How to Identify the Main and Supporting Points of a Text

Excellent Summary

In an excellent summary, the audience is able to identify the main and supporting points of the original text. The writer includes relevant details and examples without overwhelming the main point; they show this by using transitions to establish relationships between ideas and emphasizing (through attributive phrases and verb choices) the original author’s construction of their argument. The writer demonstrates a strong focus through their inclusion of relevant details. Information is presented logically and naturally. Mechanical and stylistic errors are rare or nonexistent.

A proficient summary contains all of the components of an excellent summary but may have some problems in one or two areas. For example, the writer may include some non-relevant details, have one or two more mechanical errors, or not be consistent in their use of transitions and verbs to establish the relationships between ideas. An average summary covers most of the components of an excellent summary but may miss one or two elements. For example, the rhetorical situation may only be partially acknowledged, or the organization might be confusing, but can be followed with only a little difficulty. The author may struggle some with wording or precise formatting.

A developing summary is missing information and struggles with organization. In other words, information is presented in a disorganized fashion causing the audience to have difficulty following the author’s ideas. There are numerous misspellings and/or mechanical errors.Hendrickson, Blugold Writing Seminar A summary that needs work is missing vital information and organized poorly. The audience cannot clearly or easily identify the central ideas or purpose of the student work. Information is presented in a disorganized fashion causing the audience to have difficulty following the author’s ideas. There are many misspellings and/or mechanical errors that negatively affect the audience's ability to read the work.

A significant factor in improving your writing is making your choices deliberately, choosing one path over another with purpose, not blindly or randomly. Writing a rationale helps make your decisions visible and allows you to reflect on how you made those decisions; the consequences of those decisions; and how you can improve in the future.

Othering is a process in which an individual or a group is vilified and denied the characteristics of nobility, pride, love, dignity, heroism, reason and so on. It is not only denigration, vilification and scapegoating but also denying the ‘other’ entitlement to any human rights. It is a phenomenon of defining and establishing one’s own identity by vilifying and opposing the other. The other based on religion, ethnicity, race, gender or nationality is a minority group which is denied its essential and basic humanity. They are denied their own voice and the opportunity to speak for themselves, and are exploited and oppressed. Greeks’ use of ‘barbarian’ to describe non-Greeks, Rwandan genocide and ethnic cleansing of Bosnia are some examples of othering.

The concept of ‘other’ has a lot of complexity, and it is difficult to explain what it means. We all are others for someone; similarly, everyone is other to us. We cannot understand the whole concept of ‘other’ as it is changeable and dynamic. When we indicate someone as other, concurrently, we are also other to them and they think the same about us (Engelund, 2012). Contemporarily, the notion of ‘other’ stems from Edward Said’s concept of orientalism, wherein the West perceives Islam as ‘inferior’, ‘strange’ and ‘threatening’ other (Said, 2003, p. 3). Said argues that orientalism has its roots in the polarization of the Occident West and the Orient other (Said, 1997). He argues that the Western media, by misrepresenting the East, has made the Orient as its ‘other’ (Said, 1978, 2003). He further stresses that ‘orientalism’ is a doctrine used by the West with political intentions where the Orient is not understood and represented in its true nature but on the basis of Western European experience.