Ch.9: Summarizing Research Findings and Other Information

•          Considering Audience and Purpose
  o   Summarizing takes main ideas and compresses them. Summaries act as a research aid, but they are also useful in daily situations in order to get important information across quickly.
  o   Employees often will provide their employers with summaries to keep them up to date.
  o   Summaries are important for decision-makers who don’t have time to go through a long document. The long document is typically summarized for that purpose.
  o   A summary should
  §  Describe the document
  §  Help readers to decide how much of the document they should read
  §  Give the reader framework for the full document
  o   The essential message needs to be communicated accurately and concisely
  ·         What Readers Expect from a Summary
  o   Accuracy, Completeness, Readability (clear and straightforward), Conciseness (informative and brief), and nontechnical style (simplified complex ideas).
  o   To summarize information
  §  Read the whole original document and then focus on the essential information while rereading.
  §  Pare down the excess details and then write in your own words.
  §  Edit your version for conciseness.
  §  Insert transitions and combine related ideas.
  §  Ensure that you have covered the main ideas without changing the actual information.
  §  Document your source.
  ·         Special Types of Summaries
  o   Summaries can be in different locations and contain different amounts of detail.
  §  Closing Summary
  ·         Located at the beginning of the conclusion section—review s the major points from the document.
  §  Informative Abstract (Summary)
  ·         Located after the title page—describes research methods, reviews main facts, and condenses conclusions and recommendations.
  §  Descriptive Abstract
  ·         Describes a report without giving the main points and helps people to decide if they should read the report
  ·         Written for someone who does not have time to read the original document.
  §  Executive Abstract
  ·         Summarizes the report from beginning to end and is aimed at decision-makers not a technical audience.
  ·         The goal is to get people to act on the information.
  ·         What…
  o   is the issue?
  o   was found?
  o   does it mean?
  o   action should be taken?
  ·         Ethical and Global Considerations in Summarizing Information
  o   Because of the internet, readers now expect to read the least amount while still receiving all the important information.
  o   Websites rely on chunking related information to keep readers engaged by minimizing scrolling.
  o   Any time someone summarizes someone else’s work, they choose what to leave in, take out, and emphasize which could distort the original message.
  o   Original viewpoint, intent, and voice can all vanish in a summary—distortions are potential plagiarism.
  o   When it comes to a global audience, it’s important to consider that what may be common knowledge to you, might not be so to someone else.