STEPS IN SUMMARY WRITING: COMBINING MAIN IDEAS

The idea of relating main ideas in a passage and connecting them to form a coherent unit is most
important in summary writing.
The following example illustrates how this is done.
Read the extract closely and examine how the main points in each paragraph are selected and
then connected into a coherent unit.
Example: Combining Main Ideas
Television as a Source of Information
We are surfeited with information. The day starts with a melange of news, weather,
forecasting, evangelism and chat from the radio. At the same time, some of us are scanning me
back of the cornflake packet and skimming the daily paper, while others, listening on car radios,
are exposed to road signs, traffic lights and hoardings. We "see" hundreds of advertisements a
day, in addition to worksheets, memos, recipes, knitting patterns, bills and computerized
warnings from the bank and the Inland Revenue.
It seems probable that most of us are over loaded with information, supercharged with
signals through all our senses. The mental damage would be worse if we did not have a
psychological cut-out switch, as a result of which we do not notice a great many of the impulses
making for our ears and eyes. We tend only to see what we want to see, what is necessary for
survival, satisfaction or self-esteem and what is essential to get on with the task in hand.
Despite this protective device, we are easily distracted, and when we are distracted information
fails to get through. There are many experiments which show this happening After a lesson
punctuated by loud bangs outside the classroom or the lecture hall, children and students are less
able to remember what they were being told at the moments of explosion.
The power of television to inform is also severely diminished by its domestic situation.
The home is an area of maximum distraction a centre of family responsibility to be discharged,
an arena in which emotional tension tends to be high, where there are many other calls on time
and attention, often trivial but with the force of habit behind them. The washing up needs to be
done, the baby is crying, the insurance man is at the door, the lads from across the road have
dropped in for a beer. To be well informed by television requires determination in the viewer and
a domestic regime which is sympathetic to such earnest, self teaching purposes. What most of us
do is focus our attention on the undiscriminated stream of stimuli only when something comes
tip - racing results, news which directly affect our lives.
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There are considerable individual differences among viewers, a fact which makes the
situation more complex. The more experience and knowledge you have, the more you will
continue to add to what you know, through the media; the better informed you are, the more
meaningful will the exposure to information become. It means that you would have a context to
fit in new information. Television broadcasters are faced with the serious problem of knowing
their vast and varied audience and what previous knowledge they have or what kind of
experience they possess. Many important news items are presented in unfamiliar language and
concepts. These present serious difficulties for certain classes of audience.
These are the main points in each paragraph.
Paragraph 1:

Daily we are exposed to information from the mass media, our places of work and
various events in the routine of daily living.

Paragraph 2: Our minds have the power to select only information relevant to us
Paragraph 3: Distractions reduce the amount of information we retain.
Paragraph 4: Distractions within the home reduce the amount of information we are able to
receive from television. Only information of special interest is attended to.
Paragraph 5:

Some viewers gain more than others because of differences in background,

knowledge and the ability to comprehend information.

Here is the summarized version of the passage:

Though we are exposed to a mass of information from the mass media, from our
job institutions and from our daily business and social experiences our retention
of information is limited. Among the factors which limit our retention of
information is the tendency of the mind to select only the necessary and relevant
information. The distractions outside the classroom also diminish cur retention.
Additionally, the distractions caused by domestic responsibilities and tensions
limit our viewing to those aspects of special interest to us. In many instances the
extent of the information derived from television depends upon our background of
knowledge and experience and our ability to comprehend information. Some
viewers gain more than others because of this.