How to Summarise

HOW TO SUMMARISE

INSTRUCTIONS – Match the following newspaper headings to their correct summary by SKIMMING each for 15 seconds at the most.

Mountain Fall Bridge Miracle More Beach Closures Race Smash Explosives Find Counterfeit Alert

HEADING - ______HEADING - ______Police have charged a 24-year-old man from An unconscious man found wedged between Adelaide with possession of explosive goods rocks in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney was after a tip-off from the manager of a local sports yesterday winched to safety by rescue crews. club. The manager saw a man acting suspiciously The man had been lost for three days in the bush in the club car park early yesterday morning, so before falling down a steep ravine and becoming recorded the car’s number plate and rang the pinned between three large boulders. He has police. Police investigating the case said that the head, leg and spinal injuries and is in critical explosives were not particularly powerful but condition in Westmead Hospital commended the manger’s quick actions.

HEADING - ______HEADING - ______A 35 year-old- man survived a speedboat Police have warned businesses in the city’s west accident on the weekend while racing on the to be on the lookout for counterfeit $50 and Nepean River. The injured man, from the Central $100 notes. More than ten fake notes have been Coast, suffered chest and back injuries but was handed in over the past month. Police say it is last night in a stable condition in Nepean quite simple to detect that the notes are not real Hospital. The boat in which he was racing sank as the graphics are blurred and the writing is and was thought to be beyond repair. larger than on authentic notes. Bars and clubs appear to be the main target but at least two notes were used in shopping complexes.

This activity demonstrates how we do not have to read every single word and understand it completely to know what the piece of information is about or understand the point. In your senior years you will have to research and read a lot in preparation for writing essays or learning subject content information. This will take you more hours than you have unless, you learn to summarise and speed read.

Here’s a step by step guide for how you do it… HOW TO SUMMARISE

LEVEL 1 SKIM THE DOCUMENT (Find out what the article is about/whether it is relevant) In order to get the ‘gist’

 Read the headings and subheadings

 Look at any images or diagrams

 Look for key words

(To do this image putting a line through any joining words or descriptive words; this will leave only the key words/subject specific words)  Look up the meanings of any words you don’t know

LEVEL 2 SCAN THE DOCUMENT (Find out what is the purpose of the article)  Read the conclusion

 Read the main point made by the author in each paragraph normally the second last or last line

 Find important facts/quotes (these things are usually in italics or bolded)

LEVEL 3 INTERPRET/UNDERSTAND THE DOCUMENT (Transfer your information in order to remember it)

 Put the document into your own words by using language you would use and condensing each sentence  Transfer key information into a diagram that helps you to understand it better Eg. Compare and Contrast table, Relationship map, similarities and differences, ect. HOW TO SUMMARISE

INSTRUCTIONS – Now follow this process for the below article to practice your new skill. The Great Kissing Epidemic One theory is that it all began when cavemen began licking their neighbours’ cheeks for the salt on them. But whatever its origins might have been, the fact remains that, in one form or another, kissing has been prevalent since primitive times, though it developed mostly in the West.

Ancient Greek and Roman parents kissed their children, and lovers or married people kissed each other, as did friends of the same or different sex. In the Middle Ages knights kissed before doing battle, just as boxers touch gloves today before they begin the bout. Relics and images of Christ and the saints were often kissed to express reverence and devotion.

The varieties of kisses are indeed numerous. There is the kiss of treachery (Judas’ kiss is an example of this); the Mafia kiss of death has its own grim significance; the kiss of religious reverence is still a common sight in churches; and there is the kiss to ‘make it better,’ the kiss for luck, the kiss of greeting and the kiss of love.

Kissing is very much a cultural practice and rules and attitudes vary across the globe. The French, who have had quite a lot of practice, have turned kissing into a fine social art, although these days, even they are not sure when or how to do it. The French double kiss is routine, but many French kiss one another three, or even more times. It can sometimes go on for an embarrassingly long time. Italians are enthusiastic kissers at all times, and they have been for generations, if not centuries. Arabic men greet one another with kisses, and it is especially noticeable in the world of Russian politics, where the three kiss greeting has become the norm. The British, though, remain shy about social kissing. The Japanese, along with many Asian peoples, regard kissing in public as a Western custom which is unhygienic and sometimes even offensive. Kissing has, however, become more commonplace in some Asian countries in the past few decades.

But, despite the resistance of the British, and the opposition of some Eastern countries, kissing does not seem to be on the increase as a social gesture. According to some sociologists, increased kissing is part of a general ‘inflation’ of intimate social signals. In other words, we kiss people we used to hug, we hug people we used to shake hands with, and we shake hands with those we use to nod to.