Title: LESSON: Summary writing
Course: PULS - Englisch Vertiefungskurs

Identify the summary

A) Capt. Jack Sparrow (Depp) has a deep hatred for Capt. Barbossa (Rush), who led a mutiny on Sparrow's pirate ship, the Black Pearl, and left Capt. Jack stranded on a deserted island. Barbossa and his crew are under an old curse that turned them into the Undead. By day they look like normal humans but by the light of the moon they're revealed skeletons. Now here's the important part: Because they're already dead, they cannot be killed. But doesn't that mean there's no point in fighting them? There's a violent battle at one point between the Black Pearl crew and sailors of the Royal Navy, and if I'm not wrong the sailors would all sooner or later die because the skeletons could just keep on fighting.

B)  Pirates of the Caribbean, directed by Gore Verbinsky and first released in 2003, is an action-adventure story set in an era when villainous pirates sailed the Caribbean seas. A young man, Will Turner, teams with a rogue pirate, Jack Sparrow, who lost his ship, the Black Pearl, after a mutiny. Together, they must fight a band of the world's most treacherous pirates, led by the cursed Captain Barbossa, in order to save Elisabeth, the love of Will's life, as well as recover the lost treasure that Jack seeks. Against improbable odds, they race towards a confrontation on mysterious Isla de Muerta. Clashing their swords in fierce fights, Will and Jack try to get the Black Pearl back, save the British navy, and give up a fortune in forbidden treasure thereby lifting the curse of the Pirates of the Caribbean.

C) Johnny Depp was fascinated by the role of Captain Jack when he learned he'd have the freedom to create a character from scratch. "It was a different kind of role for me. It was a great opportunity to invent this pirate from the ground up, to create a different kind of pirate than you have seen before.". Director Gore Verbinsky sought out Depp because of his history of unusual projects. "He's a brilliant actor."

Identify the summary 2

Question 1: Which text is a summary? Write the letter A, B or C.

- B
Feedback: Text B is a summary.

Identify the summary 3

Copy three phrases from text A which show that this text is not a summary. Don't use capital letters or punctuation except for a comma between the different phrases.

Capt. Jack Sparrow (Depp) has a deep hatred for Capt. Barbossa (Rush) who led a mutiny on Sparrow's pirate ship, the Black Pearl, and left Capt. Jack Sparrow stranded on a deserted island. Barbossa and his crew are under an old curse that turned them into the Undead. By day they look like normal humans, but by the light of the moon, they're revealed as skeletons. Now here's the important part: Because they're already dead, they cannot be killed. But doesn't that mean there's no point in fighting them? There's a violent battle at one point between the Black Pearl crew and sailors of the Royal Navy, and if I am not wrong, the sailors would all sooner or later die because the skeletons could just keep on fighting forever, until they won.

- now here's the important part, but doesn't that mean there's no point in fighting them, and if I am not wrong
Feedback: "Now here's the important part", "But doesn't that mean there's no pint in fighting them" and "and if I'm not wrong" show the opinion of the writer. Apart from that, the writer hasn't watched the movie as he or she cannot tell the ending.

Identify the summary 4

Which two grammatical elements does the writer of text C use that are not allowed in a summary? Answer 1 refers to tenses, answer 2 to something else. What?.

Johny Depp was fascinated by the role of Captain Jack when he learned he'd have the freedom to create a character from scratch. "It was a different kind of role for me. It was a great opportunity to invent this pirate from the ground up, to create a different kind of pirate than you have seen before." Director Gore Verbinski sought out Depp because of his history of unusual projects. "He's a brilliant actor."

- simple past
Feedback: The writer uses simple past tense. Apart from that he or she doesn't say what the plot of the film is about but talks about the actor Johnny Depp.
- direct speech
Feedback: Well done. Move on to the next question.

Identify the summary 5

Which elements of a summary does text B include? Tick the correct answers.

Pirates of the Caribbean, directed by Gore Verbinski and first released in 2003, is an action-adventure story set in an era when villainous pirates sailed the Caribbean seas. As young man, Will Turner, teams with a rogue pirate, Jack Sparrow, who lost his ship, the Black Pearl, after a mutiny. Together, they must fight a band of the world's most treacherous pirates, led by the cursed Captain Barbossa, in order to save Elisabeth, the love of Will's life, as well as recover the lost treasure that Jack seeks. Against improbable odds, they race towards a confrontation on the mysterious Isla de Muerta. Clashing their swords in fierce fights, Will and Jack try to get the Black Pearl back, save the British navy, and give up a fortune in forbidden treasures thereby lifting the curse of the Pirates of the Caribbean.

- name of film, director, year of release and genre of the film
- name of film, of characters,and of lead role,

Writing a summary

Please choose the statement which is right for you. Answer the questions that follow.

Summarizing a short story

Summarizing (the plot of) a short story

1. Read the following short story.

2. What is the main topic? Choose from the following list:

- the relationship between parents and children
- the contrast between appearance and reality
- the contrast between holidays and work

3. Then take notes on the most important points with the topic: setting, characters, plot.

4. Read the document Strategy: How to summarize

5. Write the the summary.

by Paul Lisicky

Snapshot, Harvey Cedars: 1948

Veröffentlichung mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Paul Lisicky

My mother touches her forehead, throwing her green eyes into shade. Her mouth is pink, her hair blond like wheat. She is tanned. She is the best-looking woman on the beach, only she will never recognize it. She wraps her long body in an aqua sarong and winces, because her hips are a bell. Even now she is counting, waiting for the camera to flicker shut.

