Fiona的英文寫作 Summary 課程說明

如何寫出符合Fiona老師要求的summary
 
通常寫summaries要「用自己的話說」，不然算是plagiarizing。但是我希望學生用「模仿」的方式，而不是「用自己的話說」的方式來寫summary作業。
 
之後如果有交summary作業給其它老師或教授，注意要用自己的話說。但是寫我的summary作業時，請依照我的方法寫summary。
 
會這樣要求的原因是因為我大部份的學生的英文寫作能力還不夠純熟，用自己的話說往往是「先用中文想一次，再翻譯成英文」，很容易出現中式英文的狀況。

不然就是原文有一個字，這個字有搭配的句型，有搭配的名詞、動詞、文法、介系詞，但是學生把這個字從動詞轉成名詞寫進summary，但卻沒有查這個名詞如何使用，照自己的意思亂加句型，我在改的時候難跟你說為什麼不可以這樣寫，只能說「英文就是不能這樣寫」或是「這個字的句型是這樣」。
 
基於我自己學習英文寫作，以及我教英文寫作的經驗，比較好的方式是用模仿的方式。找一篇優秀的英文文章，人家用什麼字，什麼詞，什麼名詞跟什麼動詞搭配，什麼動詞又跟什麼介系詞搭配，直接用模仿的方式來學習。

才不會原文內的英文用法沒有學起來，又自創了換句話說的寫法，你學起來很沒有效率，我改起來也很沒有效率。
 
英文文章中的句子就是你的「標準答案」。你寫出來的英文句子應該跟標準答案至少有七成是一樣的。我的工作就是幫你抓出你自己看不出來的錯誤，以及三成你用自己的話說可能會出狀況的地方。我的另一個工作是回答你在寫作中遇到的問題，不了解原文章的句型、意思，為什麼你的改寫有問題，可以在註解的地方提出來。
 
這樣的練習方式，可以訓練你自修英文寫作的能力。

上過幾次我的課程之後，把英文句型、文法、英文字跟字如何搭配、如何找答案等等學會了之後，之後就不需要篇篇都需要有老師幫你改。英文文章就是你的老師。

我希望把學生訓練到可以不需要我，可以單獨作業，自己練習。這才是長遠學習英文寫作的方式。
 
我這樣訓練學生，可以避免自創英文講法，然後我在修改的時候得要一一解釋為什麼你寫的不可以 (大部份答案都是，因為英文就是不能這樣講)。
 
等到你的寫作能力比較強的時候，我們再改成用自己的話說的summary寫法。
 
寫summary的步驟：

1. 閱讀英文文章
2. 自行查單字，了解這一篇文章每一句、每一個字的意思
3. 做筆記，每句可以寫最多五個字的筆記
4. 不能看原文章，只能看筆記，看著筆記寫summary。盡量用原文章中的字，句型，你寫的句子可以跟原文章的句子重覆七成以上
5. Summary字數最多寫1000字，可以挑重點寫summary，也可以截取文章的一部份寫summary，寫滿1000字為止
6. 對照原文章，用追蹤修訂修改自己的summary，尤其注意基本的拼字、單複數、大小寫、標點符號、時態等等問題
7. 把這一份你自己改過一次的summary寄給我，開始第一回合的修改
8. 我在第一回合修改的時候，會標出有問題的地方，或是提供一些英文用法上的提示
9. 依照我的建議以及原文章修改summary，寄給我做第二回合修改
10. 我第二回合會用追蹤修訂的方式幫你修改summary
11. 收到修改版，詳細的看每一個修改，對照原英文文章，自行練習出錯誤的句子，練到不會寫錯為止
12. 開一個新的Word檔，從零開始，看著筆記重寫summary，這一版summary應該要跟我時你改好的summary九成以上一樣
13. 自行用追蹤修訂修訂summary，如果你發現你錯很多，需要自行再練習幾次，再寫一次summary，直到summary的錯誤率在10個字以內
14. 把修改版寄給我做第三次修改

 
以下我提供兩個範例，說明我希望你的summary長怎樣。

Notes是在閱讀文章的時候做的筆記，注意一句話最多可以寫五個字的筆記，筆記一行通常是原文章一句話。所謂英文「一句話」是「一個主要子句」，用句點或問號結束的一塊。
 
