Summarising

Both the note-taking (previous section) and summarising work are intended to help protect students from the temptation of plagiarising. There is both cognitive and linguistic progression in the way the summarising material has been arranged. Start with a discussion of the alternative brief summaries in the short task in the Guide section ('Salaries rise in line with fees'), ensuring that students cover the bottom half of the page. You can then move on to the summarising work in the Tasks section.

The tasks that follow involve choosing satisfactory summaries from a range of alternatives. Task 5 focuses on summarising a whole text (global summarising), while Task 6 involves looking at summaries of only part of the information in a text (selective summarising). These are intended as a focus for class discussion before students go on to do the other summarising tasks. Tasks 7 and 8 should be done by students indivídually, while Task 9 involves group work.

The alternative summaries in Tasks 5 and 6 are designed to focus students' attention on the skills of paraphrasing and summarising. It should become apparent to students that acquiring these skills can prevent the tendency to plagiarise. However, detailed focus on what actually constitutes plagiarism is left to the task at the end of the unit (Task 10). In case students become confused, it is important to point out that the alternatives which follow the text in Task 10 are not summaries but examples of acceptable and unacceptable ways of incorporating source material into a student's writing. This section is intended to serve as a direct bridge to the more detailed work on referencing and quotations.

Note: Do not forget that you do not have to cover all the tasks. Select those which would most benefit your class, taking into consideration both the language level and subject orientation of your students.

Jigsaw summarising is the only activity which is specifically designed for small group work. But, if you so wish, all the other tasks could also be tackled in pairs/small groups.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF INDIVIDUAL TASK AIMS

There is an extra task on note-taking in Appendix 2 at the end of this Teacher's Book. This gives general help on note-taking. Include this task at the stage where it would be most helpful to your students, especially if they run into difficulties with note-taking.

TASKS 1 AND 2

These short tasks are designed to test a basic grasp of note-taking.

TASK 3

The discussion after Task 2 is intended to emphasise the desirability of basing a summary on notes (option (e)). Task 3 is designed to show how information from notes can be transferred to a brief summary.