Saturday, January 1, 2000

How to Avoid Summarizing


     Summary is a chronological re-telling of what happened in a story or article in your own words. The sequence of events indicates it as a summary. You may think you're providing support for an argument, but you've gotten trapped in going through the sequence of events.
     When you summarize, the topic of your paragraph becomes the story or article instead of the idea. Because the topic becomes the article or story, it feels perfectly natural to continue talking about it throughout the rest of the paragraph.
     To avoid summarizing, focus on the topic sentence of your paragraph. If you state a fact from the story or article, you are summarizing. Focus on the idea you want to talk about, instead.
Examine the paragraphs below.

Summary
            Robert Dean is captured on a security camera in the lingerie store. The government uses his picture to find out who he is and that he has the photos from the crime. Then the government used the cameras in the tunnel to find Dean as he was trying to escape. Next, a camera was used to find Brill in the gas station when he bought something. So cameras are used throughout the movie by the government to find people.

Argument
            Cameras that are designed for the safety and security of people are subverted to track down those designated as enemies. The first use is against Robert Dean in the lingerie store by security cameras—designed to prevent theft—when his identity is captured. The use of cameras against Dean continues as the tunnel cameras, meant to relieve the flow of traffic and aid with accidents, are used to track Dean’s movements. Brill, too, is subjected to the abuse as the gas station camera is used to identify and implicate him. The use the agency puts these cameras to demonstrates how cameras not even designed for use in breaching privacy can be easily turned to that purpose, threatening privacy.