Reducing texts for abstract purposes

 

 

Reducing texts for abstract purposes

Exercise 1

This summary must be reduce to 115 words, omit unnecessary words and avoid redundant expressions.

Schenker, in her article “Smart House”, in Speak up 169, accounts for that in the future, thanks to technology, houses will be networked making people´s life easier and more comfortable. The electronic devices will be connected to internet and will have special chips to control different activities like housework, communications, shopping, bills or people´s social life. The disadvantages or drawbacks of having a networked home do not seem to be very significant. Essentially, people will just have to pay some extra dollars for the extra chips,, the connection to internet and the security measures to protect the system against cyber pirating. The maintenance will not have to be afforded by the people for the reason that the services will repair themselves. The author concludes that the money that people can spend will not mean much considering all the valuable benefits of having a smart house.

Summary reduce to 115 words.

Schenker, in her article “Smart House”, Speak up 169, explains that in the future, thanks to technology, houses will be networked making people´s life easier and comfortable. Electronic devices will be connected to internet and have special chips to control different activities like housework, communications, shopping and bills. The disadvantages of having a networked home are not significant. People will just have to pay some extra dollars for the chips, the connection to internet and the security measures to protect the system against cyber pirating. The maintenance will not be afforded since the services will repair themselves.  Money that people can spend will not mean much considering the valuable benefits of having a smart house.

Exercise 2

Again you will try to reduce this summary in 115 words.

This study went trough over 1,600 marginal and end comments written on 110 first drafts of essays by 47 university ESL students who are advanced, considering both the pragmatic goals for and the linguistic features of each comment. After this, drafts of each individual essay were examined to observe the influence of the first draft commentary on the students´ revisions and asses whether the changes that were made in response to the teacher´s feedback actually improved the essays. The author thinks that a really significant proportion of the comments led to substantive student revision, and that there were particular types or kinds and forms of commentary that were more helpful than other commentaries. The final results are suggestive of several important implications for L2 writing instruction and for future studies on a vital but surprisingly neglected topic.

Summary reduce to 115 words.

This study went trough 1,600 marginal and end comments written on 110 drafts of essays by 47 university ESL students, considering both the pragmatic goals and the linguistic features of each comment. Drafts of each individual essay were examined to observe the influence of the first draft commentary on the students´ revisions and asses whether the changes made in response to the teacher´s feedback improved them. A significant proportion of the comments led to substantive student revision, and there were particular types and forms of commentary that were more helpful than others. The final results are suggestive of several important implications for L2 writing instruction and for future studies on a vital but neglected topic.