Web Page: Summary Writing
Web Page: Techniques for Writing Topic Sentences
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To Write a Summary
- Question the communication situation.
- Subject: What specific topic does the reading selection address?
- Purpose: What is the goal of the selection—to inform, to persuade, to tell a story? What is the goal of the summary?
- Audience: Who is most likely to read such material?
- Plan your summary.
- Identify the main point of the writing.
- Annotate the original, noting key details (see page 145 ).
- Research your topic.
- Searching: Reread the selection and write down the key points—names, dates, times, and places.
- Focusing: Find the focus of your summary—the selection’s main idea.
Topic: “Insects Have Personalities, Too” by Gerald Perkins
State the focus in a topic sentence.
Topic sentence: In “Insects Have Personalities, Too,” Gerald Perkins explains how a new study concludes that some honeybees’ brain activity is linked to thrill seeking.
- Shaping: List the key points of the article in your own words.
- Create the first draft.
- Start with your topic sentence.
- Follow with key supporting details. Use your own words to recount the selection’s most important points. Leave out what is unimportant.
- End with a sentence that restates the main point of the selection.
- Improve your first draft.
- Evaluate your first draft.
Purpose: Does your paragraph effectively sum up the selection?
Audience: Would a reader of the summary understand what the original selection is about?
- Revise your writing.
Add details to summarize the selection more fully.
Cut unnecessary details.
- Edit your revised writing.
Check your writing for accuracy.
- Evaluate your first draft.
- Present the final copy of your summary to your teacher or post it on your classroom blog or wiki.
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Article and Summary
A summary highlights the most important parts of a reading selection. The science article below is followed by a student’s summary. The summary includes a topic sentence, body sentences, and a closing sentence.
When a Crystal Becomes Nobel Worthy
By Ishmael Crowder
When Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman discovered quasicrystals, some in the chemistry community might have thought of him as a “quasi chemist.” After all, his finding was so controversial that his boss asked him to leave the lab. What Shechtman viewed under his microscope in 1982 defied the laws of nature: a crystal with an atomic structure based on pentagonal symmetry.
For years Shechtam’s discovery was deemed blasphemous in the scientific community, but in 2011 it earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Quasicrystals, as Shechtman showed, are a type of material whose atoms display a regular but nonrepeated pattern. An irregular atomic makeup was once thought impossible in crystals. It was believed that all crystals were composed of a three-dimensional or four-dimensional arrangement of atoms that always repeat in an orderly pattern.
However, quasicrystals’ five-dimensional atomic pattern never repeats precisely but continuously fills all available space through the inclusion of glue atoms. Glue atoms are other atomic shapes that fill in the gaps left by the pentagonal pattern.
The irregular but snug atomic properties make quasicrystals an interesting material for practical uses. One particularly strong quasicrystal has been found effective in razor blades and surgical instruments. Their irregular atomic nature also makes them poor conductors of heat, so scientists are experimenting with using quasicrystals for insulators.
Student Summary
The topic sentence introduces the title, author, and main point. In “When a Crystal Becomes Nobel Worthy,” Ishmael Crowder explains the unique composition of quasicrystals and how their discovery was deemed controversial. Chemist Dan Shechtman first discovered a quasicrystal in 1982, but many of his colleagues in the science community were skeptical because it did not exhibit the traditional atomic makeup of crystals. The body sentences give the details. Instead of displaying a regular and repeated atomic pattern, quasicrystals display a regular but nonrepeated structure based on pentagonal symmetry. Along with pentagonal atomic shapes, quasicrystals include glue atoms that fill in spaces left by the pentagonal pattern. Shechtman’s discovery helped him win the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The closing sentence completes the summary. In addition, it proved that science is always evolving and that even the laws of nature are not set in stone.