summary and book report.ppt

How to Write a Summary Chen Jiangang Foreign Languages Institute, Inner Mongolia Normal University I walked by my father’s side, clutching his right hand. All my clothes are new: the black shoes, the green school uniform, and the red cap. They did not male me happy, however, as this was the day I was to be thrown into school for the first time. My mother stood at the window watching us, and I turned towards her from time to time, hoping she would help. We walked along a street lined with gardens, fields planted with crops, pears, and date palms. “Why school?” I asked my father. “What have I done?” “I’m not punishing you,” he said, laughing. “School’s not a punishment. It’s a place that makes useful men out of boys. Don’t you want to be useful like your brothers?” I was not convinced. I did not believe there was really any good to be had in tearing me away from my home and throwing me into the huge, high-walled building. (157 words) Summary 1 The first day I went to school, I was wearing new clothes: a pair of shoes, a green uniform, a red cap. I held my father’s hand tightly as we walked there. From time to time I turned round to look at my mother, who was standing at the window. I hoped she would tell my father not to punish me by sending me to school, but she didn’t. When I asked my father what I had wrong, he said that school was not a punishment, but a place to turn boys into useful men. Still I couldn’t understand why I should go to that place. (109 words) This is not a good summary First, this 109-word summary is only forty-eight words shorter than the original, and is therefore too long for a summary. It includes too many unimportant details. For example, in the first paragraph, there is no need to mention what clothes the boy was wearing and how he held his father’s hand. The whole of the second paragraph could be cut out. These details should be replaced by a general remark to describe the boy’