TEACH STUDENTS TO SUMMARIZE

Summarize .....not plagiarize.

In the 1960s, Australian students were taught to summarize texts in their own words. This was the beginning of research study.

They were given a passage to be reduced by one third. There was to be no detail, no lists, no direct speech and no useless information.

This is a skill totally absent in PNG schools. As the result, students have little or no experience in writing in own words. The closest they get is to identify topic sentences. It does not involve them in summarizing in their own words.

At university, this is called plagiarism. Their essays are penalized if they just copy from text books.

FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS HOLISTICS: UNI STUDENTS LACK READING ...

21 Aug 2011 ... Students at university level often fail their courses or produce poor results
because they lack the skills of reading and understanding what ...

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Summary writing can start simply:

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

Before Christmas, my friend gave me several gifts.

The Headmaster of Kagamuga Primary School near Mt Hagen was driving his car on the Highlands Highway to take his daughter to the doctor. His vehicle was involved in a collision with a truck travelling to Mt Hagen. His wife was injured as well as his daughter (14 years) and son (9 years).

A senior teacher of a highlands school and family were injured in a collision near Mt Hagen between his vehicle and a truck.

In preparation for trekking the Kokoda Track that extends from Kokoda to Owers Corner, a distance of 96 km, the trek leader went to a hardware store at Waigani and bought 12 tents, 15 backpacks, 3 shovels and 4 cooking pots.

Preparing for the Kokoda trek, the team leader bought equipment at a Port Moresby hardware store.

For the first time, PNG students would use their own words. More importantly, they hold an idea in their heads and work out the basic theme. It is better than sitting in class or the library and mindlessly copying the words of other people from the blackboard or a reference book.

This is a basic skill for journalists to write a summary of a news report to start and then move to the detail further down the article.

It can start even more simply by promoting group names:

Shovels, axes, saws, and hammers  -  equipment.

Chairs, tables, cupboards and stools - furniture.

Pads, pencils, rulers, rubbers and biros - stationery.

Distributors, carburettors, spark plugs and fan belts - spare parts.

This may be the time to teach PNG students not to say equipments, furnitures and stationeries.

And we might ask managers to stop talking about my staffs.