 Assalamu alaikum viewers, welcome to virtual university. Today we are going to talk about another writing skill and that is writing a summary. Last lesson was about writing paraphrase. Now a summary is similar to a paraphrase except that a summary is usually shorter. When you summarize you compress a large amount of information into the fewest possible sentences and in order to do this you include only the main points and the main supporting points and you leave out the details. A summary or a pracey that is the French word which means the same as summary is a brief clear statement in a connected and readable shape of the substance of a longer passage. Let me repeat that again a summary or a pracey is a brief and clear statement in a connected and readable shape of the substance of a longer passage. Now that is a definition and as usual definitions are useful they are useful things even when they make the thing that they are defining sound dull as this definition does. The reasons for learning how to summarize are really sensible. They are number one that you as a foreign learner of English when you take an exam the examiners are likely to test your ability to read write and think in English and as summary writing requires all three. Summary writing requires all three skills the skill of reading, the skill of writing and of being able to think in English. So, summary writing gives you good practice both in clear writing and in clear thinking and the third important point why you must learn to write summaries is that it enables you to express in your own words someone else's ideas even if you do not agree with those ideas. Now summarizing is not only an exercise in writing concise English it is also very useful mental training. There are many people who cannot reduce a number of facts to shorter form or as we say smaller compass these persons feel that they must tell a story that they must give every detail they do not seem to be able to pass from particular statements to general ones that is they cannot generalize. Now you know when you are relating a story sometimes you can tell a story in a very short form. Some people they really bore you that they do not know which details to select they will tell you everything and bore their listeners or readers. Now we shall look at a few examples and you will get what I am trying to say. Now supposing you admire a man for his public speaking and you wish to tell a friend about this quality you will perhaps refer to several of his fine speeches and you will try to show why they are worth remembering maybe for the arguments that he used or for their narrative style or descriptive power or for well chosen words and language. A conversation can also be reported without using the actual words or repeating every statement or argument. Similarly you may find that it may take you six to ten days to read a novel and you can relate what the whole novel is about in half an hour. You can tell your friend what is it all about and it is the same thing when you go to see a movie you go to see a film which is full of excitement and action. You can relate orally the story of the film in ten minutes or even less than ten minutes or you can write a rough outline of the film in a few pages. So learning to summarize is one of the most important kinds of work that you can do to improve your writing in English. Now what does summary writing do? It compels you to enter into the mind of the writer and without your knowing it slowly influences your own way of expression. It increases your vocabulary. It gives you new models of construction and new points of view. Now whether you are going to be a computer scientist or a teacher or a lawyer or whatever profession you decide to follow in later life you will find that to be able to summarize is of the greatest value to you to be able to grasp the gist of any writing and to report it correctly to express it promptly without omitting anything essential is really an art. Now in summary writing you do not have to trust your memory. The matter which you are required to reduce is always there before you and your success depends upon your ingenuity how clever you are in reducing the text or the selection or whatever you have got and you reduce it to a fewer number of sentences. Now there are a few points that you should remember when you are writing a summary. Point number one first you must read carefully the passage you are asked to summarize. Read slowly the first time because if you are hasty you may miss the meaning or the spirit in which it is written. Now the more you read in English the more you will realize that English writers sometimes say the opposite of what they mean they do this when they use irony or sarcasm. So first of all read the passage slowly that you are sure of the real purpose of it. Number two that was the first reading read again if it is a long passage read again and note the different points it contains. These points should either be numbered in the margin of the text that you have got you can put the points you can number the points in the margin or if you are writing it down on a separate piece of paper just number them otherwise you might miss out something that is important. The third thing is when all the points have been numbered go through them and strike out those points that are not essential to the meaning. You will find it depends on the kind of passage you may find that there are repetitions or redundant expressions redundant meaning something that is not relevant you are saying the same thing again and again sometimes writers do this. You may find illustrations if the writers made a point he might want to emphasize it by giving you an example or relating an anecdote or he might compare comparisons which are not essential which are not necessary to the essential meaning of the text or you may find that there are peculiarities of style. Sometimes writers exaggerate or there is pomposity where if you remember in our last lecture in our last lesson we looked at samples of notices remember the text that came from the education office it was in such a roundabout way. So, these are different kinds of styles of writing these are peculiarities of style exaggeration pomposity there is another big word bombast or you might find that the writer just is not