My father’s arm weighs down her shoulder. He is muscular, his stomach flat as a pan. He looks full ahead, pretending he is with my mother, but already he is in Florida, developing new cities, pumping dead mangrove full of sand. He sees himself building, building. He will be healthy. He will have good fortune. And years in the future, after his Army buddies will have grown soft and womanish, all his hard work will pay off: people will remember his name.

Their shoulders touch. Their pose says: this is how young couples are supposed to look – see, aren’t we the lucky ones? But my mother’s head is tilted. What is she looking at? Is she gazing at the tennis player by the outdoor shower, the one with the gentle hands, the one who will teach her to unlearn things? Or can she already hear the gun which my father will press into his forehead, twenty years away? (230 words)

Annotations:

snapshot – photograph taken without much preparation – Harvey Cedars – a small seaside resort in New Jersey, USA – forehead – part of the face above the eyes and below the hair – shade – shadow – tanned – having a brown skin – aqua sarong – long piece of clothing worn around the waist – to wince – to make a sudden uncontrolled movement – hip – Hüfte – buddy – (infl) friend – to tilt – to move to one side – to gaze – to look at sth. for a long time

Present simple

PRACTICE: Put the verb into the correct form.
1. The headline of the article already ___________ (ask) the basic question, which ____________ (raise) but not ______________ (answer)in the article. The first paragraph ____________ (inform) about what ______________ (happen) one week before. In the following paragraphs, the author ______________ (present) facts and figures about ….
2. This article by Tom Jones _______________________ (publish) in the New York Times in the year 2007. The author fully __________________ (accept) the arguments against genetic engineering but he ____________ (not agree) with …
3. In the second part of the story, the father suddenly _____________ (become) very angry. He _________ (shout) at his son and _______________ (threaten) to punish him.
4. This topic ___________________ (discuss) in every newspaper at the moment but this article __________ (offer) a real solution to the problem.

More practise?

After you have revised the present simple tense, decide if you need more practise or if you want to write a summary immediately.

Identify the summary of a novel

Summarizing (the plot of) a novel

Compare the following two plot summaries of the novel Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. They were both found on the internet.

Inform yourself about the rules of summary writing again. Which text follows the rules of summary writing more closely? Why?

I.

Twilight is a novel written by Stephenie Meyer and was published in 2005. It deals with the forbidden love between a vampire and a teenage girl.

After her mother has remarried, Isabella "Bella" Swan, 17, moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Washington to live with her father. Bella attracts much attention at her new school and quickly makes friends. Only Edward Cullen, next to whom she is seated on her first day of school, seems completely repulsed by her. He disappears for a few days, but warms up to Bella when he returns; their new-found relationship reaches a climax when Bella is nearly run over by a fellow classmate's van in the school parking lot. Edward saves her life when he immediately appears next to her and stops the van with his bare hands. After this incident Bella is desperate to find out how Edward saved her life, and constantly asks him questions. After tricking a family friend into telling her local tribal legends, Bella concludes that Edward and his family are vampires who drink animal blood rather than human. Edward confesses that he first avoided Bella because the scent of her blood was so desirable to him. Over time, Edward and Bella fall in love. Some time later, however, another vampire, James, who is intrigued by the Cullens` relationship with a human, appears on the scene and wants to hunt Bella for sport. The Cullens try to distract him by splitting up Bella and Edward, and Bella is sent to hide in a hotel in Phoenix. There, Bella gets a phone call from James, who claims he is holding her mother captive. When Bella surrenders herself, James attacks her, but Edward, along with the other Cullens, rescues her and destroys James. Once they realize that James has bitten Bella's hand, Edward sucks the poison from her system before it can spread and transform her into a vampire, and she is then sent to a hospital. Upon returning home, Bella and Edward attend their school prom and Bella expresses her desire to become a vampire, which Edward refuses.

II.

Stephenie Meyer’s novel Twilight is a modern Romeo and Juliet story of the ultimate forbidden love affair – between vampire and mortal. Bella Swan – the heroine – has always been a little bit different. Never one to run with the crowd, Bella never cared about fitting in with the trendy, plastic girls at her Phoenix, Arizona, high school. When her mother remarried and Bella chooses to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she didn't expect much of anything to change. But things do change when she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly handsome Edward Cullen. For Edward is nothing like any boy she's ever met. He's nothing like anyone she's ever met, period. He's intelligent and witty, and he seems to see straight into her soul. In no time at all, they are swept up in a passionate and unusual romance – unusual because Edward really isn't like the other boys. He can run faster than a mountain lion. He can stop a moving car with his bare hands. Oh, and he hasn't aged since 1918. Like all vampires, he's immortal. That's right – vampire. But he doesn't have long sharp teeth – that's just in the movies. And he doesn't drink human blood, though Edward and his family are the only vampire family that has such a lifestyle. To Edward, Bella is that thing he has waited 90 years for – a soul mate. But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the attraction of her smell, which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy. Somehow or other, they will have to manage their unmanageable love. But when unexpected visitors come to town and realize that there is a human among them Edward must fight to save Bella.

- Text 1 follows the rules of a summary more closely.
Feedback: This answer is correct.
- Text 2 follows the rules of summary writing more closely.
Feedback: This answer is wrong.