CITING A DOCUMENT – CREATING A SUMMARY STATEMENT
The purpose of creating a summary statement is to provide context when using a source. It is not enough to simply cite or quote from a document. It is also importantto provide some information about the source – who wrote it, when, and why? Use SOAPS structure (below) to help you locate this information. After the chart is completed, write one sentence that summarizes the document. The first example is completed for you:
SOURCE #1: From “Confession of Faith” an 1877 collection of essays by Cecil Rhodes, asuccessful British imperialist and diamond mine owner .
“I contend that we are the finest race in the world and that the moreof the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race. Justimagine those parts that are at present inhabited by the most
despicable specimens of human beings - what achange there would be if they were brought under Anglo-Saxoninfluence,…”
SOAPS – Example
Speaker?*Who wrote or created this document?
*What do you know about the author/?
*What assumptions can we make about the speaker? / Cecil Rhodes – Wealthy British imperialist
Diamond mine owner
Occasion?
* When was this created?
* What was happening during this time period? / 1877 – during time of British imperialism
Audience?
*Who was the document created or intended for? / British public? Government?
Purpose?
*What type of document is this?
*Why was the document written or created? / Essay to argue about the benefits of British imperialism
Subject? *What is the main idea? / Rhodes says that the world would be better off with British rule
British superiority –nationalism/racism
PART II CREATE A SUMMARY STATEMENT - example
Use the information above,and the format below to create a summary statement.
In ___1877____ _Cecil Rhodes, a wealthy British imperialist_ wrote in
Occasion/date Speakername, title/job (or use other verb)
an essay to the British public arguing that the British are superior and should rule
.purpose/type of doc Audience Subject
the world (Doc.#1)
Instructions: Read the source below, then fill in the SOAPS chart.
SOURCE #2: Chief Kabongo of the Kikuyu in Kenya, recalling his life in the late 19th century, as told to Richard St. Barbe’ Baker in 1955.
“A Pink Cheek man came one day to our Council…and he told us of the King of the Pink Cheek who…lived in a land over the seas. ‘This great king is now your king,’ he said. This was strange news. For this land was ours…We had no king, we elected our Councils and they made our laws. With patience, our leading Elders tried to tell this to the Pink Cheek…But at the end he said, ‘This we know, but in spite of this what I have told you is fact. You have now a king…and his laws are your laws.’”
SOAPS
Speaker?*Who wrote or created this document?
*What do you know about the author/?
*What assumptions can we make about the speaker?
Occasion?
* When was this created?
* What was happening during this time period?
Audience?
*Who was the document created or intended for?
Purpose?
*What type of document is this?
*Why was the document written or created?
Subject?*What is the main idea?
PART II CREATE A SUMMARY STATEMENT
Use the information above,and the format below to create a summary statement.
In ______wrote/stated in a ______ to
Occasion/date Speakername, title/job (or use other verb) purpose/type of doc.
______that ______. (Doc. #___)
Audience Subject
SOURCE #3: Edward Morel, a British journalist in the Belgian Congo, wrote about the abuses of imperialism in 1903in an article called, “The Black Man’s Burden.”
.
“To reduce all the varied and picturesque and stimulating episodes in [an African’s} life to a dull routine of endless toil for [unknowing] ends, to [interfere with] social ties and disrupt social institutions;...in fine, to kill the soul in a people – this is a crime which transcends physical murder.”
SOAPS
Speaker?*Who wrote or created this document?
*What do you know about the author/?
*What assumptions can we make about the speaker?
Occasion?
* When was this created?
* What was happening during this time period?
Audience?
*Who was the document created or intended for?
Purpose?
*What type of document is this?
*Why was the document written or created?
Subject? *What is the main idea?
PART II CREATE A SUMMARY STATEMENT
Use the information above,and the format below to create a summary statement.
In ______wrote/stated in a ______ to
Occasion/date Speakername, title/job (or use other verb) purpose/type of doc.
______that ______. (Doc. #___)
Audience Subject
SOURCE #4: When a British doctor in Nigeria released several native patients from his hospital in 1888 because he could not understand their illnesses, their subsequent deaths led to this petition to the British authorities:
“We seize this opportunity [to tell your Lordship of ] the urgent necessity of granting [and appointing to] this colony qualified native medical doctors who have graduated in Europe as Assistant Colonial Surgeons…In other West African colonies, the post of Assistant Colonial Surgeon is filled by natives…[Currently, there is such an} absence of feeling on the part of the colonial surgeons [that} policemen, native government officials, and even convicts have avoided going…to the Colonial Hospital in times of sickness, preferring native medical treatment or death at home.”
SOAPS
Speaker?*Who wrote or created this document?
*What do you know about the author/?
*What assumptions can we make about the speaker?
Occasion?
* When was this created?
* What was happening during this time period?
Audience?
*Who was the document created or intended for?
Purpose?
*What type of document is this?
*Why was the document written or created?
Subject? *What is the main idea?
PART II CREATE A SUMMARY STATEMENT
Use the information above,and the format below to create a summary statement.
In ______wrote/stated in a ______ to
Occasion/date Speakername, title/job (or use other verb) purpose/type of doc.
______that ______. (Doc. #___)
Audience Subject
OUSD 10th Grade World History Writing Assessment/Fall 2010-2011/Preparing for the assessment
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