 the length of the original text)

• Locate the thesis statement and topic sentences or create them

• Use the same organization as the source

• Give a clear overview of the original text

Summarizing Practice

Write a paraphrased summary of Text 1 paragraph 10 (in approximately one third of the original text or 40-50 words).

Remember to do this in four stages:

1. Annotate: read the text below and use the strategies in Unit 2: Writing Skills to annotate the text. Use a highlighter to highlight the important ideas, label definitions and meanings, write critical thinking questions in the margins, label the usefulness or importance of the information.

2. Take notes: use the Cornell Note-taking System in Unit 3: Writing Skills to record the main ideas and important details in the table below.

3. Paraphrase: use the strategies discussed in Unit 3: Writing Skills to write the ideas in your own words.

4. Summarize: use all the strategies above to write a short summary paragraph of 40-50 words. Remember to use YOUR OWN WORDS .

Text 1 Paragraph 10

¹⁰ Most predictions say the warming of the planet will continue and is likely to accelerate, causing the oceans to keep rising. This means hundreds of coastal cities face flooding. But forecasting how much and how soon seas will rise remains an area of ongoing research. The most recent special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that the oceans will rise between 10 and 30 inches (26 to 77 centimeters) by 2100 with temperatures warming 1.5 °C. That’s enough to seriously affect many of the cities along the U.S. East Coast. Another analysis based on NASA and European data focused on the higher end of that range, predicting a rise of 26 inches (66 centimeters) by the end of this century if the current trend continues. (129 words)

Table for Cornell Note-taking System Notes

Paraphrased Summary (40-50 words)

Use your notes and do not write directly from the text. Your summary should be 40-50 words. Submit to your Google folder.

Research Proposal Report

What is report writing?

A report is different from an essay because it has headings which are used to organize information. It is an objective form of writing which gives facts not opinion.

More information on report writing

The research proposal report uses your annotation, note-taking, paraphrasing and summarizing skills to show your clear understanding of the problem presented to you in the reading. You will present a research proposal in your PBL project Assignment 3, and you will be assessed on a written research proposal report in your mid term exam.

Now use your understanding of the reading texts in this unit on Sea Level Rise to complete the activity below:

Activity: Research Proposal Report

Title: A research proposal report to look into the problem of sea level rise (SLR) in the Sultanate of Oman/Gulf Region

Your report should include four paragraphs:

1. A description of the worldwide problem of SLR

2. Causes of SLR worldwide

3. Effects of SLR worldwide

4. Significance of SLR for Oman

NOTE-TAKING Reread the two texts in this unit, annotate the texts, then take notes in a table like the one below:

REPORT : Use your paraphrased notes to write an introductory research proposal report of 250-300 words. Submit your report to your Google Folder. Your report should have the following title and section headings with 4 paragraphs:

A research proposal to look into the problem of sea level rise in the Sultanate of Oman

Description of the problem (50-60 words )

Causes of SLR (90-100 words)

Effects of SLR (60-70 words)

Significance of the problem for Oman (60-70 words)