Bahasa Inggris untuk Profesi

Informasi

Summarizing
Oleh
TAMARA ADRIANI SUSTEYO-SALIM
Berdasarkan buku ACADEMIC WRITING, Ilona
Leki
DEPARTEMEN ILMU PERPUSTAKAAN DAN INFORMASI
FAKULTAS ILMU PENGETAHUAN BUDAYA
UNIVERSITAS INDONESIA
Depok, 2007
 Summary
A brief
statement of
the main points
of something
 Summary
• Shorter than the original
texts, 75 percent shorter.
• The summary for a book is
much shorter than the
original, 99 percent shorter
 Purpose of Writing Summary
• Give the readers an
idea of the content of an
article or book,
• Save the time and
trouble of reading the
entire original.
 Writing good summaries

Requires:
• accurate reading,
• the ability to find the main
idea and most important
supporting evidence in a
piece of writing.
 How to write a good summary
1.Read the original carefully:
• Label each paragraph with a
subheading indicating the subject
discussed in that paragraph
• Group together headings that
deal with similar subjects. Give
each grouping a name.
• Summary should be in the
present tense
2. Mention the source and the author at
the beginning of the summary.
• In his article entitled "The Dangers of Cramming," Keith Ablow

informs us that…
states
shows us

• In The Dangers of Cramming," Keith Ablow indicates

discuss
explores
the problems …

• The article "The Dangers of Cramming" by Keith Ablow examines

the negative effects . . .

• Cramming, according to Keith Ablow in his article "The Dangers of

Cramming," can do more harm than good.
(Note the correct punctuation and capitalization of the citation.)
3. State the author's main idea
without distorting those ideas
or adding your own.
4. State the author’s most
important supporting evidence
or sub points without distorting
them. Do not include details.
Use the list of subheadings and the groupings
as a guide to help remember the main points
covered in the article.
5. Use your own wording.
If a phrase in the original may be
especially striking, interesting, or
controversial, use the author’s exact
words, by putting quotation marks
around them.
6. Don’t include your own ideas or
comments. The summary should
include only the author’s ideas.
7. Periodically remind the reader that you
are summarizing someone else's idea.

Use the following phrases:

• The author goes on to say ...
• Ablow also reports that . . .
• The article further states that .
..
 Conclusion
A good summary should:
1. Include a mention of the source.
2. Correctly interpret the original.
3. Include no editorial comments.
4. Include only the most important
points, without details.
5. Use the summarizer's own
words, not those of the original
author (unless in quotation
marks).
 Who Are Smarter—Boys or Girls?
Scientists Probe the Roots of Abilities That
Seem Linked to Sex
Only boys are good at science.
Girls have better vocabularies than boys.
Girls have good memories.
Boys are good at building things.

Now wait. Don't start those letters to the editors yet.

