Restating and Summarizing
I used to think that, to read something, you’d just read it. But I found out that to remember something you read, you have to do something to fix it in your mind, so you don’t forget. I figured this out after studying and studying and then not remembering anything I’d read.
Also, sometimes I’d read something and not really understand it. I would read the whole thing, but because the words weren’t really words I knew, I’d just be reading words and not getting meaning. Do you know what I mean?
Anyway, here are two strategies to remember what you read and to make sure you understood it.
- Restating means that you say something again in your own words. This is good to help you understand and remember something that’s pretty short. So, you can restate a sentence or a paragraph that you read.
- Summarizing means that you give the most important information about what you read. It’s like you’re writing down the main ideas of what you read. Maybe you write a paragraph saying what the main points of a whole article are. This is good for big readings and to help you figure out what the main ideas are.
The difference between restating and summarizing is that in restating, you don’t leave anything out. You just say it again in your own words. In summarizing, you only give the most important points, in your own words.
I started reading this news story about Vincente Fox: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/mexico_fox_dc;_ylt=AqEpWa18_E8yeU4JvB1Mk_Qdl.0A
I think I’ll try to use summarization to understand it and remember what I read. I’ll let you know my summary in the next post. Meanwhile, try it yourself, and let me know how it works for you!