restrained and when you are writing a summary you have to delete all such writing all such stylistic marks that was number 3. Number 4 you number 3 you made the points the essential points and you leave out all the unnecessary stuff. Number 4 you should see that the points that you have you have got they are arranged in the best possible way. Number 3 make the points number 4 arrange those points the arrangement is very important. You may find that in order to have the whole summary in order to make it more impressive or more convincing you have to arrange it more neatly a neat arrangement for it is arrangement that gives emphasis to what you have to say. At first you will find it difficult to reduce a passage, but practice will greatly help you until you find that you are able to reduce to half its original length and if you keep on practicing and a little more effort will bring it down to even one third. And the fifth point is that finally, you write your summary as carefully as if you were writing an essay. Now, before you have some practice in summary writing let us examine the definition once more and we will examine it more closely. We said that a summary is a brief and clear statement in connected and readable shape of the substance of a longer passage. You noticed that there are five words that are underlined on the screen before you and the words are brief, clear, connected, readable and substance. These are five words and now we are going to look at each one of them closely in greater detail. When we say that a summary must be brief it means that a great deal of meaning must be put in as few words as possible. By brief we mean that a great deal of meaning must be put into as few words as possible. Now, that is a very desirable thing in all forms of writing. You are usually required to write one third the original version and when you are writing a summary sometimes the examiners might even tell you the exact number of words that are required and even small words like a, a, the, whatever way it is pronounced even these count. So, you have to be very brief. Number two the next major point is clear clarity. It is even more important to be clear than to be brief. The two usually go together but I would say that it is always better to be clear. I would give more emphasis to the word clear. The third word is connected. In any piece of writing ideas come in groups and some are more important than the others but they are all linked to the main point of the passage. In summarizing these links of thought must be preserved. Let me say that again. When you are writing a summary these links of thought they must be preserved the way the writer moves from one idea to the next. There is some connection between them. There is some link between them and when you are making a summary, when you are writing a summary you should see that the links of thought are maintained. Otherwise what will result will be a collection of unconnected jerky sentences. And the meaning will not be clear. An example will make my point clearer. You will see two summaries of the same passage. See which one is better the first one or the second one. They are both about the same topic same thing. One is better than the other. Which one? A. I will read it out for you and you have got it on the screen as well. See for yourselves and make the selection. In the Middle Ages people had no idea of scientific farming. Spare cattle were killed and salted for winter eating. Spices were used a lot. They came from the east. The Turks cut the line of supply. Voyages of exploration were undertaken to find spices. Look at passage B. Again it is a summary of a longer passage. It is the same idea but it is written in a different way. As people in the Middle Ages had no idea of scientific farming, spare cattle had to be killed and salted for winter eating. This unappetizing meat led to a demand for spices and one reason for the great voyages of exploration was the shortage of spices when the Turks cut the overland route of their supply. Now notice that passage A is jerky while passage B is smoother reading. It is readable. It is connected. So passage B, the summary in B is a better summary than the one given in A. Why? Because it is well connected. Now a summary must be written in normal English in complete sentences. Years ago, I do not know how many of you are familiar with this. We had a system of sending messages and it was called the telegraph. A lot of young people nowadays do not know what a telegram looked like. It was just few words. Arriving Sunday morning, Sunday, that is all. And things are different now. Now you have e-mail and you have telephones and things are. But a summary should not be like a telegraphic or a telegram message. It must be written in normal English in complete sentences. And number five is substance. In a summary, you have to say exactly what the writer has said. You must not say more, no more and no less than what is said in the original. That is number one. Do not say more, do not say less than what is said in the original. Number two, add nothing of your own to the original. Number three, keep the facts in the same proportion as the original without altering the general balance. Now we shall look at examples. The first thing to be done when you are making a summary is to cut out all unnecessary words, especially roundabout expressions and repetitions. There is this sentence. It was an experience of an unpleasant character. Take this example. There are eight words in that sentence. It was an experience of an unpleasant character, eight words. Now the phrase of an unpleasant character, it adds nothing to the meaning of the sentence. And this could be said in a more direct way. You could say it was an unpleasant experience. So there is no need for writing unpleasant character. You can just say it was an unpleasant experience. Both mean the same thing, but the second one, as it wastes no words, is to be preferred. Now here are a few more phrases, some examples of phrases that would be better left out. For example, you want to say, of a disagreeable nature, of a delightful description, in a brief manner, in a stupid way, of a silly kind. And now I shall show you a few more examples, so that you can see how easy it is to write wordily, to write with a lot of words and also