Summary #1 In a TED talk, "Why Study Abroad?" Marina Meijer describes the value of studying abroad. She says she is the person that she is today because of her experiences living abroad. Meijer was...

Summary #1
In a TED talk, "Why Study Abroad?" Marina Meijer describes the value of studying abroad. She says she is the person that she is today because of her experiences living abroad. Meijer was born in the Netherlands but has also lived in the U.S., Korea, Tunisia, and the Netherlands. She studied at the University of Texas and met cowboys and street musicians. In Korea, she lived with a Korean family. She fell in love with a Yemeni man and married him, then they moved to the Netherlands and raised their three children. Studying abroad, she says, "means also loving abroad." She says that studying abroad is about experiencing new things and meeting new people. She encourages everyone to study abroad today.

Summary #2
In her TED talk titled "Why Study Abroad?" Marina Meijer argues that everyone should study abroad today and that the real benefit of studying abroad is learning more about others and yourself through new experiences. She encourages people who study abroad to make new friends who are different from them and who will expose them to new ways of thinking. Through study abroad, Meijer notes, people can follow their hearts, follow adventures, and develop new life skills. Meijer explains that it is now relatively easy to study abroad, and that it is important for students to use the opportunity to meet new friends and develop new ways of understanding themselves and the world.

Questions

1. 
   

   What are some differences between Summary #1 and Summary #2?

   
   


2. 
   

   Imagine that a professor asked you to write a summary of the TED talk. The professors says that the summary should be written for an academic audience and should give an overview of the most important ideas from the talk. Which summary do you think the instructor would prefer? Explain your answer.

   
   


3. 
   

   Look back at Summary #2. Underline or highlight all of the verbs and list them here:

   
   


4. 
   

   What is the most common verbtenseused in Summary #2? Why do you think this tense is used?

   
   


5. 
   

   Look back at your verb list in #3. Now look only for the verbs in which "Marina Meijer" (or "she" or "Meijer") is the subject (e.g., "Marina Meijerargues). These are calledreporting verbs, and they are very common in academic summaries.List the reporting verbs from Summary #2 here:

   
   


6. 
   

   What differences do you notice in the use of reporting verbs in Summary #1 and Summary #2? Which verbs, overall, sound more academic? Why?

   
   


7. 
   

   Look at the first sentence of Summary #2. Why do you think the student included details about the author and title of the TED talk in this first sentence?

   
   


8. 
   

   Describe, as best you can, how Summary #2 is organized. Why do you think it does not follow exactly the order of ideas in the original TED talk?

   
   


9. 
   

   Drawing on your analysis of the summaries here, complete the following sentence: "A good academic summary…"