Cracking an English course

[Fakesmile]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm taking a 100-level English course on writing. Currently the course/textbook is focusing on summarizing boring academic passages from various discipline.

Summarizing has never been my thing and I feel like I can never wrap my head around it. I really need to do well in this course and the evaluation is done by several assignments and one midterm.

I'd appreciate any suggestion from English veterans.

 

[seafood92]

I suggest you learn to summarize, as you will be doing a lot of it in your undergraduate years. I don't really understand what you are asking. A way to pass your english course without summarizing? Not a chance. Just keep practicing and eventually you'll get the hang out it. For me uni english was ALOT different than high school english. So much so I failed my first paper miserably, however, I quickly learned that ****. Some tips I can give: understand the passage before trying to summarize it. Even if this means reading it multiple times. You should be able to pick out details in your head and relay them back to yourself. Another thing and this is dealing with the papers you will write (you said it's mostly dealing with summarizing but you will have to write a paper in your upcoming classes) is keep order in the paper. It took me so many damn times to realize if I just kept order throughout the paper I would make an A. Remember if it's visually appealing to the professor you're more likely to get a happy grade. Hope this helps

tl;dr read the material until you understand it, and reword the passage.

 

[zwitterion34]

Key to summarizing is being concise. Discard all descriptive terms and reorganize the sentence to allow shorter, simpler structure. 😎

 

[zwitterion34]

I suggest you learn to summarize, as you will be doing a lot of it in your undergraduate years. I don't really understand what you are asking. A way to pass your english course without summarizing? Not a chance. Just keep practicing and eventually you'll get the hang out it. For me uni english was ALOT different than high school english. So much so I failed my first paper miserably, however, I quickly learned that ****. Some tips I can give: understand the passage before trying to summarize it. Even if this means reading it multiple times. You should be able to pick out details in your head and relay them back to yourself. Another thing and this is dealing with the papers you will write (you said it's mostly dealing with summarizing but you will have to write a paper in your upcoming classes) is keep order in the paper. It took me so many damn times to realize if I just kept order throughout the paper I would make an A. Remember if it's visually appealing to the professor you're more likely to get a happy grade. Hope this helps

Try practicing by summarizing this. Obviously this is tl;dr material. 😎

 

[zwitterion34]

I suggest you learn to summarize, as you will be doing a lot of it in your undergraduate years. I don't really understand what you are asking. A way to pass your english course without summarizing? Not a chance. Just keep practicing and eventually you'll get the hang out it. For me uni english was ALOT different than high school english. So much so I failed my first paper miserably, however, I quickly learned that ****. Some tips I can give: understand the passage before trying to summarize it. Even if this means reading it multiple times. You should be able to pick out details in your head and relay them back to yourself. Another thing and this is dealing with the papers you will write (you said it's mostly dealing with summarizing but you will have to write a paper in your upcoming classes) is keep order in the paper. It took me so many damn times to realize if I just kept order throughout the paper I would make an A. Remember if it's visually appealing to the professor you're more likely to get a happy grade. Hope this helps

My summary: Practice because English in college is different from high school. Try to understand before attempting to summarize and keep your paper organized. 😎

 

[seafood92]

Try practicing by summarizing this. Obviously this is tl;dr material. 😎

fixed, bra😎

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT <- seriously

 

[Fakesmile]

I picked up a grade 5 workbook teaching summarizing skills and also watched a video whose target audience seems to be kids below grade 6 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C10VDEoChg&feature=related). I actually found them very helpful, much more helpful than my current college text/prof, and I'm a 4th year college student.

I don't feel I can consider myself a college student, at least in the verbal/reading/writing department. I feel scared because I do feel that I missed out on a lot of basic educational stuff from grade 4 to 8 because during that time, I wasn't interested in doing well at school (During that time, I thought a C was a good grade) but rather I played video games for 7+ hours per day.

I feel like the English course I'm taking now is making several assumptions about the ability level of students taking this course, and in this regard I feel I'm at a disadvantage compared to classmates who had a normal growing up with no educational deficit. But one interesting thing is that the main skills being taught by the K-7 level educational material I've looked at are very similar/identical to what's being taught at the college English writing course I'm taking right now; the only difference is perhaps the example texts used. In the college course, the texts are taken from academic journals/textbooks, etc. Other than this, what they are teaching is very similar. This is interesting because in case of science/math, there is a high level of difference in difficulty between K-7 and college level.

 

[Morsetlis]

I'm taking a 100-level English course on writing. Currently the course/textbook is focusing on summarizing boring academic passages from various discipline.

Summarizing has never been my thing and I feel like I can never wrap my head around it. I really need to do well in this course and the evaluation is done by several assignments and one midterm.

I'd appreciate any suggestion from English veterans.

Go through the threads in the pre-allo forum and summarize them.

