Summary for Chapter 26

Diana Hacker shares methods and basic ways in which to write about texts. There are different types of texts, they range from essays to visual texts and anything in between. Hacker divides this procedure into five steps. First, you need to read actively. Second, it's important to sketch a brief outline of the text that you're reading. Third step is to summarize the text. Fourth, analyze the text. Lastly, it's vital to understand the different kinds of texts that can be analyzed, depending on the discipline that they're derived from.

Reading actively means that you're making annotations as you read along. Hacker encourages you to underline important concepts and to circle concepts that you find interesting. This permits you to fully absorb the text that you're reading. Rereading can also be extremely beneficial because you might have missed certain things in previous readings. Once you've done this, you can sketch a brief outline of the text. You don't want to write out a lengthy outline. Instead, you should focus on the central points and most importantly, you want to find the author's thesis. A visual text doesn't have a thesis, in that case you have to personally interpret the meaning. When summarizing the text, you want to employ your own words. If you use phrases from the text, make sure you put them in quotation marks and indicate the page in parenthesis.  The first sentence has to have the the title of the text, the author's name, and the author's thesis. Hacker stresses the point of maintaing a neutral tone while summarizing. Finally, it's important to understand that there's various types of texts. Some examples are literature, music, photographs, government documents, and many more. The basic guidelines to summarizing or analyzing these texts can be adapted to fit the text being read.

Hacker points out some really useful methods that can be used. Personally, I think that i'm going to try to read actively. I usually don't bother underlining or highlighting anything when i'm reading. I'm sure it would help me out a lot because it would make it more of an interactive experience. I'm not just reading, i'm physically involved and  key concepts would be clearer and easier to identify. Also the use of an outline would be a good idea. If I can briefly sketch out what the author's main points are, then my understanding of the text would be a little more wholesome. This way I would have a visual aid that didn't provide all of information, just the important information.