How to write a summary

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Some of you are writing summaries of what you have read.

The best way to write a summary is to try to write the most important points without looking at what you read at all. After you finish writing the summary in your own words, it is a good idea to look at the story you read to see if there are any special expressions that it would be good to use in your summary. After you have checked for special expressions that you would like to use, go back and reread your summary several times to see if you think the English is correct and that it is easy to understand.

A method that I would NOT recommend is to copy the whole text you would like to summarize and then try to cut out sentences and phrases that you don't need in order to make it shorter. This method does not work well but, unfortunately, it seems that some of you are trying to write your summaries in this way.

Fall Semester

Some of you who are taking this class this semester also took the class in the spring and some of you are beginning today. I would like to welcome those of you who are new to the class. I'm also happy to see those of you who are returning.

Whether you are new to the class or returning, all of you will need to use a blog to keep a record of your study this semester. I will help those of you who are new make your blogs in our first class. Each post to your blog should include the following:

• Information about what you were reading
  
• Notes on a few new words that you learned
• A brief summary and or comments about what you read
• An estimate of the number of words you read

Estimating the number of words you have read may seem odd to you. As I will explain in class, however, this is a very common way indicating the length of something in English. It is better than pages because some pages (especially web pages) contain many words while other pages have very few words. This semester, I want everyone to try to read as many thousands of words per week as possible. Reading a few hundred words each week will not be enough.

I will give you more information about how to write your blog entries in class. For those of you who are new to class this fall, please begin by reading what I wrote in this blog during the spring semester. You may write in your blogs about what I have written in my blog.

I'm looking forward to getting to know you this semester.

By the way, this blog entry contains 295 words.

July 8th

On July 8th, I would like to present a short lecture about how to study English. The lecture will be held in Room 1432. So, do not go to the computer room on that day; please go directly to Room 1432.

I will talk about what you have written on your blogs about studying English and what I have noticed about your study of English over the semester.

By the way, later that afternoon I will need to give a presentation in Yatsushiro so I will end the class earlier than usual.

Please write about your experience

We are rapidly approaching the end of the semester. Before the semester ends I would like you to write on your blog about your experience this semester. Here are some things you might write about:

• Do you feel you have made progress?
• Did you listen to what you read?
• Did you try using an English-English dictionary?
• Do you feel that you learned anything this semester about how to study English?
• What difficulties did you have?
• What would you like me to do differently next semester?
• How much time did you spend on this class this semester?

You do not need to write about all of these points. Please write about those aspects of your study this semester that interest you the most. If you have worked hard this semester but are concerned that I might not give you a high grade, be sure to explain how hard you have worked and how much time you have put into this class. I want to give everyone who have worked hard a high grade.

英語で書く方が望ましいと思いますが、日本語で書いてもいいです。

Song lyrics

Song lyrics can be difficult to understand. For that reason, studying song lyrics may not always be the best way to learn English. On the other hand, if you listen to certain English songs a lot, it's a good idea to learn the English you hear in those songs. In this short essay, I'd like to explain these two points.

In regard to why song lyrics are difficult, we need to understand that song lyrics are poetry. In poetry, meaning is often expressed indirectly or with very little context to help you understand the exact meaning. Written English that is not poetry (for example, stories, essays, news articles, letters, etc.) is called "prose". In prose, meaning is usually expressed more directly and in more detail. So, if you are looking for something to read that will be easy to understand, you should look for prose, not song lyrics or other kinds of poetry.

As I wrote above, however, if you are already listening to an English song, it's probably a good idea to learn the meaning of some of the expressions used in the song, particularly if it's a song that you really like and listen to frequently. When you come across a lyric that is difficult just ask me or another native speaker of English. Don't be surprised, however, if even a native speaker isn't sure of the meaning. Poetry can be very difficult!

Finally, if you listen to songs on an iPod, you can put the lyrics into the iPod so that you can read them as you listen. If you would like to know how to do this, please ask me.

Mid-semester evaluations

I have begun sending out mid-semester evaluations to each member of the this class by e-mail. I am sending these messages in Japanese with the following title: "外書講読の成績 (中間報告)". If you have not received this e-mail from me, please ask me.

If your grade is lower than you would like, one important way to raise is will be to convince me that you are studying outside of class as well as during class. If you are studying outside of class but I wrote that your blog did not indicate that, please write about when you studied and how long in your next posts.

If you feel that my evaluation is unfair or inaccurate, please contact by e-mail or talk to me during class.

AnswerTips

I have added AnswerTips to this blog. If you find a word in this blog that you do not know, double-click on it. A "bubble" will pop up with information about that word. The explanations in AnswerTips are not as clear and simple as what you will find in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online. For example, AnswerTips defines "advantage" as "a beneficial factor or combination of factors" while Longman says that an "advantage" is "something that helps you to be more successful than others." Still, AnswerTips is very convenient. Another advantage of AnswerTips is that it allows you to hear how a word is pronounced. If you want to here the pronunciation, click on the mark inside the AnswerTips bubble that looks like a speaker:

If you have difficulty understanding an explanation that you find in AnswerTips, please click on the "Tools" link I have placed in the "Links" section on the right side of this page. From there you can go to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online.

If you would like to add AnswerTips to your own blog, click here and then follow the directions. This will produce "code" that you will need to copy and then paste into your blog in order to add the AnswerTips function. To download a PDF file with very clear and simple instructions on how to add AnswerTips to a "Blogger" (the service we are using in this class) blog, click here.  Placing AnswerTips on your blog may help people read what you have written.  Perhaps more importantly, though, it may also help you read comments that are written on your blog by your readers (me, for example).

By the way, I noticed the AnswerTips function while reading the Japan Times online. When you click on a word in a Japan Times article, an AnswerTips bubble pops up.