Ghostwriter College

Lesson 3

Do you know...
  • How to combine sentences?
  • How to summarise in one or two sentences?
If not, we suggest you start from Lesson 2.  Click here to go to Lesson 2.


In this lesson, you will learn:
  • Where are the important ideas in a passage?
  • Steps in writing an effective summary
Let's start now !

 

J Task 3.1 Where are the important ideas in a passage?

From Lesson 1, we know that not everything is important in a passage.  But where can we find the important ideas?

Read this paragraph.
 

    (1) The territory of Hong Kong consists of Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula, the New Territories, and 235 outlying islands, totalling 1,078 square kilometres. (2) It is situated on the southeastern coastline of China, facing the South China Sea. (3) To its north is the province of Guangdong, the provincial capital of Guangzhou, which is 135 km away from Hong Kong. (4) China's capital city, Beijing, is about 2,000 km further north. (5) The territory measures 38 km from north to south and 50 km from east to west.

If you want to describe the geography of Hong Kong, which two of the sentences are the most important?

1 2 3 4 5

 

Very often we can find the main idea at the beginning of a paragraph, as in the example above.

But remember, this is not always the case.  Not every first sentence is important.  Sometimes the first sentence may not be important.  The main idea may be somewhere else!  Lesson 4 will talk more about this.
 
 

J Task 3.2 Steps in writing an effective summary

In writing a summary, which of the following steps do you think are important?
 

1. Read the whole text through once or twice.
2. Copy important sentences.
3. Ask questions about when and why the text was written.
4. Find the main idea(s).
5. Take notes.
6. Understand every single word in the passage.

Now, try to summarise this passage by following the above steps.  Use no more than 45 words.
 
 

        English and Chinese are Hong Kong's two official languages. The Cantonese dialect is the most commonly spoken language in the territory, though English is the language of the business and service industries; hotel employees, many urban Hong Kong residents, most young people and shop and service personnel understand and speak it to some degree. Other Chinese dialects, such as Putonghua (Mandarin), Shanghainese, and Chiu-Chow can be heard as well. 

        Major hotels have employees with knowledge of other languages, such as French, German, Japanese and Putonghua. Translation services in many languages are also available from major hotels' business centres. 

Type your answer in the box below.
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J To sum up...

Well done!  You have completed Lesson 3.

You should now know where to find the important ideas in a passage.
You should also know how to work step-by-step in writing a summary.

Ready to go on to Lesson 4 ?

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