College Writing 3-1

64 Chapter 2 Evaluating Web Design
It helps to
cover the text you
are summarizing so
that you are not
tempted to look
at it.
4. Begin your summaryby giving the title of the reading and the name
of the author (if available).
5. As you write the summary, try to retell the main ideas without
looking at the original text. Of course, you will use some of the
keywords and phrases used by the writer, but the other words and
the sentence structures should be different from the original.
6. Once you are finished, compare your summary to the original text
to make sure you summarized all the main ideas and gave each idea
the same importance given by the author.
Note: Plagiarismts copying someone else's words without giving the
author credit. In the academic world, plagiarism is considered a very
serious offense because a writer owns the ideas and words he or she uses in
his or her writing. Each writer has a unique style and voice, and you
should not borrow words, phrases, or sentences that you would not
normally use in your writing. If you want to use someone else's words, use
quotation marks and reference information to show which words are not
your own.
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EXERCISE
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Read the following paragraph about Web design. Then, follow the strategies
for ffictive summaries you read earlier. Because the paragraph is about 176
words long try to make your summary only about 50 words or at least half
as long. Wen you finish writing your suffimary, compare it to the original
paragraph. Did you forget to list one or more main ideas? Add them to your
summary. How long is your summary? If it is too long, cross out words or
phrases that do nol seem very important.