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summarizing 1
summarizing 1
What is a Summary?
A summary contains only the main ideas taken from a piece of text and is written in your own words. In general, a good summary, which is significantly shorter than the original text (about one-third), should contain all the important ideas of the original. In other words, a summary should give a clear overview of the entire original text.
Why do you need summarizing skills?
A good summary shows that you have clearly understood the original text.
Summarizing is a useful skill when you gather information from various sources.
What should you avoid in a summary?
Your personal opinions
Extra information that is not present in the original text
Detailed descriptions
Detailed explanations
Examples (Unless it is essential to include one or two)
Statistics (Unless it is essential to include one or two)
Any other items which are not essential to understand the gist of the original text, such ask questions, jokes, tables, diagrams, pictures, etc.
What procedure should you follow to write your summary?
Write your summary directly from the CUE column and the brief summary of your Cornell notes.
Do NOT follow the text directly as this will make it more difficult to paraphrase.
Read the following paragraph adapted from Text 2 carefully, annotate the text and write notes using the Cornell method.
Eutrophication can be human-caused or natural. Untreated sewage effluent and agricultural run-off carrying fertilizers are examples of human-caused eutrophication. However, it also occurs naturally in situations where nutrients accumulate, or where nutrients flow into systems temporarily. Eutrophication generally promotes excessive plant growth and decay, favoring simple algae and plankton over other more complex plants, and causes a significant reduction in water quality. Increased growth of aquatic vegetation or phytoplankton and algal blooms disrupts normal functioning of the ecosystem, causing a variety of problems such as a lack of oxygen needed for fish and shellfish to survive. The water becomes cloudy, typically colored a shade of green, yellow, brown, or red. Eutrophication also decreases the value of rivers, lakes, and estuaries for recreation, fishing, hunting, and aesthetic enjoyment. Health problems can occur where eutrophic conditions interfere with drinking water treatment. (138 words)
Given below are three different summaries of the paragraph you have just read. Read each of them carefully and choose the best summary.
Summary 1
Eutrophication can be caused by human activities or natural factors. Some of the examples of human-caused eutrophication are the discharge of crude waste from sewage and farm run-off containing fertilizers. However, eutrophication also takes place naturally in environments where nutrients pile up, or where there is short-term flow of nutrients into systems.
Summary 2
Eutrophication can be caused by human activities or natural factors. In general, it stimulates redundant growth of certain plants and significantly reduces the quality of water. It causes a range of problems, such as the absence of oxygen required for fish to stay alive and health hazards for humans.
Summary 3
Eutrophication causes a range of problems, such as the dearth of oxygen required for fish and shellfish to stay alive. The water becomes murky and has a characteristic shade of green, yellow, brown or red. In addition, rivers, lakes and estuaries lose their recreational, fishing, hunting and aesthetic merit due to eutrophication.
summarizing II
summarizing II
Imagine you are doing research into the nitrogen cycle. Read the encyclopedia entry given below and answer the questions that follow. Annotate the text as you read.
Biological fixation
Some bacteria are able to fix nitrogen. They use an enzyme called nitrogenase to combine gaseous nitrogen with hydrogen to form ammonia. The bacteria then use some of this ammonia to produce their own organic compounds, while what is left of the ammonia becomes available in the soil. Some of these bacteria are free-living, in other words they live in the soil. Others live in the root nodules of legumes (e.g. soy, peas and beans). Here they form a mutualistic relationship with the plant. The bacteria get carbohydrates (food) from the plant and, in exchange, produce ammonia which can be converted into nitrogen compounds that are essential for the survival of the plant. In nutrient-poor soils, planting lots of legumes can help to enrich the soil with nitrogen compounds. (129 words)
What is the main idea of the above encyclopedia entry?
How do bacteria produce ammonia?
What does the phrase ‘mutualistic relationship’ mean in this context?
How do legumes enrich the soil?
Complete the notes based on your reading of the above entry.
Now summarise the text, using your CNS notes as a guide. Your summary should be about one-third the length of the original text.
Summarizing III
Summarizing III
Read the text given below, annotate it to understand the main ideas and write notes using the Cornell note-taking system.
There are strict regulations that control how much nitrate can be present in drinking water, because nitrates can be reduced to highly reactive nitrites by microorganisms in the gut.
Nitrites are absorbed from the gut and bind to hemoglobin (the pigment in blood that helps to transport oxygen around the body). This reduces the ability of the hemoglobin to carry oxygen. In young babies this can lead to breathing problems, a condition known as “blue baby syndrome”.
Despite the impacts, there are a number of ways of preventing eutrophication from taking place. Cleanup measures can directly remove the excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from the water. Creating buffer zones near farms, roads and rivers can also help. These act as filters and cause nutrients and sediments to be deposited there instead of in the aquatic system. Laws relating to the treatment and discharge of sewage can also help to control eutrophication. Regulating fertilizer use if a final prevention measure. By assessing exactly how much fertilizer is needed by crops and other plants, farmers can make sure that they only apply just enough fertilizer. This means that there is no excess to run off into neighboring streams during rain. There is also a cost benefit for the farmer. (209 words)
Now summarise the text, using your CNS notes as a guide. Your summary should be about one- third of the original text. Title your summary
Reducing Dangerous Effects of Nitrates
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