to show you how you can avoid wordiness. Take the first example. This phrase, boys whose way of life is cast in an urban environment. Now if you look at it carefully, what is being said? Boys whose way of life is cast in an urban environment. Urban means town. So you can say this in just two words, town boys. That is a good example of wordiness. There are just two words over there, urban boys or town boys. The wordy phrase had 11 words in it and that can be rewritten as town boys, which is just two words. Another example, together with the addition of. You come across such phrases very often in official letters and even in some passages, together with the addition of. What is the right of saying? Simple word also. Together with the addition of, that is five words and all he is trying to say is also. Take another one. Special attention will be paid to activities with an eye to the cultivation of the qualities of initiative, etcetera, etcetera. 18 words and this can be reduced to special attention will be paid to activities that cultivate initiative and that is a reduction of 8 words. It comes down to 10. In the original it was 18. Here is another phrase, judged in the light of their results. You can say this in four words, judged by their results. Another example, in this connection it should be said. This can be reduced to here it should be said. Now that was examples of use of unnecessary words. What they say in English? Wordiness and you should always avoid this. When you are writing a summary, you should at one glance spot such phrases and reduce them. Now, here is one example, another example. This is practice in writing briefly and clearly. It is not without interest to observe in connection with the duration of the school term that punishments show a tendency to increase in number as the term progresses. 29 words. Now this could be written briefly and clearly and you could say it is interesting to note that punishments increase as the school term progresses. Another example, supposing you had this passage, in fact it is a sentence consisting of 34 words and you are asked to make a summary and to summarize that sentence of 34 words without changing the idea, giving the main idea. The sentence is having regard to the recent increase in the number of cases of malaria in this area, it is clearly desirable that the scheme for the provision of more doctors should be put into effect. One sentence 34 words and what is the writer trying to say? The writer is trying to say that the recent increase in the number of malaria cases in this area requires that more doctors should be posted. 19 words, almost half. Another example, one sentence. Two men sustained serious bodily injury when their car came into collision with a truck today. It is just one sentence. 16 words, can you reduce it? Yes you can. You can say today two men were seriously injured when their car collided with a truck. 13 words. Now those were examples to show you how you can write briefly and clearly. What about repetition? This is very common with most writers. People seem sometime to think that what they say twice is more impressive than what they say once. Actually repetition shows weakness rather than strength. Now we shall have some practice where you will learn to avoid repetition. Well sometimes repetition is required for the sake of emphasis, but sometimes it is just filling up pages. Look at this example. For three months the river is in continuous flood. This state of affairs goes on for the whole of that time without cease. Count the number of words. Now what is the writer saying? He is repeating. You can say that in just a few words. This can be summarized into, for three months the river is in flood. That is what the writer was trying to say, but there was unnecessary repetition in words like continuous flood. This state of affairs goes on for the whole of that time without cease. What is he saying? He is repeating and it is unnecessary. Useless repetition. You can avoid this by saying the river is in flood for three months. Another example of unnecessary repetition. In the end we eventually agree to go by the shortest route. Now he is saying in the end and then he says eventually. So you either have one or the other. So you can say in the end we agreed to go by the shortest route. So cut out words that are repetitive. A third example. Without warning unexpected, unheralded the storm broke on us. What is the writer trying to say? He is just trying to say that without warning the storm broke on us. That is all. The use of the word unexpected, unheralded, unnecessary because without warning means exactly the same as unexpected, unheralded. So you had samples of useless repetition. Now so far we have considered getting rid of useless words. But what if the passage you have been asked to summarize is well written? How can you then shorten it? One way is to leave things out and the second is to put ideas together that are separate. And the third way is to generalize. Well you cannot leave out important ideas but you can leave out unnecessary words. Now how do you put ideas together? You can do this by subordinating the less to the more important ideas. For example, you can take the sentence. It was quite dark for the sun had set an hour before and the moon had not yet risen when the thief carefully opened the door of his house and prepared to go about his business. Now over there you have got five clauses but it is possible to turn many of them into words or phrases. And there were 36 words in that sentence. All you are required over there is to put the ideas together because when he says it was quite dark the moon had not risen. You can rewrite this as an hour after sunset, one dark moonless night. The thief crept out of his house to go about his business. Simple. There are 20 words instead of 36 and the meaning you noticed is so little change as to be almost the same. You are saying exactly the same thing. It was an hour after sunset, it was dark, it was a moonless night and the thief crept out of his house to go about his business. You said it in 20 words instead of 36. Now we will have some more practice. You have got a few sentences and try to shorten them without losing any of the meaning. Take the first one. His efforts though they were the best, his efforts though they