Contextual Clues in Summarizing

What are Key words?

The key words are those words that stands out. The give the important information.

E.g: The beautiful Siberian tiger is close to extinction.

'Beautiful ' may be descriptive of the tiger but the key words are close to extinction.

What are Synonyms?

As you need your own words to replace those in the original text, you need to find the alternative words. These words are called synonyms. Never used words that distort the original meaning. Remember clarity and meaning is more important than word counts or word replacements.

Example of synonym usage:

to replace 'danger', you can use 'hazard,risk,peril,threat'

When using synonyms, watch out between context and connotation.

Context means- 'background,situation,perspective,circumstance'

Connotation means- 'nuance,implication,association,undertone, subtext'

CONTEXTUAL CLUES:

Many words have several meanings. so look for its intended meaning.

E.g.: She took some money with her to the bank by the river Which bank?-River bank or commercial bank?)

She thought the woman at the hairdresser's was fair.(Fair skin or fair-priced service?)

To be certain, we need further clues to help us decide.

These clues are called contextual clues.

How do you go about looking for them?

Look what is said before and what is said after the WORD!

E.g.: I shall scrape the varnish off the bow before I do anything else", the sailor said. (Violin bow or bow of a boat?)

Let us look at the types of Contextual Clues

1. Clues that Define:

Some words are defined:

E.g. : A kampung is a Malaysian village.

2. Clues that use a synonym:

a familiar word is given is given as an alternative for an unknown word.

E.g. : His dogged or persistent way is bound to see him succeed.

3.Clues that Compare or Contrast:

Here,the unknown word is contrasted with another word or phrase

E.g.: Even though I admit my brother is slothful,he is certainly not as lazy as Simon Jay.