SUMMARY CHARACTERISTICS

6 STEPS1. Reread until complete understanding

2. Identify major ideas a. thesis (author’s main purpose for

writing)

b. topic sentences of each paragraph or section)

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6 STEPS3. Write one sentence that captures

main idea. Write supporting ideas. Rewrite this section until someone unfamiliar with content understands.

a. You want key ideas, facts, and examples necessary to understanding main ideas

b. Delete unimportant details; condense, combine, compress the rest.

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6 STEPS4. Check your summary to the original to

ensure use of own words. (otherwise use quotation marks)

5. Check to ensure no personal opinion

6. Document source material (author, title of work, publication, date, page numbers)

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Does a summary have to

be in that

order?

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Beginning

Middle

End

What happens in the beginning section?

What happens in the middle section?

What happens at the end?

LET’S TRY:Summarize this sentence:

Schools in large cities, such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, have been criticized for passing students from grade to grade for demonstrated effort, regular attendance, and good citizenship rather than for academic performance.

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ONE ANSWER

Urban schools have been criticized for promoting students for unjustified reasons.

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LET’S TAKE IT BACK TO “HEARTACHE” ARTICLE

p. 172

p. 172

Beginning

Middle

End

What is Nazario’s thesis?

When, and where it was written.

What happens within the story at the beginning?

Beginning

Middle

End

What is going on in the middle of the text?

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Beginning

Middle

End What happens at the end?

p. 172

BEGINNING In an October 2013 New York Times editorial,

Pulitzer Prize winning author Sonia Nazario argues illegal immigration negatively effects Mexican families.

Nazario relates the story of Lourdes, a mother who left her impoverished Mexican home (and children), and immigrated to the U.S. Nearly a decade later her 16-year-old son, Enrique, made the same hazardous journey to find her; Enrique’s girlfriend followed him a few years later.

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MIDDLE Nazario describes how laws have tried to stem the

flow of migrations through increased deportation of illegal immigrants. Within one six-year period, Nasario reports 409,000 adults were deported, and their children moved to foster care.

Enrique was arrested and spent nearly a year in jail waiting to be deported. Nazario describes visiting him in jail with his mother, Lourdes, and Enrique’s children. Enrique agonized about being deported and his children growing up without him.

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END She describes benefits to migration: mothers send

money home to care for their children; however, many children resent the abandonment and “disproportionately join gangs or get pregnant.”

She describes the U.S. plan as ineffective and proposes her own solutions – primarily providing aid to the four impoverished Mexican communities where most of the women reside. Nazario argues we must demand change….

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END She concludes her piece returning to Enrique,

describing a miracle. His two lawyers secured a visa for him and both his daughters.

But she argues, the family would have never suffered if the U.S. addressed the source of the problem.

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Let’s try

again…