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Writing Developing Your First Draft

Use Your Own Words 🟪 Write your summary in clear and complete sentences. Use your own words, except for key terms.

1. State the main idea. The first sentence in your summary is a topic sentence. It should state the main idea (and the title and author if they are available). The sentences that follow must support the topic sentence.

2. Choose important information. Include only the most important information in the rest of your summary. (Follow the rules on page 270.)

3. Place details in order. Arrange your ideas in the same order they occurred in the original text. Pay attention to the overall organization (problem/solution, cause/effect, process, and so on). The article says, “When a star uses up its nuclear fuel, gravity wins.” This is a cause/effect relationship. The summary also uses “when” in the first sentence to show this cause/effect relationship.

4. Wrap up the summary. Add a concluding sentence if one seems necessary.

Revising and Editing Improving Your Writing