 

[Fakesmile]

Go through the threads in the pre-allo forum and summarize them.

Just thinking of that makes me puke. But then, many threads in the pre-allo forum are not so well-written, and summarizing is suited for well-written passages. Even if I can spot well-written threads here, I might as well practice on academic writings because the college writing course I'm taking now only makes us work with academic writing. For a recent assignment, we're basically told to summarize difficult academic journal articles from unfamiliar fields like Ethics, Linguistics, etc.
For adequate practice, perhaps I can also use texts from MCAT verbal passages, and get my summaries checked by my prof during office hour.

The prof said we'll have to summarize some passages during a midterm so I really need to master this soon.

 

[kpcrew]

They say you shouldn't do this but I've found sparknotes to be really helpful. Just don't plagerize.

 

[Spikedsoymilk]

How well you do will ultimately depend on who is grading your assignment and how they prefer you to summarize material.

Given how your grade in this course is based on assignments, I would say that you're in luck. You should really try to finish your assignments ahead of time (maybe around 1 week in advance), and bring a draft and meet with the professor or TA during office hours to see if they would be willing to give you feedback.

This way, you get more face time with your professor; they help you pinpoint what you are doing right or wrong on your assignments; and you are much more likely to do well! Winning all around. 🙂

 

[JESSFALLING]

I'm taking a 100-level English course on writing. Currently the course/textbook is focusing on summarizing boring academic passages from various discipline.

Summarizing has never been my thing and I feel like I can never wrap my head around it. I really need to do well in this course and the evaluation is done by several assignments and one midterm.

I'd appreciate any suggestion from English veterans.

The OP is complaining that it is difficult for them to put others' *yawn* writings into their own words....this difficulty is further complicated by the fact that this skill is required for obtaining a satisfactory grade in the OP's English course.

....There...I summarized your post as an example 😎

 

[Fakesmile]

The OP is complaining that it is difficult for them to put others' *yawn* writings into their own words....this difficulty is further complicated by the fact that this skill is required for obtaining a satisfactory grade in the OP's English course.

....There...I summarized your post as an example 😎

Your summary sucks because it doesn't accurately represent my message. I wasn't complaining, and I wasn't saying I wouldn't summarize threads in this forum because they are "difficult" but rather the course focuses on academic writing so my time would be better spent on practicing on academic writing.

You just proved that you suck at summarizing. Shame on you.

 

[Drogo]

http://specialed.about.com/od/Dyslexia/a/Comprehension-summarizing.htm

I know you're not dyslexic, but it should help, afterall it's made for people who probably make your comprehension skills look impressive.

 

[Neurosis]

Your summary sucks because it doesn't accurately represent my message. I wasn't complaining, and I wasn't saying I wouldn't summarize threads in this forum because they are "difficult" but rather the course focuses on academic writing so my time would be better spent on practicing on academic writing.

You just proved that you suck at summarizing. Shame on you.

To be honest, based on your posts, I really don't see any significant composition problems.

 

[Fakesmile]

http://specialed.about.com/od/Dyslexia/a/Comprehension-summarizing.htm

I know you're not dyslexic, but it should help, afterall it's made for people who probably make your comprehension skills look impressive.

Thanks, though I don't really see how that can be useful to me.

To be honest, based on your posts, I really don't see any significant composition problems.

Umm..... Composition problems DOES NOT equal the ability to summarize.

Sigh.............. I'm just so overly sensitive right now because I have my first assignment due very soon.

 

[young2sj]

Hold up..
You're in a college english class (100 level, granted) and still aren't able to understand the concept of summarization?

uhhh..?

 

[Fakesmile]

Hold up..
You're in a college english class (100 level, granted) and still aren't able to understand the concept of summarization?

uhhh..?

Don't confuse understanding the concept of summarization with the ability to write a good summary. I have trouble with the latter, not former. Oh, wait, I see why you misunderstood my problem... You have a 2.4 cGPA!

In the future, you might want to refrain from posting anything if it won't add any value to the thread.

 

[NH14]

First off, this is about as far from an English help forum as you can possibly get (I still don't understand how people do so bad on the verbal section of the MCAT...I mean seriously?). So, I'm not sure why you even posted this. It's not even related to the verbal section of the MCAT.

That being said, I actually do have a suggestion. Think of your favorite novel. Now, tell me what happened in the novel. Write it down. If it's not as long as the novel itself, its a summary. Done.

 

[Fakesmile]

That being said, I actually do have a suggestion. Think of your favorite novel. Now, tell me what happened in the novel. Write it down. If it's not as long as the novel itself, its a summary. Done.

Thanks for the suggestion. The only problem is... I don't have a favorite novel. Sigh. I rarely read a novel. The only ones I read were those I had to read for high school. Yeah, I should be ashamed (or should I?). But seriously, novels aren't my thing... I find them pointless and boring. I prefer nonfiction.