Writing an Objective Summary Paragraph

When writing objective summaries, students should pull details from each ____________ of the text.

• section

• author

• illustrator

• title

When you write the events you'll want to paraphrase them. Paraphrasing means...

• to list chronologically

• to list objectively

• to reduce to five sentences or less

• to change the wording to your own words

The second part of your topic sentence should do what?

• Explain the main idea of the text. 

• Identify the text (author and source)

• Use a verb that communicates the purpose of the text. 

• Tell a short summary about what the audience is about to read. 

Objective means:

• giving your opinions

• not using your own biases or opinions

• telling a story

• writing a how to article

An objective summary

• tells a story, is three paragraphs in length, written in your own words.

• is a narrative essay

• focuses on the central ideas, is short, written in your own words, omits minor details

After you identify the main idea you-

• verb it

• name it

• write the major details to support it

The purpose of _______________________ is to help you better understand the text or to show your understanding of the text.

• central idea

• summarizing

• reading

• answering

To summarize ask yourself:

• who, what, where, when, why and how something happened and what was the outcome

• did this really happen

• how do I write my summary

Verb it

• identify title and author

• use a verb like shows, describes, explains, discusses

• identify main idea

What word/phrase should be used at the beginning of each body paragraph?

• Exclamation

• transition

• Noun

• prepositional phrase