寫notes的目的是提醒你每一句應該講什麼，才不會變成像是在背國文課本那樣，整篇文章背下來。
 
可以跟原文比較一下，會發現學生寫的summary跟原文有七成以上是一樣的。

第一個部份是Notes，為學生寫的筆記。

第二個部份是Original article，為原文。

第三個部份是學生寫的Summary。

Notes 對應於 Original article 對應於 Summary 的同一句話，我標同樣的顏色。

這一份summary的寫法是挑重點寫，有幾句學生覺得不是重點跳過，但是有寫進summary的跟原文有七成以上是一樣的。
 
https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/07/06/i-am-neither-trans-nor-a-woman-can-i-write-about-the-issues-they-face
 
Notes:
aspects, debate, transgender rights, others
politicians, bring reason, civility, unbalanced
saddest, not nasty to him
dozen articles, gender debate
common theme, changes, law, excluded
articles, shared, no one, threatened
abuse, routine, comment, transgender issues
other people, women

Original article:
Many aspects of the debate about transgender rights, and how they interact with the rights of others, are troubling and even saddening. The anger and fear felt by so many of the participants. The lack of reliable statistics and evidence, and the hostility faced by those seeking to gather better evidence. The unwillingness of many politicians even to try to bring reason and civility to an unbalanced, vitriolic conversation. Personally, the thing I find saddest, and most telling, is that people aren’t particularly nasty to me.

This year I have written a dozen articles for British publications about the gender debate: around 15,000 words. The common theme has been that women who ask questions and express doubts about changes in law and custom on gender issues to favour transgender people, and the implications for those born female, are excluded from political and public debate, sometimes through violent means.

Those articles have been read and shared several hundred thousand times, and brought me more social-media reactions than I can count. Some were negative and a few were outright hostile. Yet none involved threats of violence and none expressed the hope that I die in a fire. There were no meditations on my being raped. No one called me a “transphobic c***” or, indeed, any other sort of c***.

Such abuse is routine for others who write and comment about transgender issues. And indeed, that was part of the reason I took an interest. The vitriol of the debate, especially on social media, has had a chilling effect that should not go unremarked or unchallenged.

Yet I have largely escaped that vitriol. Other journalists who have written about the topic and said similar things have experienced all of the aggression I describe above, and more. Several say they have sometimes feared physical attack by people unhappy at what they wrote. Those journalists are women.
 
Summary:
There are many aspects of the debate about transgender rights, and how these rights interact with the rights of others. On top of that, many politicians are unwilling to try to bring reason and civility to this unbalanced conversation. The author thinks that the saddest thing is that people are not nasty to him. The author has written a dozen articles about the gender debate. The common theme is that women who ask questions about changes in law and custom on gender issues are excluded from political debate. The articles that the author has written have been shared several hundred thousand times but no one has threatened him. However, such abuse is routine for others who comment about transgender issues. These other people are women.
 
提供另一個範例。這一篇summary的寫法沒有跳著寫，但是有把原文章比較複雜的句型簡化，像是細節刪掉一部份，或是太長的句子，拆成兩句。但是Summary還是使用原文的句型。

https://theconversation.com/why-is-it-fun-to-be-frightened-101055
 
Notes:
John Carpenter, Halloween, 40th anniversary
few, achieved, similar notoriety
film, kicked off, stream, slasher flicks
audiences, witness, murder, masked man
X justice, victims, X rebalancing
spend time, money, reminders, unfair

Original article:
John Carpenter’s iconic horror film “Halloween” celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Few horror movies have achieved similar notoriety, and it’s credited with kicking off the steady stream of slasher flicks that followed.

Audiences flocked to theaters to witness the seemingly random murder and mayhem a masked man brought to a small suburban town, reminding them that picket fences and manicured lawns cannot protect us from the unjust, the unknown or the uncertainty that awaits us all in both life and death. The film offers no justice for the victims in the end, no rebalancing of good and evil.

Why, then, would anyone want to spend their time and money to watch such macabre scenes filled with depressing reminders of just how unfair and scary our world can be?

 
Summary:
John Carpenter’s horror film “Halloween” celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. This is an iconic film, and few other horror movies have achieved similar notoriety. This film kicked off the steady stream of slasher flicks that followed.
 
Audiences went to theaters to witness the random murder and mayhem a masked man brought to a small town. The film does not offer justice for the victims, and there is no rebalancing of good and evil. Why would anyone want to spend time and money to watch such horrible scenes with reminders of how unfair our world can be?