were the best he could make ended in failure. You can reduce this without losing the meaning and you can say his best efforts failed. Number two, Athar came upon a house that was green and this could be said without changing the meaning without losing any of the meaning. Athar came upon a greenhouse. Number three, his horses which were two in number he used for the single purpose of playing polo which he was only able to do on Mondays once in every two weeks. Now a number of things are being said over there. Horses their number and he used them for the single purpose of actually playing polo which we was only able to do on Mondays once in every two weeks. Once in every two weeks means once every fortnight. So you can reduce that to he used his two horses for playing polo on Mondays every fortnight. Now that was a short practice for you to write to shorten sentences without losing any of the meaning. We shall look at a few more examples of summary writing. For example, look at the first one. This is in two sentences and you can reduce this to one. It says working conditions in the 19th century seem barbaric today. 12 to 14 hours work days, 7 day weeks, 12 to 14 hours work crammed unsafe factories, marginal wages and no legal protection. Yet employers seldom had problems motivating their workers. Poverty and unemployment were so widespread that any job was welcome. Now this can be reduced to widespread poverty and unemployment made 19th century workers willing to put up with terrible working conditions. You have not changed the meaning. You have not lost any important point and yet you have said what the writer is trying to say in so many words. Number two, this is a longer passage. Read it carefully. This is again a sample. A sample of how you reduce long text and make a summary. You just retain the main ideas. Compromise is a common and effective way of coping directly with conflict of frustration. We often recognize that we cannot have everything we want and that we cannot expect others to do just what we would like them to do. We then compromise deciding on a more realistic solution or goal since an ideal solution or goal is not practical. A young person who loves animals and greatly wishes to become a veterinarian may discover he has less aptitude for biology than he had hoped and that dissecting is so distasteful to him that he could never bring himself to operate on animals. By way of compromise he may decide to become an animal technician that is a person who works an assistant to a veterinarian. Now it seems to be a difficult passage but it is not. All it is talking about is compromise and he illustrates with the example of a young man who was interested in biology but then he is not good in biology but then he decides that he just cannot tolerate operations and he decides to become something else and that person has made a compromise. You can say the same thing, you can say what the writer is trying to say into sentences and the sample summary is before you. Compromise is a direct way of coping in which we decide on a more realistic solution or goal since an ideal solution or goal is not practical. For example, a person not good in biology may decide to may decide to become an animal technician rather than a veterinarian. Let us look at third example. We have had a similar sample some lessons ago and it is about the family system. All family systems can be categorized into one of two types. The extended family is one in which more than two generations of the same kinship live together either in the same house or in adjacent dwellings. The extended family which is commonly found in traditional pre-industrial societies can be very large. It contains three generations living together. In contrast the nuclear family is one in which the family group consists only of the parents and their dependent children. The nuclear family is the usual type in virtually all modern industrialized societies. Now, very simple. This is kind of information that you get in textbooks of sociology. It is talking about two kinds of family systems and their composition. So you can reduce this to let us say three sentences. There are two basic types of families full stop one sentence. The second one the extended family which is more than two generations living together is common in pre-industrial societies. The third sentence the nuclear family made up of parents and their dependent children is usual in industrialized societies. Let us look at another example. The fourth one. Emotions seem to be part of what makes us human but what are they for? Do emotions merely make life more interesting or are they actually necessary? Psychologists asking these questions have identified three functions of emotions. First, emotions help us prepare for action. As an example, if we saw an angry dog charging towards us our emotional reaction that is fear would trigger changes in our nervous system thus preparing us to run away. Emotions also help shape our future behavior. Again when we feel fear of the dog we learn to avoid similar situations. Finally emotions help regulate social interaction. Our observation of other people's emotional states determines how we respond to them. For example if we notice that another person is experiencing fear we may be moved to comfort and reassure him. Now that could be reduced to two sentences that say that all that information can be summarized in two sentences and these would be psychologists have distinguished three functions of emotions. Psychologists have distinguished three kinds of emotions in our lives. Emotions can prepare us to take action, shape our future behavior or regulate our social interaction. Very simple you have got all the information that was there in the original text. Now we have got a lot of, you had a lot of practice in today's discussion. Listen, you learnt to deal with a very important writing skill and that is the skill of summarizing which you will be required to use very often in life. You were given practice in summarizing simple sentences, longer passages and you were asked to delete unnecessary things. You were asked to delete unnecessary repetitive words and you were shown samples of good summaries. You had four samples of good summaries and I hope you will practice summary writing. Allah Hafiz see you next time.