Summary Writing

E. Siler

Topic

• Purpose: To explain something in such a way as to provide background information about it so that a reasonable opinion question can be formed.

• Audience: Someone who has not read the book, but someone who is intelligent.

• Focus: This is a teaching summary --- your purpose is to explain something to someone.

Possible Topics to Consider

• Using information from the book summarize what Lester R. Brown says about one of these concepts:

• > national security; indirect costs; food security; food bubbles; deforestation; shrinkage/shortage of irrigation water; aquifers; dust storms; soil erosion; dust bowls; melting ice; land acquisitions; environmental refugees; rising seas; demographic fatigue; LEDs and CFLs; geothermal energy; tidal power; wind energy; solar energy.

Parameters

• 450 wpm• Written out, but delivered orally. • Must involve ALL the material that Brown

mentions about the subject up to chapter 9. • Do not just restate what he says on one page. • Should primarily be in your own words, with

careful use of quoting from him.

Continued

• Should use definite signal phrase markers such as “In Chapter X”

• Should mark direct quotes with direct quote markers such as “What he calls” or “As he points out” or “as he puts it.”

• Should make it clear where he borrows information from a source by attributing that source (Ex: The failed states index).

• Because it is descriptive and explanatory, should be mostly in the present tense except when presenting historical information.

Next Steps

• 1. Find a way to make an MP3 using either your cellphone or your laptop.

• 2. Choose a topic. If you don’t like the list of topics and have another, you need to contact me.

• 3. Draft a 450-word teaching summary explaining your topic and have it ready for Friday.