You may not like what you've just read. But it's true.
There are exceptions, but here are the facts. On the
average, males score higher on tests that measure
mathematical reasoning, mechanical aptitude, and
problem-solving ability. Females show superior ability in
tests measuring vocabulary, spelling, and memory.
 Although these test scores are
the facts, they are not
unchangeable—not anymore. For
scientists are learning that no one
is locked into certain abilities at
birth because of sex. Says one
scientist, "Nothing is impossible for
a human being to be or do if he or
she really wants it."
 Studying the Baby. Scientific
studies have focused on observing
and testing young babies to trace the
development of different abilities.
A scientific team headed by Jerome
Kagan, Harvard psychologist, is
studying the thinking ability of 11 ½ -
month-old children. The test is a
simple one. The baby, while seated on
its mother's lap, watches a "show" on
a puppet theater stage.
 In Act I of the show an orange cube is lifted from a
blue box and moved across the stage in a zigzag path.
Then it is returned to the box. This is repeated six times.
Act II is similar, except that the orange block is smaller.
Baby boys do not react at all to the difference in the size
of the cube, but girls immediately begin to babble and
become excited.
The scientists interpret the girls' babbling and
excitement as meaning they are trying to understand
what they have just seen. They are wondering why Act II
is odd and how it differs from Act I. In other words, the
little girls are reasoning.
This experiment certainly does not definitely prove
that girls start to reason before boys. But it provides a
clue that scientists would like to study more carefully.
Already it is known that bones, muscles, and nerves
develop faster in baby girls. Perhaps it is early nerve
development that makes some infant girls show more
intelligence than infant boys.
 Scientists have also found that nature seems
to give another boost to girls. It is usual to find
baby girls talking at an earlier age than boys do
scientists think that there is a physical reason for
this. They believe that the nerve endings in the
left side of the brain develop faster in girls than
they do in boys. And it is this side of the brain that
strongly influences an individual's ability to use
words, spells, and remember things.
By the time they start school, therefore, little
girls have a head start on boys. Memorizing,
spelling, and reading are just what they're good
at.
Boys Learn Aggression. But what has been happening
to baby boys all this time? They have been developing
that secret weapon called aggression. This secret weapon
makes them strivers, go-getters, independent.
What produces this aggression in little boys? Male
hormones play a part. But the mother seems to make the
biggest contribution.
A team of psychologists discovered this by placing
mothers and their one-year-old babies in a special
observation room filled with toys. Then they took notes on
everything the mothers or babies did. This is a sample of
those notes, taken during the observation of a boy and his
mother.
"Baby leans against mother. Looks up at her. She
speaks to him. She turns him around. He walks away,
picks up toy cat. Goes to mother, drops cat, and leans
against her. Looks up at her. She turns him around."
From these notes and from interviews with the
mother, the scientists concluded that while the mother
keeps her daughter close she unconsciously trains her
son to investigate—to become a problem solver.
A Second Lesson. As the boy grows, he gets another
boost in his aggression lessons—the "be-a-man" problem.
As a baby and a young child, he spends most of his
waking hours with his mother. His first strong attachment is
to his mother. He models himself after her.
But soon he begins to get some confusing commands
from his mother. "Don't be a sissy!" "Boys don't cry." "Boys
don't walk like that." And so there is a new problem. He is
somehow different from his model. But what is the
difference? All he hears are "don'ts." He struggles to find
out what the "do's" are.
When the little girl and boy meet in the first grade, it is
the old story of the tortoise and the hare all over again.
While the girl collects A's in spelling, the boy is working at
problems— "how to get a C in spelling," "how to be a
man." Like the tortoise, the boy plods ahead, gaining more
and more experience in problem solving. Like the swift-
footed hare, the girl glides through the first few grades,
losing the chance to learn problem solving at an early age.
Aggression Runs Our World. In the world we live in, the
aggressive person is usually the one who gets the big
salary, the good job, the prizes. And since men are trained
at an early age to be aggressive, they are the ones most
often picked for the key positions.
But many believe this situation is wrong. They think
women have an equal contribution to make in science and
industry. Teachers and scientists suggest that girls be given
aggression lessons in school. This does not mean that
every little girl should learn to box. Games that teach
competition and problem solving are one suggestion.
Another scientist believes that boys may get too much
training in aggression. A little more affection from their
mothers might make them gentler. And the world needs
gentleness, just as it needs aggression.
Current Science
 Questions
1. In what ways do little girls have an advantage
over little boys when they both start school at
age five or six?
2. Recount Kagan's experiment conducted with
the babies and mothers.
3. Why don't little girls do better in the real world
if they do better in school than little boys?
4. Do you agree with the conclusions reached in
this selection?
Thank you
Before you read, consider the following
questions:
If you went to a coeducational school as a child,
did boys or girls generally seem smarter? Were
boys or girls generally better behaved? What do
you imagine was the reason for this?
Who is better in math, boys or girls? Who is better
in language? Who is more sensitive? Who is
more aggressive? Are these characteristics
innate, or do children learn to behave in certain
ways? Are there exceptions? What happens to
the exceptions?
This reading from Current Science discusses the
differences between boys and girls in the United
States from the point of view of intelligence. It
points out that girls start school more prepared
physically and mentally than boys. Later,
however, men get better jobs. The reading
explores the idea that society teaches little boys
to be independent and aggressive even from the
time they are very young. Little girls are taught to
be dependent and obedient; society does not
reward them for being aggressive and inde-
pendent. Little girls respond by not developing
that side of their nature, while boys do not
develop the gentle side of their nature.