Sometimes students asked why they did not get Content points for their summary even though they had already picked, in their opinion, the best possible materials from the text. Well, there are several reasons:
1. They did not answer the given question.
Consider the following question taken from the recent PKBS 2:
Based on the passage, write a summary on what the people did when flood hit the village.
One of my students did not get ANY Content points for not answering the question.
Let's examine the answer.
The sudden heavy downpour last summer caused unexpected flooding and ...
... heavy rain began to pour late at night.
- Look at the SUBJECT of the clause. Is it PEOPLE? No.
This rain did not stopped.
- Again the SUBJECT is not PEOPLE.
People could hear it spattering on their roofs all night long.
- Now the SUBJECT is PEOPLE. But, this is not something which is DONE by them, instead it is something HEARD by them using their SENSES.
The river had spilled over its ten-foot-high banks.
- Not PEOPLE, again.
On the other side of the bridge, water rushed into the ground level of homes.
- Not PEOPLE.
Other belongings floated away - buckets and stools, pails and bamboo holsters for scythes.
- Still not PEOPLE. And worse, she wrote down EXAMPLES, which are TABOOS in Summary writing.
The narrow road was part of the river, a dark channel of mud, rocks, debris and logs.
- Again.
The water gushed through the rail slots and covered the benches. It looked like a boat about to break from its moorings.
- Water is not PEOPLE.
Submerged fields broadened the river, and hundreds of carp rushed downstream.
- Fields, carp. Not PEOPLE.
At 9 a.m. the rain subsided. At 11 a.m. the water began to recede. Fields were lost, homes were damaged, roads were washed out, but luckily no one was kill.
- Apart from no one, all the above SUBJECTS are not PEOPLE. Even here, no one did not do anything, instead it is in PASSIVE form.
2. They took materials outside the range given.
When the question states 'Your summary must use materials from line 17 to line 40', please take materials from line 17 to line 40.
3. They copy the materials without changing the pronouns.
Students must be aware of the PRONOUNS used in the text. For example: 'I could see the vast pale green fields brushed with gold.'
The pronoun here is the word I and if students blindly copy the sentence, this will mean that they are the ones who see the fields, not the writer. Therefore, they should write the writer instead of I.
