5 .2
Exploring the skills When turning these notes into summary sentences, you can use compound or complex sentences to group ideas together. The example below shows how a student has combined the point about Potts’s initial dreams with the news articles and the lack of road protection. subordinate clause
Having dreamt of this journey, Potts is shocked by the reports of fatal accidents and by the lack of safety barriers on the road. main clause
This allows the ideas to flow and link together. 2
How has the student used his own words here to paraphrase what is in the passage?
Developing the skills 3
Below are four points made in response to a slightly different summary task – the problems with the roads and the bus company’s attempts to cope with them.
Handwritten warnings on boulders. Roads often covered by fallen mud. Roads collapsing down side of mountain. Temporary road has to be made on the spot. Turn two or three of these points into one complex sentence. Begin:
Although the journey is halted by fallen mud…
Applying the skills 4
Now, write a longer summary of no more than 150 words about the problems of the roads and how the bus company deals with them.
Check your progress: Sound progress
❯❯
I can write a simple summary of the problems on the roads.
Checklist for success ✔ Use your own words where possible. ✔ Synthesise several points or ideas into complex sentences.
Excellent progress
❯❯❯
I can refer to the whole text when summarising the problems and how they are dealt with.
Sentence
47555_P081-086.indd 85
85
28/11/2013 10:04