Summary

Tomorrow is Jill's birthday. She is excited because she gets to pick where she will eat dinner. Will it be Mexican food at the Big Enchilada House? Or will it be fried chicken at the Chicken Shack, or a big cheeseburger at Al's Hamburger Palace. She just couldn't decide. Then there was always the Pizza Shop with that great pepperoni pizza. How would she ever decide? Maybe she would just flip a coin.
The Summary of this passage is:

• Jill has many restaurants to choose from for her birthday.

•  Jill loves Mexican food.

• The Pizza Shop has the best pizza in town.

•  Jill will choose a place by flipping a coin.

What are the two things an objective summary should never have?

• Supporting ideas and opinions

• The word "I" and your opinion

• Facts and Statistics

• The author's name and title of the article

Which one of the following is NOT a part of a summary?

• using your own words

• summary being shorter than the text

• quotes words from the text

• including main ideas only

When writing a summary, you should ask yourself:  "Do you need this information to understand the text?"

• True

• False

A summary includes the following

• central idea and supporting details

• opinions, background, direct quotes from the text

• central idea, supporting details, and text evidence

• the point, evidence, explanation and link

Turn over a bag of potato chips. Is the label interesting? A simple food recipe may use several ingredients. These come from the soil and from chemistry labs around the world. Surprises also show up in the labels on clothing and other products. Look at the label on a package of lipstick. The tube seems small and shiny, but inside lipstick there is soap, oil, fish scales, and wax! Which is the best way to summarize this passage?

• A bag of potato chips seems like a simple recipe. There are many ingredients from the soil and from chemistry labs.

• Clothes and other products have many ingredients as well. Lipstick alone has soap, oil, wax, and fish scales.

• Labels show what goes into food, clothing, and other products. A simple product may have many ingredients.

• Lipstick seems small and shiny. Look at the label sometime. It has at least four different ingredients.

What is the best summary for this fable?

• A dog tries to steal a bone from another dog.  The dog ends up losing his bone and swimming in the river.

• A dog returning home with a bone saw his reflection and thought it was another dog with a bigger bone. He tried to get the bigger bone and ended up with nothing.

• A dog is returning home with a bone from the butcher.  He thinks he sees another dog with a bigger bone. He acts greedily and ends up in the water without his bone.

• It is very foolish to be greedy.

"I only write summaries in middle school, I will never need these skills in college."

• True

• False

Right now Jason was playing right field. He really wanted to play third base. Earlier this year, coach had put him in left field and second base in a game, but never at third base. Once in practice, coach let him play third base, but he kept missing ground balls. When he did stop one, he made a bad throw to first base. Maybe if he kept practicing, Jason would be good enough to play third base. That was his dream.
The Summary of this passage is:

• Jason really wanted to play third base.

• Jason was the best player on his team.

• Jason had trouble catching ground balls.

• Jason was too lazy to practice.

What is the main purpose of a summary?

• To provide a detailed analysis of the text

• To give a brief overview of the main points

• To include personal opinions and interpretations

• To rewrite the text in your own words